Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	abominable_a	abomination_n	wicked_a	22	3	5.4936	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61373	A confirmation and discovery of witchcraft containing these severall particulars : that there are witches ... together with the confessions of many of those executed since May 1645 ... / by John Stearne now of Lawshall.	Sterne, John, 17th cent.	1648 (1648)	Wing S5365; ESTC R28178	56,829	70

other in glasses or undo what the other have done if proved is it not sufficient But I hope there it none so ignorant or blinde as to think or believe it is lawful for any to go or send to such much lesse to put any confidence or trust in them who require faith to believe they can cure before they will undertake it seeing by the Law of God they ought to die as well as the other And the holy Scripture utterly forbids any going to them Levit. 2. 6. where it is said that he will set his face against such as shall seek after those that have familiar spirits and will cut them off from amongst his people much more then such as should be guilty themselves Then some will say How shall they be known one from another or how shall they be found out if these difficulties be For it cannot be denied but that many of them have made great shews of Religion I answer It is truth as the devil can transform himself into an Angel of light so have many of these Witches made outward shews as if they had been Saints on earth and so were taken by some as one of Catworth in Huntingtonshire who made as large a Confession in a manner as ever any did confessed at the gallows before her death in my hearing Likewise one Lendall of Cambridge who suffered also carried her self as if she had been no lesse and so did the mother of the said Rehecca West and many others which by their carriage seemed to be very religious people and would constantly repair to all Sermons neer them yet notwithstanding all their shews of religion there appeared some of these probabilities whereby they were suspected and so searched and so by that means discovered and made known For if you do but observe these and such-like other reasons as may be thereby gathered together with their Confessions you shall finde that they prepare themselves in some kinde or other and that by their outward carriage either by ill company keeping maliciousnesse revengeful persons or such as be born of such parents or go under a general suspicion of Witchcraft or one way or other as aforesaid there will appear just grounds of suspicion either by words or deeds whereby they may be brought to be questioned whereby it may appear there is a league made with the devil for notwithstanding all former reasons to convict or prove one guilty of Witchcraft is to prove a League made with the devil in this onely act standeth the very reality of a Witch without which notwithstanding great shews of probabilities I know not nor cannot conceive how any can be properly said to be Witches For the devil through Gods permission may hurt mens bodies and kill their cattel and ill haps may fall out upon his or her cursing and but grounds to make enquiry and search which must be for this League which though never so secretly made yet it is to be discerned seeing it is that which maketh a Witch and not to some of their own society For besides the former reasons it is an heathenish practice to seek to such Isa. 19. 3. and 65. 4. 2 King 17. 17. Now we should not be like the abominable heathen in any evil much lesse in these abominations And they which seek to them are commonly wicked and evil people haunted themselves by an evil spirit who suggesteth this course into them as he did into Saul 1 Sam. 28. Yea such as esteem of these and think they work in Gods Name and by his power are bewitched in so thinking Acts 8. 9 11. For it is found true by daily experience amongst our selves that those which most use them most need them as I might instance but onely I desire to prove the League which is to be proved for they that make this League if expresse as before have a familiar or spirit more or lesse For as soon as the League is made the Spirit or Familiar one or more is familiar as was before sufficiently proved by Saul and Iosiah in the forementioned places when Witches were known to have Familiars besides the Confessions of Witches lately executed herein expressed and so they have now adays by which after their League made they work their mischief as is likewise proved by their Confessions as the said Elizabeth Clark confessed who averred that all were Witches who had such marks as she was found withal and had familiar spirits more or lesse and that there were some which had none which I have found true for they have onely the brand or devils mark as I may so call it but for the other you may observe it as a genetal rule in all their Confessions as Iohn Bysack alias Gleede of Waldingfield magna in the County of Suffolk confessed that the devil came in at his window in the shape of a rugged sandy-coloured dog which asked him to deny God Christ and his Baptism which he spake with a great hollow voice and he consented Then he said Satan asked him for blood to seal and confirm the covenant or agreement and he bade him take it and that Satan with his consent had in the shape of such a coloured dog thorow his leather doublet with his claw Then I asked him where away Satan had it and he said From his heart and that Satan promised to free him of hell-torments and that he would send him other things which he must let suck his blood and they should avenge him of all his enemies All which he said he consented to and was willing withal and then soon after those came which he called his Imps and sucked on those marks or teats which I found on his body neer twenty yeers together sometimes once a week sometimes once a fortnight which he confessed came in the likenesse of Snails onely they differed one from another in colour and bignesse Then I asked him how they could suck on that part of his body I found the marks on and he said he used to lie down on his right side to let them suck and was willing withal for he confessed he oftentimes arose out of his bed and made a fire and lay down by it to let them suck his blood which rising out of his bed and fire making his wife averred to be truth yet she said she never knew or thought him to be such a manner of person for she said he used to tell her he was sick and used to be troubled with a disease which he could not help himself better for to ease himself of his pain he used to be in then by that means and could not endure his bed his pain was so troublesome But to clear all suspicion which after might fall on her thereby she was searched and found clear and no lesse thought to be by her neighbours before and since as I have heard He likewise confessed his Imps names were Sydrake Ieffry Peter Ayleward Sacar and Pyman for he had six by his