distinguish themselves from those of our Blessed Saviour and his Apostles And here he admirably distinguishes 1. The Works in themselves 2. The tendency and design of them 3. The Time or period of their Operation Whenas the so much-boasted Popish Miracles have in them 1. An Intrinsical Impertinence and frivolousness 2. A general Aptitude and Tendency to confirm any trifling piece of Superstition rather than any fundamental solid point of Religion 3. An appearing and exerting themselves in the latter times and even those marked out by our Saviour for times of a general defection and delusion and are branded for false Miracles such as Antichrist at his coming should enchant men with 2 Thess 2. Rev. 13.13 As to the first black Character he says whereas the Ancient Miracles of God are grave and serious Works and do carry along with them both some Image of Gods Wisdom and some holy Impression of the Divine Hand that causes them The Modern and Roman Miracles are commonly such Sports and Pranks as can become but Fairies and Hobgoblins What is there in the whole World more Impertinent then to make the most Blessed and Holy Virgin Mary come purposely out of Heaven whence it was not heard she came before to drudge here and there about Monks about sick Wives about Images and such like things Who could take for a holy Soul or a good Angel much less for that ever blessed Saint that which appears under her name like a Woman shewing her Breast embracing men giving them Suck enticing them with her Favours Hoods Vests and sometimes fine Rings which she makes for them of her own Hairs To such purpose she is said to have brought down her Heavenly train and to have sat in S. Ildephons's own Throne whilst thousands of her Virgins stood singing about her and about the reading Pulpit and all this great appearance to Compliment the Bishop and present him with a White Robe which she said she had taken out of her Sons Wardrobe and it was to be worn only upon her days and all this because the Eye of his Faith was continually bent to her Service for this is the best Eye of Roman Faith he was to wear it in that Church and after to have joy in her Closet or Apartment in Promptuariis meis This Gown is shewn at Toledo At another time they say she came to Church having it seems often before chid Vdo the then Bishop for lying with her Nuns Thou hast had says she sport enough do so no more notwithstanding afterwards she found him a Bed with no meaner Miss than the Mother Abbess her self At which she calls her Son it is not to be supposed to be the second Person in the Trinity and caused their Angels to pluck him off the Bed where they beat him till at every blow he vomited up one of those Hosts which he had Consecrated whilst in that sin And because of her Sons dirty lying if there be such a thing as Transubstantiation it must be so she held the Chalice to take both the Wafers and her Son in it Then the Queen of Heaven says the Historian takes up these vomited Wafers and washes them clean with great care and lays them up reverently on the Altar Abundance more of Feats he reckons up reported in the Roman Historians and Authors of the same Spirit which they would perswade their blinded Bigots to be the Virgin Mary as her going to Orleance with a Box of Ointment to dress the back of a Dean giving special Pills to a Monk to purge his Choler feeding S. Albert with a sort of Bread after which he resolv'd to feed on nought but Herbs and Roots Coming they say down from Heaven but more likely from the power of the Air to uncover her breasts and put her Paps into the Mouth of S. Hubbert and S. Bernard then they make her to woo Sweet-hearts and give them Rings of her own Hair as to S. Alan and S. Harman to both which they say she was married and that in the presence of all her Saints Spirits like her self relating a thousand other ridiculous if not blasphemous stories of her too tedious here to mention Then they bring down whom they would impose upon us to be the Eternal Son of the Father lying as if dead under the hand of a Mass-priest or shewing tricks of Activity like a young Child among the Novices in their Churches and Covents One says he hath seen this little Child creeping out at the mouth of a Crucifix 't is all a Sparrow could do but the Devil can do much more and thence jump into the Lap of an Image thence flying up again the way that he came Another says S. Ida had him and kissed and embraced him ut sponsa sponsum then he must hang about her Neck whilst she sings an Anthem S. Agnes had him too whilst she stole a little Cross out of his bosom They say he was brought by his own Mother to be kissed by S. Catharine of the order of Clara upon a Christmas Eve and that the same Dame brought him to Bed to S. Boniface in swadling Cloths They will have it that S. Lucia of the order of S. Dominick had him three Days and three Nights during which time the Image of the Virgin had no Baby on its left Arm after that they marry him to her when he looked as if he had been but seven years old S. Hostradus and others took this illusion for a real appearance of the Holy Infant and thereupon offered him as we do Children something to eat some would dandle him on their Knees and others play with him and S. John who was his companion at it Thus with grief may pious Souls see according to the Prophesies Jerusalem trodden and danced upon by ugly Owls and wild Satyrs Isa 13.21 So the Roman Church is become a Stage for vile Spirits to act upon for where are the good Saints or Angels that will represent much less act Christ and the Blessed Virgin under such shameful personages Then as for S. Francis you have Sheep and Asses running to hear his Sermons Swine falling dead under his curse for having hurt a poor Lamb all sorts of Cattel recover with the Water he washt his Feet in Women eased of their Travel by applying to them some of the Hay his Mule used to eat of Again you may find S. Dominick at Mass hanging in the Air like a Bird or at the Bed-side of a sick Woman Transubstantiating Worms into Pearls or by the Water side raising the River into a Flood or at his Devotions forcing the Devil to hold Candle to him 'till the poor pugg burn his own Fingers in the Service Or sometimes you may find him changing the sex of a young Girl unto a Boy Nor did the Women come behind hand for extraordinary feasts for if you read but the Life of S. Christina you will find that she rose from the dead twice before she died for good
you if you will remember and imitate those whose life and carriage was much in your eye And let me tell you in the Copy our late faithful Brother set you there are remarkable for your imitation A prudent care to manage soul-concerns a constant unwearied diligence in Labours for their good an undaunted resolution for known duty to God and Man a tender and meek spirit gently dealing with the weak yet willing enquirers after God A ready and full-willing mind to minister on every occasion to the edifying of those he conversed with An even and steddy practice of what he commended as excellent or urged as necessary duty an acquaintedness with the importance of duty and reward A serious mindfulness of Death and Judgment on which he discoursed frequently and lively dying to the World but living to God and still valuing most what was so good God would not and men could not take from him which appear'd in his deportment and frame of spirit when loss of dying Children and uncertain riches raised his esteem and value of the Gospel and his and your hopes set before us in the Gospel a heart full of love and thoughtfulness for your good whence those last desires and requests in order to the promoting of your good which I am informed he left you to consider Prize a Guide that will be faithful to your souls keep the unity of the spirit into which you are called by the Gospel and seek God earnestly for both Now could we prevail with you who heard and with others who read this discourse to endeavour for such a frame of spirit and to act according to it I know there would be more faithfulness diligence and mutual hope among the Servants of the Lord and his Family would be more beautiful in sight of others and more comforted and edified in their own souls Read then and read again and be in your houses which should be little Families or Churches of God in directing and helping them to Heaven what he desired and labour'd to be amongst you all I do think he gave you the Copy of Faithfulness and Diligence or I would not have thus set it before you and I commend it to you as becomes both me and it viz. It is the Copy of one who whilst he was good was still a man but though I could wish you would excel him I will not flatter you with a hope you will do it Oh that you would equal him of whom allow me to say He could do as much as most of best Men Scholars Christians Husbands Fathers Brethren Ministers and his will was ever equal to his ability the Service of his Lord was his life though he lived not on it he would not he could not live without it by a gracious Master sitted for succeeded in carried through much work in a little time and I believe now rewarded with a Crown of Life and Righteousness which he knew he did not merit though he knew it should be his wages In brief he was such an one as friends who knew him desire they may be and now is such as they hope they shall be such an one as some enemies already as I am inform'd have wisht they might be and others will once at last wish they had been He had a worth known to himself and others but it did not puff him up Should I say all I could strangers would think I exceed Friends would know a better Orator might justifiably have spoken more Yet once for all If either Readers or Hearers carp at the Character I have given him I have two things to say First it will be easier to quarrel at the praises than to deserve them Next I would defraud none of the Commendation due to them nor do I prefer him above all there are some but too few superior in gifts and graces I hope there are many his equals I am sure the most are lower by head and shoulders who likeliest to misinterpret me shall have a good wish for them or rather a serious Prayer testimony of a hearty love to their persons and unfeigned desire of their own good comfort and welfare and of all these to theirs and the Church of God in this and after ages for them I say I will pray more days fewer troubles and that they may be in other things altogether such as he was FINIS only on particular Men Women and Children but even on whole Towns and Countries many of which have been miserably Afflicted and some even totally destroyed by Tempests Fires Pestilences and other strange Accidents whereof no cause in Nature could appear And this hath been Attested not by one or two private or Ignorant Men but Transmitted from one Generation to another as the Opinion of the most Authentick Historians Physicians and Divines grounded on the best and strictest Enquiries of such who have taken Indefatigable pains to sift and search out the truth of what they have Related Nor have we alone the Authority of such but the consent of whole Courts of Judicature and the most Learned Assemblies of States-Men and Divines who in all Ages by their Publick Solemn Sanctions have declared their belief Detestation of such Cursed Practices Besides the undeniable Testimony of the sacred Scriptures before mentioned to whose Unerring Suffrage we ought to submit our belief and not by our fidelity Contradict the Authority of the Almighty and take upon us to be the Patrons and Champions of those Hellish Practises we seem to disbelieve By Charmers in a strict sense may be understood such as by some spell or form of Words employ their Familiar Spirits to bring at their call such Creatures as they shall demand rendering Venomous Creatures disarmed of their Noxious Quality during their pleasure and the most Ferose and Wild Brutes to become Tractable and Couchant Such were they who could suscitate or call together great numbers of Snakes or Serpents and cause them to go of their own accord into the Fire which was inclosed within a Magical Circle of which Dr. Casaubon of Credulity and Incredulity gives an account at large page 103. some have Charmed Flyes and Grashoppers when the Fields have been Infested with them and the fruits of the Earth in danger And of this sort of Operators the Psalmist seems to speak Ps 58. v. 4. Which will not hearken to the voice of the Charmer Charming never so wisely So Ecclesiastes ch 10.11 v. surely the Serpent will bite without Enchantment and the 8. of the Prophet Jerem. 17. v. I will send Serpents Cockatrices amongst you which will not be Charmed and they shall bite you c. Southsayers were such as by Inspection into the Entrails of Beasts or the flying of Birds were wont to prognosticate of Weather what Tempests or other seasons were like to ensue they gave their Opinions too with relation to other Contingencies as Events of Battle the fatality of Seasons or Attempts This they foretold by some certain Omens
for which the Heathen Priests were wont to Inspect the Bowels of their Sacrifices according to that in the Poet. Consulit Exta Augur absolvens superis effata recantat These Weather-Gagers were antiently applyed to to secure Corn Ground Vineyards and Cattle as well as Towns and Houses from Storms and Tempests mentioned by Seneca in his Fourth Book of Natural Questions They were deputed to a certain Office to observe give notice to the People when a Storm was coming who upon such warning hastened to kill a Lamb or a Chick or some young thing or other or if they had none of these to offer they were to prick their Finger and that blood was accepted and the Storm ceased or was prevented This was indeed a strange kind of Oblation and one might well conclude with Seneca that the Clouds have little Affinity with blood or a Prickt Finger but what will not the great Enemy of Souls do if he can but abuse and delude poor Men into a belief that by some outward means Tempests may be diverted that they may have the less suspicion of themselves and be less suspected by others whilst in the mean time they are hereby ensnared into a Diabolical Idolatry By Sorcerers such may be understood who having Contracted a Familiarity and entred into a Confederacy with the Devil or some of his Infernal Spirits consult and advise with their Hellish Confederates about the affairs in which they are employed and make their determinations according to the advice of their Familiars Nay many Extraordinary things which seem to be done by the Sorcerer are really done by the Spirit so that they seem to Exchange forms one with the other the Daemon sometimes appears in the shape and resemblance of the Sorcerer at another time the Sorcerer shall haunt ye in semblance of the Daemon Of this more will appear when we come to particular Instances in the subsequent discourse Magician is a name which imports the esteem the Ancients had for such as could perform feats above the reach and Conception of Ordinary men whether by that which is called Natural Magick or some stricter Familiarity with the Inhabitants of the lower world they were by them esteemed Wise-Men for so the word Magi Signifies and that is the name which the Turks give to their Conjurers and such as deal in those forbidden Arts at this day Such were those whom the hardened Pharaoh called for by their Magical Operations to perform things semblable in some sort and like those wrought by Holy Moses by a Divine Command and power for the wicked King saw them turn Water into Blood Rods into Serpents and with Multitudes of Frogs to cover the face of the Earth Nor is it Improbable that the evil Angels were permitted by an Extraordinary providence thus to exert and shew their power by the hand of their evil Ministers in a Judicial way for the hardening of that seared King so that seeing the seeming miracles wrought by his Magicians he might be the more confirmed in his obstinacy against the Counsel of God by his Servant Moses For the sacred Text assures us that he was raised up in an Extraordinary manner to be to future Ages an Example of the Righteous Judgment of God upon hardened self-deluded and deluding Infidels And some we read of are given up to strong delusions that they might believe a Lie By a Witch is Commonly understood a Femal Agent or Patient who is become in Covenant with the Devil having in a literal sense sold her self to work Wickedness such whose chief Negotiation tends to the spoiling their Neighbours persons or goods They have Commonly certain Excrescencies like Teats or Nipples in private parts of their Bodies which their Familiars often suck Sometimes personally and sometimes in a Dream or Trance they Revel with the evil Spirit in nightly Cabals and Consults Those particularly intended here are such as are Commonly called Black Witches there is besides another sort termed White Witches These by a Diabolical Complaisance or good-nature are to uncharm and give ease to those the other have afflicted but sometimes it so happens that one or other of the Witches dyes by force of the Counter-charm Both these are condemned to death by the Divine Law Exod. 22.18 The Suasion of such hath been sometimes sought unto and used to entice young Maids to unclean folly But Witches are themselves Imposed upon as well as they Impose on others The Grand Impostor the Devil deceiveth them as they deceive those that seek unto them and the Cures which by these Imps are performed on the Bodies of their deluded Patients tend to the Tainting and Infection of the Soul There are divers other General names for the Students of this Infernal Art as Enchanters Wizzards Dreamers Observers of times of divers of which there will be Instances in the following Collection of Relations But these being mostly Included under the definitions herein specified being much of the same Import and Signification it will be Superfluous to mention in this place but the further Notion of those Black Scholars will be better discerned as we come to give Relation of their several ways and Methods of their Operations as they appear in the subsequent Chapters Having thus displayed the various degrees and kinds of those Confederates with the Lower World we shall now enter upon the proofs that the Heathen Priests of Old and the Idolatrous Papists of later date have been and are the Great promoters of this Infernal and accursed defection from the Eternal Fountain of happiness and the great encouragers of Daemonolatry as well as Idolatry that is to say of Devil-Worship which is the highest Homage he expects from his Infatuated Vassals and on the Account of which he principally instructs them in the dark and devilish Mysteries of Hell-Craft and Fascination It was alwaies the Custom of the Nations to seek unto their Gods for Counsel in the case of War and other Extremities and as the holy one Commanded his People to seek his face and call upon his name and expresly in the first Table forbids the making any semblance or likeness of any Image in Heaven in Earth or in the Waters under the Earth thereby strictly forbidding all manner of Idolatry so the wicked Angel hath at all times been seducing and alienating the hearts of Men from their Obedience to the Righteous Command by setting up false Gods And as the Prophets and Holy Men of God spake as they were Inspired by the Holy Ghost So the Idol Priests and Pythonists delivered the Devils Oracles to the People They were enquired of and sought unto in relation to future events and Contingencies Nay so far had these Infernal Priests Imposed upon the Biggotted World that their Daemons or Familiars for their Deities were no better obtained Divine Adoration and wanted not their High-places Groves and Altars so this Devil-Worship was Promoted under the Notion of Religion and their Services abounded with the
they called him who lived about that Town she had given me so strange an account of him that I desired her I might see him the first opportunity which she promised and not long after passing that way she told me there was the Fairy-Boy but a little before I came by and casting her eye into the street said look you Sir yonder he is at play with those other Boys and designing him to me I went and by smooth words and a piece of money got him to come into the house with me where in the presence of divers people I demanded of him several Astrological Questions which he answered with great Subtility and through all his discourse carryed it with a cunning much above his years which seemed not to exceed ten or eleven He seemed to make a motion like drumming upon the Table with his Fingers upon which I ask'd him whether he could beat a drum To which he replied yes Sir as well as any man in Scotland for every Thursday Night I beat all points to a sort of people that use to meet under yonder Hill pointing to the great Hill between Edenborough and Leith how Boy quoth I What company have you there There are Sir said he a great company both of men and women and they are entertained with many sorts of Musick besides my drum they have besides plenty of variety of Meats and Wine and many times we are carried into France or Holland in a night and return again and whilst we are there we enjoy all the pleasures the Country doth afford I demanded of him how they got under that Hill To which he replied that there were a great pair of gates that opened to them though they were invisible to others and that within there were brave large rooms as well accommodated as most in Scotland I then asked him how I should know what he said to be true Upon which he told me he would read my fortune saying I should have two wives and that he saw the forms of them sitting on my Shoulders that both would be very handsom women as he was thus speaking a woman of the neighbour-hood coming into the room demanded of him what her fortune should be He told her that she had had two Bastards before she was married which put her in such a rage that she desired not to hear the rest The woman of the House told me that all the People in Scotland could not keep him from the Rendesvous on Thursday night upon which by promising him some more money I got a promise of him to meet me at the same place in the afternoon the Thursday following and so dismist him at that time The Boy came again at the place and time appointed and I had prevailed with some friends to continue with me if possible to prevent his moving that night he was placed between us and answered many questions without offering to go from us until about eleven of the clock he was got away unperceived of the company but I suddenly missing him hasted to the door and took hold of him and so returned him into the same room we all watched him and on a sudden he was again got out of the doors I follow'd him close and he made a noise in the street as if he had been set upon but from that time I could never see him George Burton Advertisment THis Gentleman is so well known to many worthy Persons Merchants and others upon the exchange in London that there can be no need of my justifying for the Integrity of the relation I will only say thus much that I have heard him very solemnly affirm the truth of what is here related Neither do I find any thing in it more then hath been reported by very unquestionable Pens to the same purpose What this manner of Transvection was which the boy spoke of whether it were corporeal or in a dream only I shall not dispute but I think there be some relations of this kind that prove it may be either way therefore that I leave to the reader to determine But the Captain hath told me that at that time he had a virtuous and a handsome wife who being dead he thinks himself in election of another such That too of the Womans having had two Children happened to be very true though hardly any of the neighbours knew it in that place His getting away in that manner was somewhat strange considering how they had planted him and that besides he had the Temptation of wine and mony to have detained him Arguments very powerful with lads of his Age and fortune The Fourth Relation Giving an account of the Daemon of Spraiton in the County of Devon Anno. 1682. THat which was published in May 1683. concerning the Daemon or Daemons of Spraiton was the extract of a letter from T. C. Esquire a near neighbour to the place though it needed little confirmation further then the credit that the Learning Quality of that Gentleman had stampt upon it yet was much of it likewise known to and related by the Reverend Minister of Barnstable of the vicinity to Spraiton Having likewise since had fresh Testimonials of the veracity of that Relation and it being at first designed to fill this place I have thought it not amiss for the strangeness of it to print it here a Second time exactly as I had transcribed it then About the month of November in the year 1682. In the Parish of Spraiton in the County of Devon one Francis Fey Servant to Mr. Philip Furze being in a Field near the dwelling house of his said Master there appeared unto him the resemblance of an Aged Gentleman like his masters Father with a Pole or Staff in his hand resembling that he was wont to carry when living to kill the moles withal The spectrum approached near the young man whom you may Imagin not a little surprized at the appearance of one that he knew to be dead but the spectrum bid him not be afraid of him but tell his Master who was his Son that several Legacies which by his Testament he had bequeathed were unpaid naming Ten Shillings to one and Ten Shillings to another both which persons he named to the young man who replyed that the party he last named was dead and so it could not be paid to him The Ghost answered He knew that but it must be paid to the next Relation whom he also named The spectrum likewise ordered him to carry Twenty Shillings to a Gentlewoman Sister to the deceased living near Totness in the said County and promised if these things were performed to trouble him no further but at the same time the spectrum speaking of his second wife who was also dead called her wicked woman though the Gentleman who writ the letter knew her and esteemed her a very good woman And having thus related him his mind the spectrum left the young man who according to the direction of the Spirit
took care to see the small Legacies satisfied and carryed the Twenty Shillings that was appointed to be paid the Gentlewoman near Totness but she utterly refused to receive it being sent her as she said from the Devil The same night the young man Lodging at her house the aforesaid spectrum appeared to him again whereupon the young man challenged his promise not to trouble him any more saying he had performed all according to his appointment but that the Gentlewoman his Sister would not receive the Money To which the spectrum replied that was true indeed but withal directed the young man to ride to Totness and buy for her a Ring of that value which the Spirit said she would accept of which being provided accordingly she received Since the performance of which the Ghost or Apparition of the old Gentleman hath seemed to be at rest having never given the young man any further trouble But the next day after having delivered the ring the young man was riding home to his Masters house accompanyed by a Servant of the Gentle womans near Totness and near about the time of their entrance or a little before they came into the Parish of Spraiton aforesaid there appeared to be upon the horse behind the young man the resemblance of the second wife of the old Gentleman spoken of before This Daemon often threw the young man off his horse and cast him with such violence to the ground as was great astonishment not only to the Gentlewomans Servant with him but to divers others who were spectators of the frightful action the ground resounding with great noise by reason of the incredible force with which he was cast upon it At his coming into his Masters yard the horse which he rid though very poor out of case leaped at one spring 25 foot to the amazement of all that saw it Soon after the She-spectre shewed her self to divers in the house viz. The aforesaid young man mistress Thomasin Gidly Ann Langdon born in that Parish and a little Child which by reason of the troublesomenesâ— of the Spirit they were fain to remove from that house She appeared sometimes in her own shape sometimes in forms very horrid now and then like a monstrous Dog belching out fire at another time it flew out at the window in the shape of a Horse carrying with it only one pane of glass a small piece of Iron One time the young mans head was thrust into a very strait place betwixt a Beds head and a Wall and forced by the strength of divers men to be removed thence and that not without being much hurt and bruised so that much blood appeared about it upon this it was advised he should be bleeded to prevent any ill accident that might come of the bruise after bleeding the ligature or binder of his Arm was removed from thence and conveyed about his middle where it was strained with such violence that the girding had almost stopp'd his breath and kill'd him and being cut asunder it made a strange and dismal noise so that the standers by were affrighted at it At divers other times he hath been in danger to be strangled with Cravats and Handkerchiefs that he hath worn about his Neck which have been drawn so close that with the sudden violence he hath near been choaked and hardly escaped death The Spectre hath shewed great offence at the Perriwigs which the young man used to wear for they are often torn from his head after a very strange manner one that he esteemed above the rest he put in a small box and that box he placed in another which he set against the wall of his Chamber placing a Joint-stool with other weight a top of it but in short time the boxes were broken in sunder and the Perriwig rended into many small parts and tatters Another time lying in his Masters Chamber with his Perriwig on his Head to secure it from danger within a little time it was torn from him and reduced into very small fragments At another time one of his Shoe-strings was observed without the assistance of any hand to come of its own accord out of his Shoe and fling itself to the other side of the Room the other was crawling after it but a Maid espying that with her hand drew it out and it strangely clasp'd and curl'd about her hand like a living Eel or Serpent this is testified by a Lady of considerable Quality too great for exception who was an Eye-witness The same Lady shewed Mr. C. one of the young mans Gloves which was torn in his pocket whilst she was by which is so dexterously tatter'd and so artificially torn that it is conceived a Cutler could not have contrived an Instrument to have laid it abroad so accurately and all this done in the pocket in the compass of one minute It is farther observable that if the aforesaid young man or another person who is a Servant Maid in the house do wear their own Clothes they are certainly torn in pieces on their backs but if the Clothes belong to any other they are not injured after that manner Many other strange and fantastical freaks have been done by the said Daemon or Spirit in the view of divers persons a Barrel of Salt of considerable quantity hath been observed to march from room to room without any human assistance An hand-iron hath seemed to lay it self cross overthwart a pan of Milk that hath been scalding over the fire and two flitches of Bacon have of their own accord descended from the Chimney where they were hung and placed themselves upon the hand-iron When the Spectre appears in resemblance of her own person she seems to be habited in the same cloaths and dress which the Gentlewoman of the house her Daughter-in-Law hath on at the same time Divers times the feet and legs of the young man aforesaid have been so intangled about his Neck that he hath been loosed with great difficulty sometimes they have been so twisted about the frames of Chairs and Stools that they have hardly been set at liberty But one of the most considerable instances of the malice of the Spirit against the young man happened on Easter Eve when Mr. C. the Relator was passing by the door of the house and it was thus When the young man was returning from his Labour he was taken up by the skirt of his doublet by this Female Daemon and carried a heighth into the Air He was soon missed by his Master and some other Servants that had been at labour with him and after diligent enquiry no news could be heard of him until at length near half an hour after he was heard singing and whistling in a bog or quagmire where they found him in a kind of Trance or extatick fit to which he hath sometimes been accustomed but whether before the Affliction he met with from this Spirit I am not certain he was affected much after such sort as at the
time of those Fits so that the people did not give that attention and regard to what he said as at other times but when he returned again to himself which was about an hour after he solemnly protested to them that the Daemon had carried him so high that his Masters house seemed to him to be but as a Hay-cock and that that during all that time he was in perfect sense and prayed to Almighty God not to suffer the Devil to destroy him and that he was suddenly set down in that Quagmire The Workmen found one Shoe on one side of his Masters house and the other on the other side and in the morning espied his Perriwig hanging on the top of a Tree by which it appears he had been carried a considerable heighth and that what he told them was not a Fiction After this it was observed that that part of the young mans Body which had been on the mud in the Quagmire was somewhat benummed and seemingly deader than the other whereupon the following Saturday which was the day before Low-sunday he was carried to Crediton alias Kirton to be bleeded which being done accordingly and the Company having left him for some little space at their return they found him in one of his Fits with his fore-head much bruised and swoln to a great bigness none being able to guess how it happened until his recovery from that Fit When upon enquiry he gave them this account of it That a Bird had with great swiftness and force flown in at the Window with a stone in its beak which it had dashed against his forehead which had occasioned the swelling which they saw The people much wondering at the strangeness of the Accident diligently sought the stone and under the place where he sat they found not such a stone as they expected but a weight of Brass or Copper which it seems the Daemon had made use of on that occasion to give the poor young man that hurt in his fore-head The persons present were at the trouble to break it in pieces every one taking a part and preserving it in memory of so strange an Accident After this the Spirit continued to molest the young man in a very severe and rugged manner often handling him with great extremity and whether it hath yet left its violences to him or whether the young man be yet alive I can have no certain account I leave the Reader to consider of the extraordinary strangeness of the Relation Advertisement THE first of these Apparitions seems to be like that of Mistress Bretton mentioned in Mr. Glanvills sixteenth Relation it came not in a tempestuous boisterous way nor upon an Errand of Vncharitableness but to see the will of the Defunct performed only it left a black Character on the second Wife by which it seems as if there had not been the best accord between them The Female Ghost comes with a great deal of violence and an impetuous Temper as if disgusted for the performance of what the other Spectre enjoined and this seems the more probable if we consider how quickly she gets behind the young man after he had answered the desires of the other Ghost she permits him not to go home in quiet but seizes him as soon as he comes within the verge of the Parish by which it looks as if these Spirits were tyed to some limits or bounds that they cannot pass This Spectrum hath assumed all the shapes actions and ways of operation that we shall find among many and that snatching the young man up in the Air is such an Action as is rarely to be met withal after such a manner unless where Infernal Spirits have immediately acted The whole Narrative of that She-Daemon abounds with a great deal of Malice and a great many ludicrous passages but doubtless were it not for the restraining power of the Almighty the Comical part would soon end in dreadful Tragedy The fifth Relation Being an account of a strange piece of Wâ—thcraft on the body of the Wife of J. H. of Seavington in the County of Somerset and upon her Son about 18 years of Age. THis Woman had been the Wife of a Vicar belonging to the Quire of Winchester and had been very honestly and well educated and lived in good reputation with her first husband and during the time of her Widow-hood when she taught a School of Girles in Winchester which practice she continued in the Country when the Wife of J.H. And lived with him in modest and virtuous manner She was then about 57. Years of Age and had with her a Son by her former husband aged about 17. Years or upward There lived in the village at a house over against this School-Mistress a woman that had been of evil fame among the neighbours and suspected of divers ill practices The first apprehension that she had of any danger from the suspected party was upon this occasion the suspected agent came to the house of the School-Mistress and asked her to lend her a piece of small changing money which she refused to do whereupon the other told her that she knew she had such a piece about her and it should be better if she had lent it to her so she departed from the house muttering In the evening the patient standing at the door of her house saw a monstrous great Toad walking upon all four like a Cat and coming from the house of the supposed directly towards her upon which she retired into the house and desired her husband to get some Instrument wherewithal to dispatch that monstrous vermin as he was coming towards the door he met with it in the entry and before he had the power to strike at it it rusht suddenly into another room and was never seen afterwards That very night the School-Mistriss was taken in a most Tormenting Fit though before she had still been a brisk healthy woman with violent prickings and pains as if her inside had been stuck with pins needles or thorns insomuch that with the great Tortures of her body abundance of blood used to come from her in her Urine which was very observable the first night These Fits seized on her very frequently sometimes twice or thrice in one day sometimes whole days together And it was very observable that just before the coming of her fit there would come into the Room a vast large Cat after that another and so till the number were seven or nine these would crawl about and stick against the walls making a dreadful yelling hideous noise and after they had continued about a quarter of an hour they would suddenly disappear when they were gone a mighty great light like a flash of lightning would strike in at the window and hang about the walls in heaps of light like fire and pass from one room into another for an hour or more at a time and sometimes continued all the night long shining through the Windows into the Street and visible