seeking to direct your Life after it you shall be an Inheritour of such Riches as neither the Covetous shall take from you neither shall Thieves steal nor Moth corrupt Desire with David dear Sister to understand the Law of the Lord God live still to die that by Death you may purchase Eternal Life and trust not that the tenderness of your Age shall lengthen your Life for as soon if God calls goes the Young as the Old Labour therefore always to learn to die Defie the World deny the Devil despise the Flesh and delight your self wholly in the Lord be penitent for your Sins and yet despair not be strong in Faith and yet presume not and desire with St. Paul to be dissolved and to be with Christ with whom even in Death there is Life Be like the good Servant and even at Midnight he waking lest when Death comes and steals upon you you be with the evil Servant found sleeping and lest for lack of Oyl you be found like the foolish Virgins and like him that had not on the Wedding-Garment and so you be shut out from the Marriage Rejoyce in Christ as I do follow the Steps of your Master Christ and take up his Cross lay your Sins upon him and always embrace him And as touching my Death rejoyce as I do Good Sister that I shall be delivered of this Corruption and put on Incorruption for I am assured that I shall for losing a Mortal Life win an Immortal Life the which I pray God to grant you and send you of his Grace to live in his Fear and die in the True Faith of Christ from which in the Name of God I exhort you that you never swerve neither for Hope of Life nor Fear of Death for if you deny his Truth to lengthen your Life God will deny you and shorten your Days and if you cleave unto him he will prolong your Days to his Glory and your Comfort To which Glory God bring me now and you hereafter when it shall please him to call you Fare you well Good Sister and put your only Trust in God who only must help you The next Morning with a Book in her Hand she made a pathetical Speech upon the Scaffold kneeled down to Prayers repeated over the 51st Psalm prayed for the Executioner laid her Head upon the Block and ended her Life with these words Lord into thy Hands I commend my Spirit Aged Sixteen Fox Martyrol Concerning the Respect of the Jews to the Law the Mahometans to their Alchoran c. see my History of all Religions 37. I had almost forgot to make mention of the Practice of my dear Friend and Correspondent Mr. Henry spoken of in the last Chapter which I am very unwilling to omit because I would provoke myself and others to some degree of Emulation in the Case besides his Exercise on the Lord's Days mentioned before every Day of the week his Custom was every Morning and Night to Read a Chapter to his Family and Expound it distinctly and clearly and after Singing a Psalm and Prayers to appoint his Children to retire by themselves and write over a Copy of his Exposition by which means as himself once told me every one of his Children Five in Number One Son and Four Daughters had the Exposition of the whole Bible by them written with their own Hands This Custom he kept up constantly in his own House for above Twenty if not above Thirty Years together without any intermission except in Cases of Absence from Home which happened but seldom 38. Dr. Harris in all his Wills always renewed this Legacy Item I bequeath to all my Children and to my Childrens Children to each of them a Bible with this Inscription None but Christ See his Life 39. Philip Melancthon always used to carry his Bible along with him wherein he read often Clark's Exampl Vol. II. p. 336. 40. Mr. William Garaway hath told me of a certain English Gentleman a Member of the House of Commons that never came into the Parliament-House without a Bible in his Pocket which he used to consult upon occasions 41. Mrs. Catherine Stubbs was seldom seen without a Bible or a good Book in her Hands See her Life 42. John Prince of Saxony had Six Pages attending on him in his Chambers that every day read to him Six Hours out of the Bible Luther Coll. Mens p. 462. 43. Mr. Fox tells a Story of one Crow a Sea-man who being Shipwreck'd lost all his Money and Goods but put his Bible about his Neck and swam with it to Shoar Mr. Barker's Flores 44. After Ptolomy had furnish'd his Library with so many Thousand Books Aristaeus told him It was but a poor Library being without the Sacred Volume of God the Book of Books the Holy Scripture So is all Knowledge but poor Knowledge without the Right Knowledge of God revealed in his Word Mr. Barker's Flores 45. I have read of one Cramerus a School-Master who had a Scholar who had in a Writing in his own Blood promised to give his Soul on certain Conditions to the Devil which Writing Cramerus got from him and the Devil in the Night knock'd at his Chamber-door and demanded the Paper of him but he answered I have laid the Paper in my Bible and in that Page where it is written The Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Head of the Serpent and take it thence Satan if thou canst And thereupon the Devil departed and left the Paper behind him and came no more Mr. Barker's Flores 46. Mr. Cotton Mather tell us in the Life of Mr. Nathaniel Mather That this young Man had a principle regard unto the Scriptures for the Subjects of his Meditations and he was very expensive of his Thoughts on the Book of God He was daily digging in the sacred Mines and with deligh he fetched thence Riches better then those of both the India's and he could say O how I love thy Law it is my Meditation every day Even in the time of his mortal Sickness he was very angry at himself if he had not heard a Portion of the Bible read unto him from day to day Once when he was near his End a good part of a day having pass'd before he had enjoyed his Meal of Scripture be said unto his Sister with some impatience Alas What an ungodly Life do I lead pray come and read my Bible to me and read me the forty ninth Psalm Indeed he read the Scripture not cursorily but very deliberately and considerately and as an effect of his doing so he could give such an account of the Difficulties in it as the most not only of Christians but of Divines too would judge an Attainment extraordinary Not long before he died he had read over all the large and great Annotations on the Bible lately published by Mr. Pool and some other Non-conformist Ministers but having dispatched those two noble Folio's he said unto one that was intimate with him Thus
he said Pray remember my dear Love to my Brother and Sister and tell them I desire they would comfort themselves that I am gone to Christ and we shall quickly meet in the Glorious Mount Sion above Afterwards he prayed for about three quarters of an hour with the greatest fervency exceedingly blessing God for Jesus Christ adoring the Riches of his Grace in him in all the Glorious Fruits of it towards him Praying for the Peace of the Church of God and of these Nations in particular all with such eminent Assistance of the Spirit of God as convinced astonished and melted into Pity the Hearts of all present even the most malicious Adversaries forcing Tears and Expressions from them some saying They knew not what would become of them after Death but it was evident he was going to great Happiness When he was just going out of the World with a joyful Countenance he said Oh! now my Joy and Comfort is that I have a Christ to go to and so sweetly resign'd his Spirit to Christ the 12th of September 1685. An Officer who had shewed so malicious a Spirit as to call the Prisoners Devils when he was Guarding them down was now so convinced that he after told a Person of Quality That he was never so affected as by his chearful Carriage and fervent Prayer such as he believed was never heard especially from one so young and said I believe had the Lord Chief Justice been there he could not have let him die The Sheriff having given his Body to be buried although it was brought from the Place of Execution without any notice given yet very many of the Town to the Number of about 200 came to accompany him and several Young Women of the best of the Town laid him in his Grave in Lyme Church-yard the 13th of September 1685. After which his Sister writ this following Letter to her Mother ALthough I have nothing to acquaint my Dear Mother withal but what is most afflictive to Sense both as to the Determination of God's Will and as to my present Apprehension concerning my Brother Benjamin yet remaining yet there is such abundant Consolation mixt in both that I only wanted an Opportunity to pay this Duty God having wrought so Glorious a Work on both their Souls revealing Christ in them that Death is become their Friend My Brother William having already with the greatest Joy declared to those that were with him to the last That he would not change Conditions with any that were to remain in this World and he desired that his Relations would comfort themselves that he is gone to Christ My Brother Benjamin expects not long to continue in this World and is exceeding willing to leave it when God shall call being fully satisfied that God will choose that which is best for him and us all by these things God doth greatly support me and I hope you also my dear Mother which was and is my Brothers great desire there is still room for Prayer for one and God having so answered though not in kind we have Encouragement still to wait on him Honoured Mother Your Dutiful Daughter Hannah Hewling When I came to Taunton to Mr. Benjamin Hewling he had received the News of his Brother's being gone to die with so much comfort and joy and afterwards of the continued goodness of God increasing it to the end He expressed to this effect We have no cause to fear Death if the Presence of God be with us there is no evil in it the sting being taken away it 's nothing but our Ignorance of the Glory that the Saints pass into by Death which makes it appear dark for our selves or Relations if in Christ What is this World that we should desire an abode in it It 's all vain and unsatisfying full of sin and misery Intimating also his own chearful expectations soon to follow discovering then and all along great seriousness and sense of Spiritual and Eternal things complaining of nothing in his present Circumstances but want of place of Retirement to converse more uninterruptedly with God and his own Soul saying That this lonely time in Newgate was the sweetest in his whole Life He said God having some time before struck his Heart when he thought of the hazard of his Life to some serious Sense of his past Life and the great consequences of Death and Eternity shewing him that they were the only happy Persons that had secured their Eternal states The folly and madness of the ways of sin and his own Thraldom therein with his utter inability to deliver himself also the necessity of Christ for Salvation He said it was not without Terror and Amazement for some time the sight of unpardon'd sin with Eternity before him But God wonderfully opened to him the Riches of his Free-Grace in Christ Jesus for poor Sinners to flee to enabling to look alone to a crucified Christ for Salvation He said this blessed Work was in some measure carried on upon his Soul under all his business and hurries in the Army but never sprung forth so fully and sweetly till his close Confinement in Newgate There he saw Christ and all Spiritual Objects more clearly and embraced them more strongly there he experienced the blessedness of a reconciled State the Excellency of the ways of Holiness the delightfulness of Communion with God which remained with very deep and apparent impressions on his Soul which he frequently express'd with Admiration of the Grace of God towards him He said Perhaps my Friends may think this Summer the saddest time of my Life but I bless God it hath been the sweetest and most happy of it all nay there is nothing else worth the name of happiness I have in vain sought satisfaction from the things of this World but I never found it but now I have found Rest for my Soul in God alone O how great is our Blindness by Nature till God open our Eyes that we can see no Excellency in Spiritual things but spend our Precious Time in pursuing Shadows and are deaf to all the Invitations of Grace and Glorious Offers of the Gospel How just is God in depriving us of that we so much slighted and abused Oh! his Infinite Patience and Goodness that after all he should yet sanctifie any Methods to bring a poor sinner to himself Oh! Electing Love distinguishing Grace what great cause have I to admire and adore it He said What an amazing Consideration is the Suffering of Christ for sin to bring us to God his Suffering from wicked Men was exceeding great but alas what was that to the Dolours of his Soul under the infinite Wrath of God This Mystery of Grace and Love is enough to swallow up our thoughts to all Eternity As to his own Death he would often say He saw no reason to expect any other I know God is infinitely able to deliver and I am sure will do it if it be for his Glory and my Good in
God first a wonderful preservation of his Life in a publick tumult at Lyons in France must make way which forces from him the Acknowledgement of a Deity Then his Father sends for him home and with much gentleness perswades him to read the Scriptures he lights upon the first of John and with it he feels a Divine Supernatural Majesty and Power seizing his Soul which brought him over by a compleat Conversion to Jesus Christ Thus as the Woman of Tekoa told David doth God devise means to bring back his Banished Flav. Divine Conduct p. 61. 4. Lavater tells us that many Spanish Souldiers going into the Wars of Germany were there converted to Christ by falling into the Cities and Towns where Godly Ministers and Christians were Ibid. 5. A Minister of Wales who had two Livings but took little care of either being at a Fair bought something at a Pedlars standing and rent off a Leaf of Mr. Perkin's Catechism to wrap it in and reading a line or two in it God set it home so as it did the work Ibid. 6. The Marriage of a Godly Man into a Carnal Family hath been ordered by Providence for the Conversion and Salvation of many therein Thus we read in the Life of that renowned English worthy Mr. John Bruen that in his second Match it was agreed that he should have one Years Diet in his Mother-in-Laws House During his abode there that year saith Mr. Clark the Lord was pleased by his means Graciously to work upon her Soul as also upon his Wifes Sister and half Sister their Brothers Mr. William and Thomas Fox with one or two of the Servants in that Family Ibid. p. 62. 7. Augustine once Preaching to his Congregation forgot the Argument which first he proposed and fell upon the Error of the Manichees beside his first intention By which discourse he converted one Firmus his Auditor who fell down at his Feet Weeping and Confessing he had lived a Manichee many Years Possidonius in vita Augustini c. 15. Flavel's Div. Conduct p. 63. 8. I knew one saith Mr. Flavel who going to Preach took up another Bible than that he designed in which not onely missing the Notes but the Chapter also in which his Text by was put to some loss thereby But after a short pause he resolved to speak to any other Scripture that might be presented to him and accordingly read that Text 2 Pet. 3.9 The Lord is not slack concerning his Promise c. And tho he had nothing prepared yet the Lord helpt him to speak both Methodically and Pertinently from it By which discourse a Gracious change was wrought upon one in that Congregration who hath since given good Evidence of a sound Conversion and Acknowledged this Sermon to be that first and onely means thereof Mr. Flavel's Div. Conduct p. 63. 9. One who had lived many Years in a Town where Christ had been as clearly and as long Preached as in any Town of England when he was about Seventy Six Years of Age went to visit a Sick Neighbour A Christian Friend of mine saith mine Author came to see him also and finding this Old Man there whom he Judged to be one that lived upon his own Stock Civility good Works c. He purposely fell into that Discourse to shew how many Persons lived upon their Duties but never came to Christ The Old Man sitting by the Bed-side heard him and God was pleased to convince him that he was such a Parson who had lived upon himself without Christ to that day and would say afterwards had I died before Threescore and Sixteen I had perisht for I knew not Christ Mr. Firmin in his Real Christian p. 97 98. 10. In the Year 1673. There came into this Port saith Mr. Flavel meaning Dartmouth a Ship of Poole in her return from Virginia in which Ship was one of that place a lusty Young Man of Twenty Three Years of Age who was a Chirurgeon in the Ship This Person in the Voyage fell into a deep Melancholly which the Devil greatly improved to serve his own design for the ruin of this Poor Man however it pleased God to restrain him from any attempts upon his own Life until he arrived here But shortly after his arrival upon the Lords Day early in the morning being in Bed with his Brother he took a Knife prepared for that purpose and cut his own Throat and withal leapt out of the Bed and tho the wound was deep and large yet thinking it might not soon enough dispatch his wretched Life desperately thrust it into his Stomach and so lay wallowing in his own Blood till his Brother awaking made a cry for help Hereupon a Physician and a Chirurgeon coming in found the wound in his Throat mortal and all they could do at present was onely to stitch it and apply a Plaister with design rather to enable him to speak for a little while than with any Expectation of cure for before that he breathed through the wound and his Voice was Inarticulate In this condition I found him that morning and apprehending him to be within a few Minutes of Eternity I laboured to work upon his Heart the sence of his condition telling him I had but little time to do any thing for him and therefore desired him to let me know what his own apprehensions of his present condition were He told me he hoped in God for Eternal Life I replyed that I feared his hopes were ungrounded for that the Scripture tell us No Murderer hath Eternal Life abiding in him but that was self-murther the grossest of all murthers And insisting upon the Aggravation and Heinousness of the Fact I perceived his vain Confidence began to fall and some Moltings of Heart appear'd in him He then began to lament with many Tears his Sin and Misery and asked me if there might yet be hope for one that had destroy'd himself and shed his own Blood I reply'd the Sin indeed is great but not unpardonable and if the Lord gave him Repentance unto Life and Faith to apply Jesus Christ it should be certainly pardon'd to him And finding him unacquainted with these things I open'd to him the Nature and Necessity of Faith and Repentance which he greedily suckt in and with great Vehemency cried to God that he would work them upon his Soul and intreated me also to pray with him and for him that it might be so I pray'd with him and the Lord thaw'd his Heart exceedingly The Duties of the Day necessitating me to leave him I briefly summ'd up what was most necessary in my parting counsel to him and took my leave never expecting to see him any more in this World But beyond my own and all Men's Expectation he continued all that day and panted most ardently after Christ Jesus no Discourses pleased him but Christ and Faith and in this Frame I found him in the Evening He rejoiced greatly to see me again and entreated me to continue my
with shame See his Life by Mr. Clark p. 296. And another Lady Wife to the Lord Mordant confirmed by occasion of the Jesuit's absenting from the Disputation and sending his excuse that he had forgot all his Arguments tho' he had them before as ready as his Pater Nâ—ster as he believed through the just Judgment of God because he had undertaken to Dispute with so worthy a Man without License of his Superiour Ibid. p. 278. 4. One Mr. Charles Langford in a Book Published by him called God's wonderful Mercy in the Mount of woful Extremity A. C. 1672. Tells us that for near Forty Years he had been Buffeted severely by Satan who had left no Stone unturn'd to do him all the mischief that he could For the space of Forty Years saith he or thereabouts hath it pleased the Hand that took me out of my Mother's Womb to train me up and lead me along in this uncomfortable Wilderness of Temptation tho' I cannot say that in all these Years he hath left me to the violence of Spiritual Conflicts for then the Burthen had been too heavy for Flesh to stand under so long Yet must I needs say my clearest Day all that time was but clark and however I seemed to others in point of Comfort outwardly sure I am my Soul enjoyed not her rest nor could I ever say I was all that while more than a Prisoner of hope still subject unto Bondage and not discharged of the Debt nor delivered from my Fears It was but a hard shift that I made to hold up my head when I was at best my worst cannot be expressed until now at last that God for whom I waited in the way of his Judgments and from whom were my Expectations in the use of appointed means all this while came and was found of me when I look'd not for him and delivered me from my strong Enemy set my Feet upon a Rock and Established my goings I can say by experience Now I know there is a God and now I know there is a Devil Such have been the Delusions cursed Injections of Blasphemous Thoughts and dreadful Temptations wherewith he hath endeavoured to â—ll my Soul till the day the Lord by his great power delivered me out of his Hands That I have cause to know him and to make him known as I am able to the World In short tho' he had been tempted to Murder his Wife and made Provision for it and she knew it yet she still performed the duty of a faithful Yoke-fellow and upon April 16. 1669. a day for ever to be Solemnized as Glorious and Honourable by me his poor Creature They are his own words she going on in her constant course of Prayer after she had given the Lord his Holy and Reverend Titles using Moses's Arguments brake forth into these words My Father my Father What wilt thou do with my Husband He hath been speaking and acting still in thy cause Oh! Destroy him not for thine own Glory Oh! What dishonour will come to thy great Name if thou do it Oh! Rather do with me what thou wilt On Rather Do what thou wilt But spare my Husband c. He that is pleased to stile himself a God hearing Prayer and in most of his great works delights to advance his own power by using small and unlikely means after long tarrying and in a time when I looked not for him came now and owned his own Ordinance crowned the Cries and Faith and Patience of a poor Woman with such success that my praise shall be continually of him The proud may scorn but the humble shall hear thereof and be glad That roaring Lion mine Adversary the Devil that old Serpent that red Dragon that unclean Spirit that Liar that false Accuser Murderer Appollyon Abaddon even now when he thought himself almost settled in the Possession of his long sought Dominion and that there was no casting him out of my Soul which he had abused making it his Dung-hill whereon he laid all the fifth of Hellish Thoughts and Abominations that he could now was sent to his own place by my dear Lord Christ who broke the Doors of Brass and rescued me from the Rape of Hellish Furies c. See the Book writ by his own Hand p. 53 54. c. 5. When I was Minister of Shipley in Sussex a certain Man of another Parish on a Lord's Day after Evening Service came to me and desired to speak with me about some particular Case of Conscience I think it was concerning the Sin against the Holy Ghost after some discourse upon the point he told me that he had for many Years been haunted with doubts and great fears about his Salvation and could enjoy no comfort but at last unexpectedly as he was at his Loom for he was a Weaver by Trade a certain Text of Scripture was suggested to his mind by he knew not what secret Impulse and thereupon all the thick Fog which he had so long laboured under was scattered and the Room was filled with Light and he enjoyed a great Serenity and Peace and Comfort afterwards 6. Mrs. Polsted of Bednel Green for a great while was in great Darkness and Deserted It prevailed even to the uttering of words dreadful to her Friends But drawing near to her end she desired my Sister Dunn to stay with her that Night she died and to close her Eyes She lay by her upon the Bed when she spake to her thus O Mrs. Dunn it is a dreadful thing to be separated from Christ for ever for ever Yes so 't is says her Friend but I am perswaded it shall never be your Portion She fell into a kind of a Slumber and a little after spake Mrs. Dunn Christ is come let us haste to meet him let us haste to meet him She ask'd her if she had now closed with Christ yes said she I stick to my first choice I stick to my first choice What shall I render to the Lord What shall I render to the Lord And so died praising the Lord. 7. Mrs Charlton once told me That after a Desertion of about Eight Years she had such a Floud of Spiritual Joy that when she walk'd in the Streets they seem'd to her Pav'd with Gold for a Fortnights time and she was fain to beg of God to stay his Hand Her Body being not able to bear it 8. Mr. Nutkin of Okingham told me That once after near Fifty Years Profession upon a Day of Thanksgiving observed by himself upon a recovery from Sickness and to beg a Sanctified use of Health restored on a sudden a dark Cloud fell on him that all his Profession had been Hypocrisie That Day and the Night after which he passed without Sleep it continued and he was so held down by the Temptation he had not power to look into his Bible The next Day he thought thus Have I been so long acquainted with the Lord and shall not I dare to look into his
were admitted into this Order but such of the Nobility as were in all the number of 150. the chiefest of them being Sir Lancelot Sir Tristram Sir Lamrock Sir Grawine and others These were all Recorded for Knights of great Renown and had not King Arthur's Valour been most transcendent each of them might have passed fpr no less than a Worthy tho' they must fall short of the Deeds of King Arthur of whom it is written that in one Battle against the Saxons with his own Sword named Callibourn he slew 800 of them England's Worthies by William Winstanley p. 10. 8. Lucius Hiberius the Roman Legate demanded of him a Tribute for Britain which he not only deny'd but also threatned to have a Tribute from Rome as appeareth in his Letter sent unto the Senate where I find it thus written in an old Manuscript Vnderstand among you of Rome that I am King Arthur of Britain and freely it hold and shall hold and at Rome hastily will I be not to give you Truage but to have Truage of you For Constantine that was Hellen's Son and other of my Ancesters Conquered Rome and thereof were Emperors and that they had and held I shall have yours God's grace And accordingly he set forward against Lucius Hiberus who with great Power and vain Confidence came Marching against him where after a long and Bloody Fight the Romans were Discomfited their General killed and his slain Body sent to the Senate for the Tribute of Britain ibid 9. Mr. Broughton was exceedingly Courageous and Bold and free in inveighing against Popery Jesuitism among the Papists and Jesuits and also Judaism among the Jews As once more especially at the B. of Mentz's Table where also diverse Jesuits were present with whom he Discoursed so freely and sharply against the Papacy as Anti-Christian and against the Blindness and Wickedness of the Romanists that the Protestants who were present with him were afraid that would have endanger'd both himself and them At another time being in one of the Jews Synagogues at the time of their Servce where their publick Minister Read and Prayed in a strange and uncouth Tone one of the Jews as he came out said unto him Did not our Minister Sing like an Angel No saith he he Barked like a Dog and so called for a Dispute with him where they had long and much tugging 10. He was once Travelling here in England and being in his Inn a Royster in the Room next to him was Swearing horribly and at no measure in went he boldly to him and Who art thou saith he thou Wretch who darest thus to Blaspheme and Profane the Glorious Name of the great God And some other like words which he set on with so great an awe and boldness that the Roarer became calm and took his sharp reproofs especially when he came to understand who he was in very good part In his Life p. 4.7 11. It was the saying of one who suffered in Queen Mary's Regn. I was an honest poor Man's Daughter never brought up at the University as you have but I have driven the Plow before my Father many a time I thank God yet notwithstanding in defence of God's Truth and in the cause of my Master Christ by his Grace I will set my Foot against the Foot of any of you all in the maintenance of the same and if I had a Thousand Lives they should go for payment thereof Fox Matyrol 12. If I had a Hundred Bodies said Mr. Hawks I would suffer them all to be torn in pieces rather than Abjure or Recant ibid. 13. Mr. Rothwel called afterwards by the Devil in a posessed Person Bold Rothwel being recommended to the Lady Bowes for a fit Minister to be employed in the North in the Bishoprick of Durham after his first Days Labour there for Tryal being well liked of by the People and returning afterwards to the Lady Bowes he told her he would go she replied tho' for their sakes she was glad yet she was afraid to send him understanding that they were of a fierce Disposition and having never heard the Gospel might deal unkindly with him He answered Madam if I thought I should never meet the Devil there I would never come there he and I have been at odds in other places and I hope we shall not agree there See his Life by Mr. Clark p. 70. 14. King Charles the I. spending one Sunday in a serious debate of the Lord Strafford's Case in the Morning with the four Bishops of London Durham Lincoln and Carlisle the Arch-Bishop of Armagh not being there but Preaching in the Church of Covent-Garden as he used to do was sent for by a particular Order from his Majesty The Bishop descended from the Pulpit and told the Messenger that he was then as himself saw employed in God's business which assâ—on as he had done he would attend upon the King to understand his Pleasure See his Life by Mr. Clark p. 297. 15. In like manner Sir Thomas Moor sent answer to King Henry 8th when a Messenger came to call him from Mass as is elsewhere spoken of in this Book CHAP. XXIX Remarkable Patience THE Patience of Christian Confessors and Martyrs in the early Ages of the Church was a Potent Argument to persuade many of their Adversaries that they were bore up with somewhat more than the Principles of mere Philosophy or the stiffness of a depraved Nature and that the Christian Religion furnished them with a better Assurance and a clearer ground of Confidence in their Cause than was obvious to a common Age or to be found in any other System of Religion in the World and therefore it cannot be amiss to enquire what Examples of this kind we can meet with 1. Ignatius to the Church of Trallis exhorting them not to refuse Martyrdom useth these Expressions From Syria to Rome I had a Battle with Beasts as well by Sea as by Land Night and Day being bound by Ten cruel Leopards Soldiers which the more Benefits they receive at my hands became so much the worse to me but I being exercised and now well acquainted with their Injuries am taught every Day more and more to bear the Cross yet hereby am I not Justified Would to God I were once come to the Beasts prepared for me which I wish also to fall upon me with all their violence c. Vid. Dr. Cave's Prim. Christ Clark's Mar. of Eccl. Hist c. 2. S. Hierom Reports of Melania That her Husband lying dead by her she lost two of her Sons at the same time but she instead of bursting into a Passion fell down and said Lord I shall serve Thee more nimbly and readily by being eased of this weight which thou hast taken from me Dr. Cave's Prim. Christ 3. When Lucius one of the Primitive Martyrs for speaking in behalf of one of the Christians that he had very hard measure was Condemned forth-with he heartily thanked his Judge for it that by this
Samuel Fairclough at 13 years of Age upon hearing a Sermon of Mr. Ward 's concerning Zacheus his Restitution began to be very serious and devout as will be shewed under the Chapter of Restitution 23. Jabez-Eliezer Russel Son to William Russel in the Parish of St. Bartholomew the Great London was remarkable in his Life for his Obedience to his Parents in what they commanded him For his addicting himself to the reading of the holy Scriptures For his great Memory he was able to give a particular Account of most of the memorable Passages both in the Old and New Testament with the Names of Persons their Actions and the Circumstances thereof To say no more his retentive Faculty was so capacious that what-ever he read he made it his own His Meditations in the Word of God in the Practice of which he was both frequent and serious His frequent Praying taking notice of the Words and Works of God fearing Sin greatly wishing he had died when he came first out of the Womb because then he should not have sinned c. And in his Sickness having a great sense of both Original and Actual Sin using such Expressions as these I shall see the holy Angels and I shall be ashamed they will be so glorious for I am Dust and Ashes and there I shall see the Twelve Apostles sit upon Twelve Thrones c. And to his Mother ' Prayer will do me more good and is better than Sleep I am best when I pray And at last enquiring after his Sisters Names because as was supposed he thought he should know them in Heaven though he never saw them on Earth and so fell asleep in the Lord Feb. 19. 71. aged 9 years 2 months and 6 days See the Account of his Life and Death 24. Mrs. Luce Perrot late Wife of Mr. Rob. Perrot of London Minister amongst her last Speeches hath these I would not for ten thousand Worlds but have began to seek God betimes he then took me off from other Delights and carried me on step by step I then could see nothing in the World to delight in I then thought Holidays a Wearisomness to me would sometimes sit and see others play but took no delight therein for which they would laugh at me and tell me I studied Divinity c. When Children grow crooked at first they are hardly ever set streight again afterwards c. See the Printed Account of her Speeches p. 1 2. 25. Tho. Aquinas is reported to have loved his Book so dearly when he was but a Child that he must have it constantly to Bed with him and if at any time when he awaked out of Sleep he missed it he would fall a crying Pontan Attic. Bellar. 26. Susanna Bickes who died in the 14th Year of her Age Sept. 1. 1664. of a Pestilence at Leyden The first night she was seized betook her self earnestly to Private Prayer breaking forth into those words Psal 119. If thy law were not my Delight I should perish in my Affliction and Heb. 12.10 11. No chastening for the present seems joyous c. and then sighing to God with her Eyes up to Heaven she said Be merciful to me O Father be merciful to me poor Sinner according to thy Word Commending that Text Ps 55.23 to her sorrowful Parents and Isaiah 49.15 16 addding ' O comfortable words for both Mothers and Children c. Upon the Lord's-day she minded her Father of having her Name given up to be remembred in the Publick Prayers saying she had learned That the effectual fervent Prayer of the Righeeous availes much Yet out of Tenderness for their Safety would not have the Ministers to visit her but rather cast her self upon the Lord 's own Hand and accept of the Visits of others whom the Providence of God should send unto her One of her Visitants having told her that the Minister was taken ill at Church she wept bitterly saying to her Father Have I not matter enough for weeping having heard but just now that Domine de Wâ—t was taken sick in the Pulpit and went home so ill It is a sad Token for the People for when God is about to smite a Land or a City oftentimes he smites and removes their Pastors and ought we not then to lay such a thing to heart although for my part I know that I shall not long live to behold the Evil which may come and which I have helped to procure as well as others And I therefore pray with David Ps 25. Remember not O Lord the Sins of my Youth nor my Trespasses according to thy tender Mercy Remember thou me for thy Goodness sake O Lord. O how do I long Even as the Hart panteth c. Ps 42. and Ps 51. to the 11th verse which she enlarged upon much especially the 5th verse Behold I was shapen in Iniquity and in Sin did my Mother conceive me citing other Texts to the same purpose as Gen. 5.3 Eccl. 7.29 c. She desired her Father to go to Domine de Wit and Ardenois and thank them for the Learning and Instruction she had received by their Catechising O! that sweet Catechising said she unto which I did always resort with Gladness and waited upon it without Weariness until it were ended I have seen and understood that there is so little Comfort and Good and so much Vanity in the Kermis and idle Holidays of Play that I have grieved and been ashamed both for young and old People to see them so glad and mad upon Vanity Also dear Father ye shall give Thanks to my School-master and School-mistress who taught me the first beginnings of my Reading Professing that her Parents Carefulness for her Education and Instruction had been better to her than if they had provided ten thousand Gilders of Portion for her With many Arguments and Texts she comforted her Parents as 2 Sam. 24.14 2 Sam. 12.23 adding so ought ye to comfort your self after my Death and say Our Child is well for we know that they who trusted in God are well My dear Mother who hath done so much for me you must promise to me that after my Death ye shall not sorrow so much for I am afraid for you when I consider your Grief for me and for my other Sister and Brother who are gone through Death before me And consider your Neighbour who hath lost her two Sons and hath no more Children Ye shall both of ye promise me that ye will comfort one another Comfort your selves with Job who having lost all his Children said The Lord hath given c. And John 16.33 c. O Dear Father and Mother I wax more and more feeble and weak Oh! that I may quietly fall asleep in his Bosom Mark 10.14 16. I he here as a Child O Lord I am a Child receive me into thy gracious Arms. O Lord Grace Grace and not Justice for if thou enter into Judgment with me I cannot stand yea no Man living shall in
from Thee that when thou shalt call me hereunto I may practise this my Resolution through Thy Assistance to forsake all that is dear unto me in this World rather than to turn from Thee to the Ways of Sin and that I will watch against all its Temptations whether of Prosperity or Adversity lest they should withdraw my Heart from Thee beseeching Thee also to help me against the Temptations of Satan to whose wicked Suggestions I resolve by thy Grace never to yield myself a Servant And because my own Righteousness is but menstruous Rags I renounce all Confidence therein and acknowledge that I am of my self a hopeless helpless undone Creature without Righteousness or Strength And for as much as Thou hast of Thy bottomless Mercy offered most graciously to me wretched Sinner to be again my God through Christ if I would accept of Thee I call Heaven and Earth to Record this Day that I do here solemnly avouch Thee for the Lord my God and with all possible Veneration bowing the Neck of my Soul under the Feet of Thy most Sacred Majesty I do here take Thee the Lord Jehovah Father Son and Holy Ghost for my Portion and Chief Good and do give up myself Body and Soul for Thy Servant promising and vowing to serve Thee in Holiness and Righteousness all the Days of my Life And since Thou hast appointed the Lord Jesus Christ the only Means of coming unto Thee I do here upon the bended Knees of my Soul accept of him as the only new and living Way by which Sinners may have Access to Thee and do here solemnly joyn myself in a Marriage-Covenant to him O blessed Jesus I come to Thee hungry and hardy bestead poor and wretched and miserable and blind and naked a most loathsome polluted Wretch a guilty condemned Malefactor unworthy for ever to wash the Feet of the Servants of my Lord much more to be solemnly married to the King of Glory but sith such is thine unparallell'd Love I do here with all my Power accept Thee and do take thee for my Head and Husband for better for worse for richer for poorer for all Times and Conditions to love and honour and obey Thee before all others and this to the Death I embrace Thee in all Thine Offices I renounce my own Worthiness and do here avow Thee for the Lord my Righteousness I renounce mine own Wisdom and do here take Thee for my only Guide I renounce my own Will and take Thy Will for my Law And since Thou hast told me that I must Suffer if I will Reign I do here Covenant with Thee to take my Lot as it falls with Thee and by Thy Grace assisting to run all Hazards with Thee verily purposing that neither Life nor Death shall part between Thee and Me. And because Thou hast been pleased to give me Thy Holy Laws as the Rule of my Life and the Way in which I should walk to Thy Kingdom I do here willingly put my Neck under Thy Yoke and set my Shoulder to Thy Burden and subscribing to all Thy Laws as holy just and good I solemnly take them as the Rule of my Words Thoughts and Actions promising that tho' my Flesh contradict and rebel yet I will endeavour to order and govern my whole Life according to thy Direction and will not allow myself in the neglect of any thing that I know to be my Duty Only because through the frailty of my Flesh I am subject to many Failings I am bold humbly to protest that unallowed Miscarriages contrary to the settled Bent and Resolution of my Heart shall not make void this Covenant for so Thou hast said Now Almighty GOD. Searcher of all Hearts Thou knowest that I make this Covenant with Thee this Day without any known Guile or Reservation beseeching Thee that if Thou espiest any Flaw or Falshood therein thou wouldst discover it to me and help me to do it aright And now Glory be to Thee O God the Father whom I shall be bold from this Day forward to look upon as my God and Father that ever thou shouldst find out such a way for the Recovery of undone Sinners Glory be to Thee O God the Son who hast loved me and washed me from my Sins in thy own Blood and art now become my Saviour and Redeemer Glory be to Thee O God the Holy Ghost who by the Finger of Thine Almighty Power hast turned about my Heart from Sin to God O dreadful Jehovah the Lord God Omnipotent Father Son and Holy Ghost Thou art now become my Covenant-Friend and I through Thine Infinite Grace am become thy Covenant-Servant Amen So be it And the Covenant which I have made on Earth let it be ratified in Heaven HENRY GEARING April 11. 1667. 16. For the Christians better Help for the keeping of this Covenant Mr. Allen in his Allarm to the Vnconverted gives this Advice about it This Covenant says he I advise you to make not only in Heart but in Word not only in Word but in Writing and that you wou'd with all possible Reverence spread the Writing before the Lord as if you would present it to him as your Act and Deed and when you have done this set your Hand to it keep it as a Memorial of the solemn Transactions that have passed between God and you that you may have Recourse to it in Doubts and Temptations Mr. Corbet in his Enquiry into the State of his Soul has these Expressions I do not cease says he to lament the more heinous Sins of my Life and cannot forbear the continual imploring of the Pardon of them I do not return again to them and I resolve never so to do I Watch and Pray and strive against all Sin but especially against those Sins to which I am more especially inclined my Conflicts are daily and am put hard to it But I do not yield up my self to any Sin nor lie down in it yea I do not suffer sinful Cogitations to lodge in me I find upon the review of my Life past according to the clearest Judgment that I can make that I have not gone backward but proceeded forward in the ways of Godliness I have been grieved that I am no more elevated in the hope of Heaven and that I cannot attain to a longing desire to be gone hence and to be there with Christ I think with my self sometimes were my Evidences clear for Heaven I would exult to be gone hence this very Hour but I find not this readiness at all times O Lord forgive my ten Thousand Talents I come to Jesus Christ who hath made satisfaction and lay this heavy Reckoning to his Account Lord forgive my Iniquity for it is exceeding great I have done what in me lies to call to remembrance all my remarkable Sins from my Childhood and Youth till now And as far as I can judge I have repented of them both generally and particularly And I now repent of them all from
Transaction between God and him and upon mature Deliberation he judged it most adviseable for him to make his Covenant with God as Explicit as Writing and Signing could render it that so it might leave the more Impression upon his Heart and Life and be an Evidence likewise which in Temptation or Desertion he might have recourse unto Wherefore he set apart a time for I think secret Fasting and Prayer before the Lord and then behold how this young Man counting it high time for hime to be bound out unto some Service took a course for it he subscribed an Holy Covenant of which this was the Matter this the Form The Covenant between God and my Soul renewed confirmed and signed Nov. 22. 1683. Whereas not only the Commands of God who hath often called upon me by his Word preached to give up my self both Body and Soul to be at his Disposal which calls by the publick Ministry were enough to engage me unto this but also the Christian Religion which I profess and my Baptism in which I took the Lord to be my God and promised to renounce the World the Flesh and the Devil and to dedicate my self unto the Service Work and Will of God do bind me hereunto in that God is such a God as deserves this yea infinitely more than this at my Hands my Creator the Fountain of my Being my Preserver my Benefactor my Lord my Soveraig my Judge he in whose Hands my Life my Breath and all my Concerns are he that doth protect me from all Dangers and supply me in all Wants support me under all Burdens and direct me in all Streights he alone that can make me Happy or Miserable he alone that can Save me or Damn me he alone that can give inward Peace and Joy that is my Friend my God in that Self-dedication is the Creatures Advancement these First-fruits if in Sincerity putting upon me a Gloriousness and Excellency in that Felicity hereafter depends upon my dedicating of my self unto God now in that this is the highest piece of Gratitude I am capable of expressing unto God and I know no better way to obey the Will of God than first to give up my self unto him And whereas the Mercies which the Lord hath been pleased graciously to bestow upon me are so many that even bare Morality doth shew me that I can never enough requite one that hath done so much for me except by giving up my self wholly to him 1669. Whereas God hath given me a godly Father and Mother 1674. In that when I was like to die being twice sick of a Feaver God was pleased to bless means for my Recovery and lengthen out the Thread of my Life 1675. Whereas when I by an Accident fell down and had like to have been deprived of the use of my Tongue God was in his good Providence graciously pleased to give me the use of it 1678. Whereas when I was sick of the Small Pox God was pleased to bless means for my Recovery whereas then I made Promises unto God that if he would give me my Health I would endeavour to become a new Creature and he hath done so for these five Years And whereas God hath of late been bestowing many and wonderful Mercies upon me What can I do less than give up my self wholly to him which now I do And O Lord God I beseech thee to accept of thy poor Prodigal now prostrating of himself before thee I confess O Lord I have fallen from thee by my Iniquity and am by Nature a Son of Hell but of thy infinite Grace thou hast promised Mercy to me in Christ If I will but turn unto thee with all my Heart therefore upon the call of thy Gospel I come in and from the bottom of my Heart I renounce all thy Enemies with whom I confess I have wickedly sided against thee firmly Covenanting with thee not to allow my self in any known Sin but conscientiously to use all means which thou hast prescribed for the utter Destruction of all my Corruptions And whereas I have inordinately let out my Affections upon the World I here resign my Heart unto thee that made it humbly protesting before thy glorious Majesty that it is the firm Resolution of my Heart and that I do unfeignedly desire Grace from thee that when thou shalt call me thereunto I may put in Practice my Resolution through thine Assistance to forsake all that is dear unto me in the World rather then to turn from thee to the ways of Sin and that I will watch over all its Temptations whether of Prosperity or Adversity lest they should withdraw my Heart from thee beseeching thee to help me I renounce all my own Righteousness and acknowledge that of my self I am helpless and undone and without Righteousness and whereas of thy bottomless Mercy thou hast offer'd to accept of me and to be reconciled to me and to be my God through Christ if I would accept of thee I do this day avouch thee to be the Lord my God I do here take the Lord Jehovah Father Son and Holy Ghost for my Portion and chief Good and do give up my self Body and Soul for thy Servant promising to endeavour to serve thee in Righteousness and Holiness I do here also on the bended Knees of my Soul accept of the Lord Jesus Christ as the only and living Way by which Sinners may have access to thee and do here joyn my self in a Marriage-Covenant with him O Lord Jesus I come to thee hungry poor miserable blind and naked and a most loathsome Creature a condemned Malefactor Who am I that I should be Married unto the King of Glory I do accept of thee for my Head and Husband and embrace thee in all they Offices I renounce my own Worthiness and do choose thee the Lord my Righteousness I do renounce my own Wisdom and do take thine for my Guide I take thy Will for my Will and thy Word for my Law I do here willingly put my Neck under thy Yoke I do subscribe to all the Laws as Holy Just and Good and do promise to take them as the Rule of my Thoughts Words and Actions but because I am subject to many Failings through frailty I do here protest here before thee that unallowed Miscarriages contrary to the constant Bent of my Heart shall not disannul this everlasting Covenant NATHANAEL MATHER It may justly be taken for granted that such a Work as this would have an Influence into his Conversation afterwards and so it had producing in him a Conversation which became the Gospel of Christ. He kept waiting upon God not only in the Family but also under the Ministry of Two that were near a-kin unto him namely his Father and his Brother whereby the Grace thus begun in him was not a little cherished and promoted and unto all known Sins he now kept saying as I find once in Short-hand written by him To my Lusts I have had Communion
a Staff only And now he is greatly increased in Strength feeds moderately sleeps well and his Intellects and Faculties are become exceeding clear and strong His Wife behaved herself toward him all the while he lay under this great Affliction with great Care and Affection and by an honest and industrious course of Life supported him and his Children Attested by Rich. Parr D. D. of Camerwel Tho. Gale D. D. Will. Perry M. A. N. Paget M. D. Elias Ashmole And. Needham Curate of Lambeth c. 6. In the Year 1676 about the thirteenth or fourteenth of this Month October in the Night between one and two of the Clock Jesch Claes being a Dutch Woman of Amsterdam who for fourteen Years had been Lame of both legs one of them being dead and without feeling so that she could not go but creep upon the Ground or was carried in peoples Arms as a Child being in Bed with her Husband who was a Boatman she was three times pulled by her Arm with which she awaked and cryed out O Lord What may this be Hereupon she heard an Answer in plain Words Be not afraid I come in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Your Malady which hath for many Years been upon you shall cease and it shall be given you from God Almighty to walk again But keep this to your self till further Answer Whereupon she cryed aloud O Lord that I had a Light that I might know what this is Then had she this Answer There needs no Light the Light shall be given you from God Then came Light all over the Room and she saw a beautiful Youth about ten Years of Age with curled yellow Hair Clothed in White to the Feet who went from the Beds-head to the Chimney with a Light which a little after vanished Hereupon did there shoot something or gush from her Hip or diffuse it self through her Leg as a Water into her great Toe where she did find Life rising up felt it with her Hand crying out Lord give me my Feeling now which I have not had in so many Years And further she continued crying and praying to the Lord according to her weak Measure Yet she continued that Day Wednesday and the next Day Thursday as before till Evening at six a Clock at which time she sate at the Fire dressing the Food Then came as like a rushing Noise in both her Ears with which it was said to her Stand your going is given you again Then did she immediately stand up that had so many Years crept and went to the Door Her Husband meeting her being exceedingly afraid drew back In the mean while she cryed out My dear Husband I can go again The Man thinking it was a Spirit drew back saying You are not my Wife His Wife taking hold of him said My dear Husband I am the self-same that hath been Married these thirty Years to you The Almighty God hath given me my Going again But her Husband being amazed drew back to the side of the Room till at last she claspt her Hand about his Neck and yet he doubted and said to his Daughter Is this your Mother She answered Yes Father this we plainly see I had seen her go also before you came in This Person dwells upon Princes Island in Amsterdam This Account was sent from a Dutch Merchant procured by a Friend for Dr. R. Cudworth and contains the main Particulars that occur in the Dutch Printed Narrative which Monsieur Van Helmont brought over with him to my Lady Conway at Ragley who having enquired upon the spot when he was there at Amsterdam though of a genious not at all credulous of such Relations found the thing to be really true As also â—hilippus Lambergius in a Letter to Dr. Henry Moor sent this Testimony touching the Party cured That she was always reputed a very honest good Woman and that he believed there was no Fraud at all in that Business Glanvile's Saducism Triumph p. 427. 7. In this place may be accounted the strange way of curing the Struma or Scrophula commonly called the Evil which took its Derivation first of all from King Edward the Confessor and hath in after Ages been effected by the Kings of England and of France Concerning which take only this Story discoursing upon a time with Mr. Philip Caryll of Shipley in Sussex a Roman Catholick concerning Miracles done in this last Age in this Nation he produced this for an Instance That his Son being affected with that Distemper he having no Faith in the case was earnestly perswaded to address himself to King Charles the Second for a Touch of his Hand which having procured his Son was restored to perfect Health which he declared to me calling his Son into company and shewing him perfectly healed 8. Galen had a Man in Cure that had an Artery in his Ankle-bone half cut in sunder whereby he lost all his Blood before any Remedy could be applyed to him He writeth That he was advertised in his Sleep by some God or Angel that he should cut the Artery quite in sunder and the Ends would retire to each side and so lock together again When he awaked he executed what his Dream had represented to him and by that means cured the Man Treas of Ancient and Modern Times l. 5. p. 475. 9. A young Woman Married but without Children had a Disease about her Jaws and under her Cheek like unto Kernels and the Disease so corrupted her Face with Stench that she could scarce without great shame speak unto any Man This Woman was admonished in her Sleep to go to King Edward and get him to wash her Face with Water brought unto him and she should be whole To the Court she came and the King hearing of the matter disdained not to undertake it but having a Basin of Water brought unto him he dipped his Hand therein and washed the Womans Face and touched the diseased Part oftentimes sometimes also signing it with the Sign of the Cross When he had thus washed it the hard Crust or Skin was softned the Tumors dissolved and drawing his Hand by divers of the Holes out thence came divers little Worms whereof and of corrupt Matter and Blood they were full The Kings still pressed it with his Hand to bring forth the Corruption and endured the Stench of it until by such pressing he had brought forth all the Corruption This done he commanded her a sufficient Allowance every day for all things necessary until she had received perfect Health which was within a Week after and whereas she was ever before Barren within one Year she had a Child by her Husband This Disease hath since been called the Kings Evil and is frequently cured by the Touch of the Kings of England Stew's Annals p. 98. 10. Sir John Cheeke was once one of the Tutors to King Edward the Sixth afterwards Secretary of State much did the Kingdom value him but more the King for being once desperately
Hell and that such a tearm of Years being expired the Devil should have his Soul the Articles were consented 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 extraordinory 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 Atheism not being suspected for a Wizard But a few Weeks before the time indented with the Devil was fulfilled inexpressible Horror of Conscience surprised 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 a Heaven and an Hell So did he die a miserable Spectacle of the righteous and fearful Judgment 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 5. In the Year 1664 several who were Indicted at the Assizes held at Taunton in Somerset-shire confessed that they had made an explicit League with the Devil and that he did Baptize Pictures of Wax with Oil giving them the names of those Persons they did intend mischief unto 6. Anno. 1678. One John Stuart and his Sister Annabil Steuart at the Assizes held at Paysley in Scotland confessed that they had been in confederacy with the Devil and that they had made an Image of Wax calling it by the name of Sir 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 7. And no longer since than the last Year viz. on August 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 8. The following Relations of the New-England Witches are to be found in Mr. Cotton Mather's Wonders of the Invisible World THE Devil exhibiting himself ordinarily as a small black Man has saith Mr. Mather decoy'd a fearsâ—â— knot of proud froward ignorant envious and malicious Creatures to list themselves in his horrid Service by entring their Names in a Book by him tendred unto them These Witches whereof above a Score have now confessed and shown their Deeds and some are now tormented by the Devils for confessing have met in hellish Randezvouzes wherein the Confessors do say they have had their diabolical Sacraments imitating the Baptism and the Supper of our Lord. In these hellish Meetings these Monsters have associated themselves to do no less a thing than to destroy the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ in these parts of the World and in order hereunto First they each of them have their Spectres or Devils commissioned by them and representing of them to be the Engines of their Malice By these wicked Spectres they sieze poor People about the Country with various and bloody Torments and of those evidently preternatural Torments there are some have died They have bewitched some even so far as to make Self-destroyers and others are in many Towns here and there languishing under their evil Hands The People thus afflicted are miserably scratched and bitten so that the Marks are most visible to all the World but the Causes utterly invisible And the same invisible Furies do most visibly stick Pins into the Bodies of the Afflicted and scale them and hideously distort and disjoynt all their Members besides a Thousand others of Plagues beyond these of any natural Diseases which they give unto them Yea they sometimes drag the poor People out of their Chambers and carry them over Trees and Hills for divers Miles together A large part of the Persons Tortured by these Diabolical Spectres are horribly tempted by them sometimes with fair Promises and sometimes with hard Threatnings but always with felt Miseries to sign the Devils Laws in a Spectral Book laid before them which two or three of these poor Sufferers being by their tiresome Sufferings overcome to do they have immediately been released from all their Miseries and they appeared in Spectre then to Torture those that were before their fellow Sufferers The Witches which by their Covenant with the Devil are become Owners of Spectres are often-times by their own Spectres required and compelled to give their consent for the Molestation of some which they had no mind otherwise to fall upon and cruel Depradations are then made upon the Vicinage In the Prosecution of these Witchcrafts among a Thousand other unaccountable things the Spectres have an odd faculty of cloathing the most substantial and corporeal Instruments of Torture with Invisibility while the Wounds thereby given have been the most palpable things in the World so that the Sufferers assaulted with Instruments of Iron wholly unseen to the standers by though to their Cost seen by themselves have upon snatching wrested the Instruments out of the Spectres hands and every one has then immediately not only beheld but handled an Iron Instrument taken by a Devil from a Neighbour These wicked Spectres have proceeded so far as to steal several quantities of Money from divers People part of which Mouey has before sufficient Spectators been dropt out of the Air into the Hand of the Sufferers which the Spectres have been urging them to subscribe their Covenant with Death In such extravagant ways have these Wretches propounded the Dragooning of as many as they can in their own Combination and the Destroying of others with lingring spreading deadly Diseases till our Country should at last become too hot for us Among the Ghastly Instances of the Success which those bloody Witches have had we have seen even some of their own Children so dedicated unto the Devil that in their Infancy it is found the Imps have sucked them and rendred them venemous to a Prodgey 9. A Modern Instance of Witches Discovered and Condemned in a Tryal before that celebrated Judge Sir Matthew Hale as Printed in Mr. Cotton Mather's Wonders of the Invisible World IT may cast some Light upon the Dark things now in America if we just give a glance upon the like things lately happening in Europe We may see the Witchcrafts here most exactly resemble the Witchcrafts there and we may Judge Hale was a Person than whom no Man was more backward to condemn a Witch without full Evidence Now one of the latest Printed Accounts about a Tryal of Witches is of what was before him and it ran on this wife Printed in the Year 1682. And it is here the rather mentioned because it was a Tryal much considered by the Judges of New-England 1. Rose Cullender and Amy Duny were severally Indicted
much of a white Angel which did use to forbid them what the Devil bid them to do and assure them that these doings would not last long but that what had been done was permitted for the Wickedness of the People This white Angel would sometimes rescue the Children from going in with the Witches VIII The Witches confess'd many Mischiefs done by them declaring with what kind of enchanted Tools they did their Mischiefs They thought especially to kill the Minister of Elfdala but could not But some of them said that such as they wounded would be recovered upon or before their Execution IX The Judges would fain have had them show'd some of their Tricks but they unanimously declared That since they had confessed all they found all their Witchcraft gone and the Devil then appeared very terrible unto them threatning with an Iron Fork to thrust them into a burning Pit if they persisted in their Confession X. There were discovered no less then Threescore and Ten Witches in one Village Three and Twenty of which freely confessing their Crimes were Condemned to Die The rest one pretending she was with Child were sent to Fahluna where most of them were afterwards Executed Fifteen Children which confessed themselves engaged in this Witchery died as the rest Six and Thirty of them between Nine and Sixteen Years of Age who had been less guilty were forced to run the Gantlet and be lashed on their Hands once a Week for a Year together Twenty more who had less inclination to these Infernal Enterprizes were lashed with Rods upon their Hands for three Sundays together at the Church-door The number of the seduced Children was about Three Hundred This Course together with weekly Prayers in all the Churches through the Kingdom issued in the Deliverance of the Country XI The most accomplish'd Dr. Horneck incerts a most wise Caution in his preface to this Narrative says he There is no publick Calamity but some ill People will serve themselves of the sad Providence and make use of it for their own ends as Thieves when an House or Town is on Fire will steal what they can And he mentions a remarkable Story of a young Woman at Stockholm in the Year 1676. who accused her own Mother of being a Witch and swore positively that she had carried her away in the Night the poor Woman was Burnt upon it professing her Innocency to the last But though she had been an ill Woman yet it afterwards prov'd that she was not such an one for her Daughter came to the Judges with hideous Lamentations confessing that she had wronged her out of a wicked spight against her whereupon the Judges gave order for her Execution too Thus far Mr. Cotton Mather The Truth of the Matters of Fact here related are attested in the most Authentick manner that is possible The Attestation runs thus The Reverend and Worthy Author having at the Direction of his Excellency the Governour so far obliged the Publick as to give some account of the Sufferings brought upon the Country by Witchcraft and of the Tryals which have passed upon several executed for the same upon perusal thereof we find the Matters of Fact and Evidence truly Reported and a prospect given of the Methods of Conviction used in the Proceedings of the Court at Salem Boston Octob. 11. 1692. William Stoughton Samuel Sewall The Author tells us there were in all nineteen Witches Executed one whereof was a Minister and that two Ministers more are accused That there were a hundred Witches more Imprisoned which broke Prison and two Hundred more accused and that some men of great Estates in Boston have been accused for the same Crime And lastly that those hundred now in Prison were accused by fifty of themselves being Witches some of Boston but most about Salem and the Towns adjacent The Court for the Tryal of the Nineteen Condemned and Executed was held at Salem 1692. 11. But among the rest one Martha Carrier was none of the least Notorious among the Wretches Convicted for this black Crime For to omit other Particulars several of her own Children confessed that they were Witches and that their Mother had made them so which confession they made with great shews of Repentance and much demonstration of Truth particularising Place Time Occasion Journeys Meetings and Mischiefs done by them c. which were verified by other concurring Testimonies and Effects But there was Evidence enough against her besides theirs One Foster who confessed herself also a Witch affirmed she had seen Martha Carrier at their Witch-Meetings and that it was she that had perswaded her to be a Witch adding this Circumstance of Proof That as the Devil was one time carrying them both upon one Pole to a Witch-Meeting the Pole broke and she catching hold about Martha Caerrier's Neck they both fell to the Ground and she then received a Hurt of the Fall of which she was not yet quite Cured Also one Lacy another confessing Witch testified she had once seen Martha Carrier bodily present at a Witch-Meeting in Salem Village and that she knew her to be a Witch and to have been at a Diabolical Sacrament and that she had been the undoing of her and her Children by enticing them into the Devils Snare Another confessing Witch of the same Name affirmed likewise that Martha Carrier was at a Witch-Meeting in Salem where they had Bread and Wine Administred to the and in the time of the said Martha's Tryal one Susanna Sheldon had both her hands unaccountably tied together in open Court with a Wheel-band so fast that without cutting it could not be loosed it was done by a Spectre and the Sufferer affirmed it was that of the Prisoner In fine the said Martha Carrier was the Person of whom the Confessions of other Witches and of her own Children among the rest agreed That the Devil had promised her she should be Queen of Hell Observations on the late Tryals of the New-England Witches by the Author of the Compleat Library I. FIRST 'T is very remarkable to see what an impious and impudent Imitation of Divine Mysteries is Apishly affected by the Devil whereof the Confessions of these Witches and the Afflictions of the Sufferers have informed us For the Witches affirm that they form themselves into Assemblyes much after the manner of the Congregational Churches and that they have a Baptism and a Supper and Officers among them abominably representing those of our Lord. And indeed besides these sacramental Imitations their striking down the bewitched Persons with a fierce Look and their making them rise again with a Touch of their Hand their Transportation through the Air their Travelling in Spirit while their Body is in a Trance their causing of Cattel to run Mad and perish their entring their Names in a Book their coming together at the Sound of a Trumpet their appearing sometimes clothed with Light or Fire and their clothing themselves and Instruments with Invisibility are but so many sorts
of blasphemous Imitations of certain things recorded about our Saviour or the Prophets or the Saints in the Kingdom of God II. Secondly It seems an unaccountable thing how the Witches can render Themselves and Tools invisible or indeed how the Devils themselves can do it and yet that they do so is most undoubted Matter of Fact This strange Operation makes our Author think that Witchcraft principally consists in a Skill how to abuse the plastick Spirit of the World unto some unlawful Purposes by means of a Confederacy with Evil Spirits to whom Witches are engaged by a Magical Sacrament And here to confute those Persons that are so dogmatical against these Points he inserts three strange Instances of the Truth of them which I shall repeat in few words One of the bewitched People of whom he speaks pretending she was Assaulted by a Spectre with a Spindle though no body but she could see it at last in her Pains she gave a snatch at the Spectre and pulled away the Spindle which as soon as she got into her Hand became visible to others then present who found it to be a real solid iron Spindle belonging they knew to whom which though they locked up safe it was unaccountably stolen away again by Demons Secondly Another Woman was haunted by a very abusive Spectre that she said came to her in a Sheet at which she likewise giving a snatch tore away a Corner of it which in her Hand immediately became visible to a Room full of Spectators and was sound to be a palpable Corner of a Sheet Her Father who was then holding her catch'd that he might hold what his Daughter had so strangely seised but the unseen Spectre had like to have torn off his Hand endeavouring to wrest it from him However he still held it and has it says the Author as he supposes still it being but a few Hours before his Writing this it being at the beginning of October 1692. That this Accident happened in the Family of one Pitman at Manchester Thirdly A young Man delaying to procure Testimonials for his Parents who were in Prison upon suspicion of Witchcraft was persued with very odd Inconveniencies and once above the rest an Officer going to put his Brand on the Horns of some Cows that belonged to those People which though he had seised for their Debts yet he was willing to leave in their Possession for the subsistance of the poor Family This young Man helped him in holding the Cows thus to be Branded the first three Cows he held well enough but when the hot Brand was clapt upon the fourth he winced at such a rate that he could hold the Cow no longer and being asked the reason he said That at the same instant the Brand entred the Cows Horn he felt exactly the like burning Brand clapt upon his own Thigh and shewed the lasting Marks of it to such as desired to see them Now let our Sadducees unriddle these Phaenomena's if they can A third remarkable Curiosity is That the Execution of some of these Witches has been immediately attended with the strange Recovery of some Persons that had lain for many Years in a most sad Condition under they knew not what evil Hands And the Author inclines to believe That many of the Self-murders lately committed in those parts were the Effects of Witchcraft letting fly Demons to disturb the Minds of those poor Wretches because several who were before distracted and under the like Terrors of a despairing Humour and the like Temptations to Self-murther had marvellously recovered their Senses and a calmness of Mind upon the Execution of the late Witches Fourthly The frequent Apparitions of Ghosts of murdered People together with the Spectres of the Witches is another strange Remarkable and so much the stranger because all those People whose Ghosts have so seemed to appear to the bewitched Persons have been found in Fact to have died very unaccountably And no less astonishing is the frequent Apparitions of Ghosts even to other Persons not bewitched by which old Murthers have been revealed had considered of which our Author gives a very signal and fresh Instance concerning a poor Man lately prest to Death because he refused to plead for his Life which he Inserts in an Extract of a Letter written to the honourable Samuel Sewall Esq by one Mr. Putnam to which I refer you Having already insisted longer on this Matter than the Room we have here will well permit tho' I shall not think my Labour ill spent if it may serve but to convince any Unbeliever in the Points now so mainly contested about the Being and Operation of Spirits and other Wonders of the Invisible World CHAP. XCIII Satan Restrained in Hurting c. GOD only is Absolute and restrained with no Limits all the Creatures are dependent upon his Will tied with a Chain to his Throne they have Bounds set them Pillars of Non-ultra beyond which they may not pass And 't is well for us that not only Satan but all his Agents are in Chains that God hath set a Hook in Leviathan 's Jaws that he can move no whither without leave and permission for it would be a sad World if the Devil were absolute Ranger and Lord Paramount in it 1. Upon a time a certain Wizzard sent his Spirits to kill Ambrose but they returned Answer That God had hedged him in as he did Job Another came with his Sword to his Bed-side to have killed him but he could not stir his Hand 'till repenting he was by the Prayer of Ambrose restored to the Use of his Hands again Clark's Mar. of Eccl. Hist 2. Wolphius wrote to Skenkius That near Zurick the Devil vexed a Melancholly Woman and sollicited her to drown herself she went and sate long on the Flood-gate of a Pond at last by his Importunity she yielded saying If it must be so on Gods Name let it be so and cast herself into the Water where she lay three Hours on her Back and could not sink and being found and brought home her Body was light as Straw and she recovered her Health Hist Disc of Apparitions and Witches p. 97. 3. About the Year 1644. the Lord Grandison a Scottish Noble-man took up his Habitation for some time at Berwick upon Tweed and brought his Family with him in which amongst others was the Steward of his House who was a very Religious Man but was then very much afflicted in Mind among others Mr. Robert Balsam a very Religious Minister in those Parts came to Visit him and spake comfortably to him whereupon the Man's Tongue swelled out of his Mouth and a Voice came out of his Throat without any Motion of his Tongue saying What dost thou talk to him of Promises and Free Grace he is mine Mr. Balsom replying That Satan was a Lyar and bound and that the Blood of Christ cleanses us from all Sin Satan beginning to Curse Swear and Blaspheme in a most terrible manner Mr. Balsom
promising to pray for the Man and to get all the Force that he could in the Town to joyn with him he returns home about Eleven of the Clock at Night and finding there several Persons whom he intended to have sent for he desired them to joyn their Prayers with his on this Man's behalf which they continued for some part of he Night The next Morning Mr. Balsom going to Visit him again sound him in a very comfortable Condition and asked him how he did he answered Through the Goodness of God I have overcome Satan and am now as full of Comfort as I was before of Trouble Thus he continued cheerful tho' very weak all that Day and the next Morning died no Disease being apparent on him Clark's Martyr c. Wonderful Prod. p. 47. 4. The Devil of Mascon that so long molested the House of Mr. Perrheaud complained that he could not do any hurt there because they prayed so much Printed Narrative 5. Senercleus tells of a plain Country Fellow at Friburg in Germany to whom as he lay on his Death-bed the Devil appeared in the Shape of a tall grim Man claiming his Soul saying Thou hast been a notorious Sinner and I am now come to set down all thy Sins And thereupon drew out Paper and Ink and sitting down at a Table that stood by began to write The sick Man said My Soul is Christ's and all my Sins are nailed to his Cross but if thou desirest to set down my Sins write thus All our Righteousnesses are as filthy Rags The Devil set that down and bid him say on He did But thou Lord hast promised for thine own Name's-sake to blot out all our Iniquities and to make our Scarlet Sins White as Snow The Devil would not write these Words but was very earnest with the Man to go on with his former Confession Then said the sick Man with great cheerfulness The Son of God appeared to destroy the Works of the Devil Whereupon the Devil vanished and shortly after the sick Man died Clark's Mirrour ch 7. p. 33. 6. Mr. White of Dorchester to the Devil standing at his Bed's Feet said If thou hast nothing else to do thou mayest stand there still and I will betake myself to my Rest. And so composing himself to Sleep the Devil vanished away Ibid. 7. Luther lodging in the Castle at Wartzburg being troubled with Noises of the Devil 's making drove him away with saying Omnia subjecisti pedibus ejus Thou hast put all Things under his Feet Ibid. 8. Mr. Jos Allein in his Illness a little before his Death uttered these Words Away thou foul Fiend thon Enemy of all Mankind Art thou come now to molest me Now that I am just going now I am so weak and Death is upon me Trouble me not for I am none of thine I am the Lord 's Christ is mine and I am his His by Covenant I have sworn my self to be the Lords and his I will be Therefore be gone be gone be gone c. See his Life 9. A. C. 1663. One Thomas Sawdie a Boy of twelve Years of Age. Servant to Joh. Roberts of Trebilian in the Parish of Lawrack and County of Cornwal being possest by the Devil in a strange manner from whom he had received Money and falling sick after it sometimes with Fits like the Epilepsie in which he would continued for the space of seven or eight Hours sometimes like the Convulsion of which he had forty or fifty in a Day swelling of his Throat Distension of Limbs tearing off his Hair biting his own Flesh hollowing yelling whilstling neighing like a Stone-Horse lying as in a dead Sleep all Night halled out of his Bed and laid under the Bed with Arms spread abroad and such a stiffness in his Limbs that there was no bending of them without breaking them flying away from his Friends and in his Flight throwing off all his Cloaths Shirt and every thing presently drawing his Hands out and putting them in again when bound strait with a Napkin in three hard Knots getting his Legs one Arm and most of his Head through a Window where the Moulins were scarce three Inches asunder shooting his Body into a little Hole in the Wall up to the Waste of no capacity in the ordinary Course of Nature to contain such a Body as his was c. yet at last this Boy by the Prayers of three or four Ministers and other Neighbors was recovered out of this Share of the Devil He affirmed after his Recovery That at prayers he felt something as alive move out of his Belly towards his Throat upon which he then cried out He is gone he is gone and that the next Morning in the Field he went out like a Rat into a Fire which appeared near the hedge and both ascended into the Air and seemed to pass over to St. German's Town Attested by Mr. Toms Ministers Mr. Lydston Ministers Mr. Travers Ministers Mr. Teag Ministers John Roberts the Boy 's Master and Elizabeth his Wife Dorothy Sawdie Mrs. Jane Brooking and Mrs. Isabel her Daughter Tho. Geffery Hen. Palmer Constable With several others See the Printed Relation called A Return of Prayer Printed 1664. CHAP. XCV Satan hurting by Obsessions Possessions c. BY Obsessions I mean immediate Attempts and Assaults made upon the Disturbed Person by Satan or his Agents in such a manner as to discover themselves plainly to be of the Diabolical kind By Possessions the Insults of Satan in the very Body of the Person and this last way of Vexation I look upon as one of the worst when the Devil hath Power not only to Besiege the Town but to Enter the very castle and Domineer there and though there are some very late Authors that resolve all the History of the Demoniacks in the Gospel into Physical Distemperature of the Brain or Hypochondria yet I think they will be hard put to it to solve all the Difficulties and strange Occurrences of subsequent History 1. Mr. John Bruen of Stapleford in Cheshire Records the Story of a Boy called Thomas Harrison of Northwich about Eleven or Twelve Years of Age possessed with the Devil who by his Torments was brought so low that he was almost nothing but Skin and Bone yet for the space of Twenty four Hours every day having only one half hour respite which they call'd his Awaking time and wherein they gave him some Food he was of that extraordinary strength that if he folded his hands together no Man could pull them asunder if he rolled his Head or tossed his whole Body no Man could stay or restrain him He would to the great Astonishment of the Hearers Howl like a Dog Mew like a Cat Roar like a Bear Froth like a Boar when any pray'd with him his passions were strongest his Rage and Violence greatest ready to flye in their Faces and to drown their Voices by his yellings and outcries If any one came near him with a Bible though under
neither do I fear to pawn my Soul upon it Presently the Devil came indeed in the shape of a tall Man black and terrible with a fearful Noise and roaring Wind and took away the Old Priest that he was never after heard of Fincelius c. Clarks Examples Vol. I. Chap. 38. 3. In Helvetia Anno 1556. a certain Man that earned his Living by making clean foul Linen in his Drunkenness used horrible Cursings wishing that the Devil might break his Neck if ever he went to his old Occupation again yet the next day when he was sober he went into the Field again about it where the Devil attended him in the likeness of a big swarthy Man asking him If he remembred his Wish and withal struck him over the shoulders so that his Feet and Hands presently dried yet the Lord gave not the Devil Power to do him so much hurt as he wish'd to himself Fincelius 4. Lamentable is the Relation of what happened in Holland in June 1681. as it is written by Theodorus Paludamus a Protestant Minister at Lewarden in Friezland a Person named Dowee Sitses a Mason in that County being reported to be in a desperate case I accompanyed a Gentleman who was sent to him by Order from the Lords of the Provincial where we found two Master-Chirurgeons and their two Servants busie in making of Plaisters and dressing the Patient and he in such a lamentable Condition as we could not behold but with Amazement his Hair was burnt off his Head to his Ears his whole Face burnt except his Eyes his Arms burnt in several places his Hands to the end of his Fingers were burnt like a roasted Fowl but could move all his Fingers his Breast and Back burnt in several places and yet his Shirt whole his Belly under the Navel for about the breadth of an hand was as black as a stock in which place the Chirurgeons made several Incisions and he felt it not his Privities Hips Thighs and Legs were terribly burnt yet not his Stockings his Feet were also burnt and indeed no Part was free so that he was a woful sight After the Patient was dress'd and had got a little breath both he and his Wife gave a full Account of the following Passages upon Oath Upon the 15th of June at Evening this Dowee Sitses came Drunk into a Tavern where he with the Man of the House and another drank three Quarts of Wine and coming home at Ten at Night he lay down to sleep upon Cushions in the Kitchen and fell into a Dream about a Story he had read in a Book of Simon de Vries of a certain Company that danced in Masquerade with every one a lighted Torch in their hand wherewith they burnt one another whereupon he awaked and stood up thinking to go into the Yard to make Water and of a sudden he found himself of a light flame in the midst of the Room which burnt him thus dreadfully and some part of his Cloaths upon which he cryed out for Help but none came then he began to faint and in his Distress cryed out O God be gracious unto me a poor sinner and thereupon the flame ceased in the twinkling of an Eye but he growing faint laid his Head upon a Cushion in the Room about Two in the Morning his Wife came down and found him in this sad Condition and felt something under her Feet which was like a parcel of Red-ashes and burnt Rags and taking hold of her Husband had only a burnt piece of his Sleeve in her Hand whereupon she cryed out O Lord Dowee thou art grievously burnt He answered the Devil hath brought me in this case upon which she called in the Neighbours and Chirurgeons His Wife said he had been much given to Drunkenness and often reproved in vain by the Ministers that he drank much Brandy and other strong Liquors though he had often sworn against it and usually cursed himself wishing that if he were Drunk again the Devil might tear him Limb from Limb So that God makes use of the Devil as an Executioner of his Judgment to bring the miserable Man 's own Curse upon him not one Limb or Member being left upon him R. B. his Wonderful Prodigies p. 25. out of a Book called The Drunkard fore-warn'd 5. A Woman in derby-shire having cozened a Boy of some Money was charged with it but she stiffly denyed it and being further urged to confess the Truth she in a fearful manner prayed God that the Earth might open and swallow her up quick if she had it and immediately the Earth under her opened and she sank into it and being afterwards digged for they found her Nine Foot within the Earth and that very Money was found in her Pocket This happened about the beginning of April 1661. and is well attested by the Neighbours as appears by the Printed Narrative And the same Story is abbreviated by Mr. Samuel Clark in his second Vol. of Examples 6. Since my return from Exile says Mr. H. Burton a certain Attorney at Law being in the House of one Mrs. Monday dwelling near Aldersgate Feb. 17th 1640. and mention being made of my Name and Sufferings and Mrs. Monday saying That England had never thriven since he suffered and that though she had never seen him yet she had shed many a Tear for him The said Attorney replyed Could so many wise Men and Judges by deceived for he suffered no more than he deserved nor so much neither and therefore what a Pox should you be sorry for such a Man as he No sooner had these words passed from him but his Right Ear suddenly and strangely fell a bleeding at the lower tip of it and so long it bled as it wet a whole Handkerchief so as it might have been wrung out whereat his Heart so fainted that he sent for half a Pint of Sack and drank it up himself alone Whereat his Brother then present with sundry more said to him You may see Brother what it is to speak against Mr. Burton Yet such was this Man's Spirit that instead of taking notice of the Hand of God herein he continued Cursing saying What a Pox had I not spoken a Word against Mr. Burton my Ear would have bled though he could not at that time shew any Reason or natural Cause why his Ear should then bleed it being whole and sound so as upon the ceasing of the Blood Mr. Monday's Maid wiping the Blood off his Ear and looking wistfully upon it could not discern whence the Blood should issue but only a small bore or hole no bigger than a Pin's point could go into there being neither Scratch nor Scab nor Scar in his Ear. Witnesses of this were the Attorney's Brother and his Wife Mrs. Adcock Mrs. Anne Roe Mrs. Joan Monday and Eleanor Hutton her Servant See his Life p. 50. 7. Mr. Vincent Minister of Bednal in the County of Stafford gives a short but true Relation of a dreadful Judgment that
cast his Child into the Fire and the Child afterwards sicken'd and died The Leper cleansed p. 17. For this Act he was suspended again Ibid. 37. James Naylor a Blasphemous Quaker was burnt in the Tongue at Bristol 38. Jo. Collins and Tho. Reeve Ranters for calling a Cup of Ale the Blood of Christ and saying They could go into the House of Office and make a God every Morning c. were in the Old-Bailey Fined and Sentenced to Six Months Imprisonment Tho. Kendal in Drury-Lane affirming there was no God or Hell fell down dead See the Tryals Printed by B. Alsop 1651. Muggleton was condemned to the Pillory and â—ined 500 l. 1676. CHAP. CXXXIX Divine Judgments upon Wizards Witches and Charmers c. IT is worthy of a very serious Consideration That those very People who leave the God of Israel and think to better themselves by Idols or Corrivals and a superstitious Adbesion to them either the World or the Devil or any other Pretender never got any thing by such Methods but to be deluded in their Hopes and sink under the Vanity of their foolish and wicked Curiosity When did we ever see a Wizard Rich Or a Curioso Prosperous I mean a Curioso in the worst sense Or an Atheist make a Comfortable Exit out of the World I grant sometimes by the Leave of him that Rules the World and the Industry of Satan present Advantages may possibly accrew and do too often to be Worshippers of Mammon but generally when the Blot is great and the Criminal notorious God looks upon it as conducive to his Honour and necessary in point of Justice and Wisdom to strike openly and leave a Mark of Ignominy upon such gross Delinquents Read what follows and ye will agree with me in judgment 1. Concerning John Faustus Dr. d ee and Edward Kelley c. See the Chapter of Divine Judgments upon Curiosity 2. A. C. 1553. Two Women were taken who with a Tempest Hail and Frost design'd to destroy all the Corn in the Country but being found cutting a Neighbour's Child in pieces to boil in a Cauldron in order to the making of a Magical Ointment for the purpose were put to Death Beard 's Theatr. p. 419. 3. At Ihena in Germany or near it An. 1558. a Magician that had used to cure Diseases by the Composition of Herbs was for poisoning of a Carpenter whom he had a Quarrel with a little before examined before the Senate confessed the Murder and was burnt at a Stake Ibid. 4. Cleomandes a Conjurer in Rome for practising Death upon many little Children was sought for by the Parents but having shut himself up close in a Coffer and they breaking it open the Devil carried him away Plutarch 5. Piso being accused by Tiberius for bewitching Germanicus to Death cut his own Throat Tacit. Ann. 6. One Otto a Dane who by his Devilish Art used to raise Storms was at last by one more Expert drowned in the Seas himself 7. A Conjurer in Saltzburg attempting to draw all the Serpents in the Country into a Ditch and feed them there was by the old Serpent the Devil drawn in amongst them and perished miserably Clarks Exampl Vol. I. c. 8. 8. The Governour of Mascon a great Magician as he was at Dinner with some Company was snatched away by the Devil hoisted up into the Air and carried three times about the Town to the great Astonishment of the Inhabitants to whom he cried for help but all in vain Ibid. Ex Hug. de Clun An. 1437. Sir Giles Britaine Hight-Constable of France having murdered above 160 Infants and Women great with Child and wrote Conjuring-Books with their Blood which was proved against him was adjudged to be hanged and burnt to Death Ibid. p. 37. 10. Picus Mirandula writes That in his time a great Conjurer promised a certain Prince that he would present to him the Siege of Troy with Hercules and Achilles fighting together as when alive but being at his Conjurations the Devil carried him away that he was never heard of after Ibid. 11. The Lord of Orve in Lorrain used to feast Noblemen splendidly but fraudulently with all sorts of Dainties so that at parting they found their Stomachs empty having eat nothing was often seen scourged by a Monkey sometimes lying along upon his Table and begging of the Monkey Let me alone Wilt thou always torment me at this rate At last in great Misery and Beggary he was forc'd to get into an Hospital in Paris where he ended his wretched Life Ibid. 12. An. 1530. A Popish Priest digging for a Treasure in a hollow Pit of the City which the Devil had directed him to found at last a Coffer with a black Dog lying by it which whilst he was looking upon the Earth fell upon him and rushed him to death Wierus 13. Cornelius Agrippa a great Necromancer always attended with a familiar Spirit like a black Dog his End approaching he takes off the inchanted Collar from the Dog's Neck saying Be gone thou cursed Beast thou hast utterly undone me After which the Dog vanish'd and he died miserably Clark ex Paul Jovio 14. An. 1578. Simon Pembroke of St. George's Parish in London being suspected for a Conjurer and one that used to erect Figures being questioned for it as he was before the Judge he fell down and died having some Conjuring-Books found about him Clark Ibid. 15. A Sicilian called Lyodor for using Charms and Spells transforming Men into Beasts and other Shapes doing Mischief to the People of Catania charming himself out of the Hangman's Hands being carried in the Air to Constantinople and back again c. was at last by Leo Bishop of Catania seized before all the People who admired him and burnt alive in a hot Furnace Schot Phil. Curios c. 16. Ann. Bodenham of Fisherton-Anger near Salisbury a Witch for predicting things to come helping People to stolen Goods c. was executed at Salisbury 1653. Edm. Bowyer 's Narrative 17. An. 1642. One Mother Jackson for bewitching one Mary Glover in Thames-street a Merchant's Daughter was arraigned and condemned at Newgate 18. John Contius an Alderman of Pentich in Silesia near 60 Years of Age being invited to the Mayor's Supper after the ending of a certain Controversie between some Waggoners and a Merchant gets leave first to go home to order some Concerns leaving this Sentence behind him It 's good to be Merry whilst we may For Mischiefs grow fast enough e'ry Day Going home and looking upon the Hoof of one of his Geldings he was so struck that he complained he was all on fire fell sick complained loudly and despairingly of his Sins but would have no Divine to come to him The Night he died a Black Cat opened the Casement with her Nails scratched his Face and Bolster and so vanishing away he breathed his last A violent Storm of Wind arose a Spirit in the shape of Contius appeared in the Town that would have ravish d a
of Christ It is not all I can do that will or can save me Were I to live my Days over again and spend them in nothing but Prayers and Tears that could not Save me no it is nothing but the Mercy of God in Christ that must save me and upon this will I trust I am resolved that at the last I will lay my self wholly at the Feet of God's Mercy in Jesus Christ and there I will die This he uttered with raised and enlarged Affections They have brought my Coffin and I am not afraid to see it proceeded he I thank God I can freely lie down in it These Shackles about my Legs are as if they were not I do not regard them My Heart is so cheared with the consideration of the Precious Promises God hath made to poor perishing Sinners and why not to me And why not to thee indeed said I She loved much to whom much was forgiven Ah reply'd he it is much must be forgiven me Much indeed More to this purpose passed between us Several other Ministers were with him that Day and prayed with him as he told me what Discourse they had with him I know not A little before Execution enquiring of him what Confession he thought to make he said he was not inclined to speak much publickly in that respect for this reason That he judged it useless and at most would only gratifie some who came for nothing else but to hear him tell a long Story of a Vicious Life which was more likely to discompose his own Minds than tend to their Edification Moreover he said I cannot affect the Guilty and for others some may believe me some may not The Guilty know themselves I will therefore leave them to God and their own Consciences wishing them true Repentance that they may never come to this miserable End He did not think fit to go out of the World accusing others whom he could no more than accuse and neither bring them to deserved Punishment for what they had done hor prevent thereby their proceeding in the same course of Wickedness No for said he God must convince them and change their hearts which he did and would Pray earnestly for to his last He was desirous to employ all his little space in seeking God and giving up himself to Jesus Christ in humble Prayer now and then saying Oh! my Time is short within a few hours yea moments I shall be in Eternity O vain World Requesting me oft not to leave him till Death separated us I accompanied him to the Place of Execution where I prayed with him committing his Soul to God he joyned with me with great Ardency Then was sung the latter part of the 39th Psalm by his Appointment in singing whereof he seemed elevated in Heart and Voice above most present At last turning about and looking round on the Multitude he took his Farewel in these words or words to the like effect Gentle Spectators You are come to see a sinful miserable Wretch suffer this Ignominious Death I thank God it is not terrible to me for I trust that I shall find Mercy with God for my poor Soul through the precious Blood of my sweet Jesus You may see here what Sin will bring you to Oh take warning by me take heed of Sin shun Temptationsâ— flee Ezsil Company beware of Sabbath-breaking for by this Sin the Devil begins with many to draw them to all manner of Wickedness so he did with me Oh forsake all your Evil Wars turn to the Lord he is a gracious God Oh vile Wretch that I have so sinned against a holy just and merciful God I have been a Prodigal indeed but I hope now a Returning one Oh that they that have been my Companions in Mischief may Repent before it be too late I beg of them to fear God and mind their Souls There may be some of them that hear me at this time the Lord touch their hearts Oh do not still go on you are known to God who will call you to Account for all one day Think of it I beseech you the Lord give you true Repentance and Pardon your Sins that you may not come to this miserable End you see me come to With more to the like purpose Then Resigning himself to God and begging Acceptance with him for the Merits of a Dear and All-sufficient Redeemer he ended this Temporal and Miserable Life Thus far Mr. Burroughs CHAP. CXLV The Last Wills of Persons Remarkable for their Oddness and Singularity HAving had occasion to mention before several Wills with a particular Respect to Charities bestowed and some which were Remarkably Serious and Devout here I shall present the Reader with a few that I thought not very suitable to either of those Heads having something of Oddness or Levity or Brevity in them extraordinary 1. I have already spoken of Endamidas the Corinthian who dying Poor left his Aged Mother to Aretaeus and his Young Daughter to Charixenus two Rich Friends of his the one to be maintained till she died and the other till she married She the Chapter of Remarkable Friendship 2. Hilarion is reported at Eighty Years Old to have made this Will All my Wealth that is the Gospel and one Hair Vest my Coat and little Cloak I leave to my most loving Friend Hesychius Mourning Ring 3. Antonius the Great this As for the Place of my Burial let none know but your own Love my Felt and old Cloak give it to Athanasius which he gave me when it was new Let Serapion take the other which is somewhat better Do you take my Hair Garment And so Farewel my Bowels for Antony is going Ibid. 4. I Acathius Victor have been running to Eternity from A.C. 1581. and have Eternity in my Mind Now I commend my Spirit to God my Body to the Earth and Worms But as for Estate nothing now is mine but Good-Will which I carry with me to the Tribunal of God Ibid. 5. S. Hierom Martyr left his Estate to his Mother and Sister but to Rusticius the Chief Magistrate of Ancyra his Right-hand already cut off Ibid. 6. Zisca bequeath'd his Skin to make a Drum and his Flesh to the Fowls of the Air and Wild Beasts Ibid. 7. A Woman left her Cat 500 Crowns to maintain her with Food so long as she lived 8. I have mentioned already an Old Witch that on her Death-bed bequeathed her Imp the Devil to her Daughter 9. Luther was more serious and wise when he in his Last Will bequeath'd his Wife to God who gave her 10. Cardinal Bellarmine as I have noted before makes a long sputter in his Last Will about his Disposal of a few Cloaths and fine Pictures c. 11. I have been credibly informed that a certain School-Master in Shropshire making his Will his Wife who had always the Whip-hand over him standing by took occasion frequently to Advise the Clerk that wrote for him or rather to Correct and altar what