information untill one Mr. Vavasor abandoned her company as either suspicious of her lewd life or distasted with his owne misliking of such base and poore Creatures whom no body loved but the Earles houshold untill the Countesse misconceiving of her daughter Margaret and discoverig some undecencies both in her life and neglect of her businesse discharged her from lying any more in the Castle yet gave her forty shillings a bolster and a mattresse of wooll commanding her to goe home untill the slacknesse of her repayring to the Castle as she was wont did turne her love and liking toward this Honourable Earle and his Family into hate and rancour whereupon despighted to be so neglected and exprobrated by her neighbours for her daughters casting out of doores and other conceived displeasures shee grew past all shame and womanhood and many times cursed them all that were the cause of this discontentment and made her so loathsome to her former familiar friends beneficiall acquaintance When the Devill perceived the in ficious disposition of this wretch and that she and her daughters might easily be made instruments to inlarge his kingdome and be as it were the executioners of his vengeance not caring whether it lighted upon innocents or no hee came more neerer unto them and in plaine termes to come quickly to the purpose offered them his service and that in such a manner as they might easily command what they pleased For hee would attend you in such pretty formes of Dog Cat or Rat that they should neither be terrified nor any body else suspitious of the matter Vpon this they agree and as it should see me give away their soules for the service of such Spirits as he had promised them which filthy conditions were ratified with abominable kisses and an odious sacrifice of blood not leaving out certaine charmes and conjurations with which the Deuill deceived them as though nothing could be done without ceremony and a solemnity of orderly ratification By this time doth Satan triumph and goeth away satisfied to have caught such fish in the net of his illusions By this time are those women Devills incarnate and grow proud againe in their cunning and artificiall power to doe what mischiefe they listed By this time they learne the manner of Incantations Spells and Charmes By this time they kill what Cattell they list and under the covert of flattery and familiar entertainement keepe hidden the stinging Serpent of malice and a venomous inclination to mischiefe By this time is the Earle and his family threatned and must feele the burthen of a terrible tempest which from these womens devilish devises fell upon him he neither suspecting nor understanding the same By this time both himselfe and his honourable Countesse are many times subject to sicknesse and extraordinary convulsions which they taking as gentle corrections from the hand of God submit with quietnesse to his mercy and study nothing more then a glorifie their Creator in heaven and beare his crosses on earth At last as malice increased in these damnable women so his family felt the smart of their revenge and inficious disposition For his eldest Sonne Henry Lord Rosse sickened very strangely and after a while died and his next named Francis Lord Rosse accordingly was severely tormented by them and most barbarously and inhumanely tortured by a strange sickenesse not long after the Lady Katherine was set upon by their dangerous and divellish practises and many times in great danger of life through extreame maladies and unusuall fits Nay as it should seeme and they afterward confessed both the Earle and his Countesse were brought into their snares as they imagined and indeed determined to keepe them from having any more children Oh unheard of wickenesse and mischievous damnation Notwithstanding all this did the noble Earle attend his Majesty both at New-Market before Christmas and at Christmas at Whitehall bearing the losse of his children most nobly and little suspecting that they had miscarried by Witch-craft or such like inventions of the Devill untill it pleased God to discover the villanous practises of these bad women and to command the Devill from executing any further vengeance on innocents but leave them to their shames and the hands of Justice that they might not onely be confounded for their villanous practises but remaine as a notorious example to all ages of his judgement and fury Thus were they apprehended about Christmas and carried to Lincolne Jayle after due examination before sufficient Justices of the Peace and discreet Magistrates who wondered at their audacious wickednesse but Ioan Flower the mother before conviction as they say called for bread and butter and wished it might never goe through her if shee were guilty of that whereupon she was examined so mumbling it in her month never spake more words after but fell downe and died as she was carried to Lincolne Jayle with an horrible excrutiation of soule and body and was buried at Ancaster When the Earle heard of their apprehensions hee hasted downe with his brother Sir George and sometimes examining them himselfe and sometimes sending them to others at last left them to the triall of the Law before the Judges of Assize at Lincolne and so they were convicted of murther and executed accordingly about the 11. of March to the terror of all the beholders and example of such dissolute and abhominable creatures and because yee shall have both cause to glorifie God for this discovery and occasion to apprehend the strangenesse of their lives and truth of their proceedings I thought it both meet and convenient to lay open their owne Examinations and Evidences against one another with the manner of their proceeding and revenges with other particulars belonging to the true and plaine discovery of their villany and Witch-craft The Examination of Anne Baker of Bottesford in the County of Leicester Spinster taken March 1. 1618. by the right Honorable Francis Earle of Rutland Sir George Manners Knight two of his Majesties Iustices of the Peace for the County of Lincolne and Samuel Fleming Doctor of Divinity one of his Majesties Iustices of the Peace for the County of Leicester aforesaid SHee saith That there are foure colours of Planets Blacke Yellew Greene and Blew and that Blacke is alwayes Death and that she saw the Blew Planet strike Thomas Fairebarne the eldest sonne unto William Fairebarne of Bottesford aforesaid by the Pinsold there within the which time the said William Fairebarne did beat her and brake her head whereupon the said Thomas Fairebarne did mend And being asked who did send that Planet answered it was not I. Further she saith That she saw a hand appeare unto her and that shee heard a voyce in the aire said unto her Anne Baker save thy selfe for to morrow thou and thy Master must bee slaine and the next day her Master and she were in a Cart together and suddenly shee saw a flash of fire and shee said her prayers and the fire went
away and shortly after a Crow came and picked upon her cloathes and shee said her prayers againe and bade the Crow goe to whom hee was sent and the Crow went unto her Master and did beat him to death and she with her prayers recovered him to life but he was sicke a fortnight after and saith that if she had not had more knowledge then her Master both hee and shee and all the Cattell had beene slaine Being examined concerning a childe of Anne Stannidge which shee was suspected to have bewitched to death saith the said Anne Stannidge did deliver her childle into her hands and that she did lay it upon her skirt but did no harme unto it And being charged by the mother of the childe that upon the burning of the haire and the pairing of the nailes of the said childe the said Anne Baker came in and set her downe and for one houres space could speake nothing confesseth she came into the house of the said Anne Stannidge in great paine but did not know of the burning of the haire and nailes of the said childe but said shee was so sicke that shee did not know whither she went Being charged that shee bewitched Elizabeth Hough the wife of William Hough to death for that she angred her in giving her almes of her second bread confesseth that shee was angry with her and said she might have given her of her better bread for she had gone too often on her errands but more she saith not This Examinate confesseth that she came to Ioane Gylles house her childe being sicke and that shee intreated this Examinate to looke on her childe and to tell her whether it was forespoken or no and this Examinate said it was forespoken but when the said childe died she cannot tell And being asked concerning Nortley carrying of his childe home unto his owne house where the said Anne Baker was she asked him who gave the said childe that loafe hee told her Anthony Gill to whom this Examinate said he might have had a childe of his owne if hee would have sought in time for it which words she confessed she did speake Being blamed by Henry Mills in this sort A fire set on you I have had two or three ill nights to whom she made answere you should have let me alone then which she confesseth The said Anne Baker March 2. 1618. confesseth before Samuel Fleming Doctor of Divinity that about 3. yeares agoe she went into Northamptonshire and that at her comming backe againe one Peakes wife and Denis his wife of Belvoyre told her that my young L. Henry was dead and that there was a glove of the said Lord buried in the ground and as that glove did rot and wast so did the liver of the said lord rot and wast Further she said March 3 1618. before Sir George Manners Knight and Samuel Fleming Doctor of Divinity that she hath a spirit which hath the shape of a white dogge which she calleth her good spirit Samuel Fleming test The Examination of Ioane Willimot taken the 28. of February in the 16. yeare of the reigne of our Soveraigne Lord Iames over England King c. and over Scotland the 52. before Alexander Amcots Esquire one of his Majistise Iustices of the Peace of the said Parts and County THis Examinat saith That Ioane Flower told her that my Lord of Rutland had dealt badly with her and that they had put away her daughter and that although shee could not have her will of my Lord himselfe yet she had spied my Lords Sonne and had strick on him to the heart And shee saith that my Lords sonne was stricken with a white Spirit and that she can cure some that send unto her and that some reward her for her paines and of some she taketh nothing Shee further saith That upon Friday night last her Spirit came to her and told her That there was a bad woman at Deeping who had given her soule to the Devill and that her said Spirit did then appeare unto her in a more ugly for me then it had formerly done and that it urged her much to give it something although it were but a piece of her girdle and told her that it had taken great paines for her but shee saith that shee would give it nothing and told it that shee had sent it to no place but onely to see how my Lord Rosse did and that her spirit told her that he should doe well The Examination of the said Ioane Willimot taken the second day of March in the yeare above said before the said Alexander Amcots THis Examinate saith That shee hath a Spirit which shee calleth Pretty which was given unto her by William Berry of Langholme in Rutland shire whom she served three yeares and that her Master when hee gave it unto her willed her to open her mouth and hee would blow into her a Fairy which should doe her good and that shoe opened her mouth and he did blow into her mouth and presently after his blowing there came out of her mouth a Spirit which stood upon the ground in the shape and forme of a woman which Spirit did aske of her her soule which shee then promised unto it being willed thereunto by by her Master She further confesseth That she never hurt any body but did helpe divers that sent for her which were stricken or fore-spoken and that her Spirit came weekely to her and would tell her of divers persons which were stricken and fore spoken And she saith That the use which shee had of the Spirit was to know how those did which shee had undertaken to amend and that she did helpe them by certaine prayers which shee used and not by her owne Spirit neither did she imploy her Spirit in any thing but onely to bring word how those did which she had undertaken to cure And she further saith That her Spirit came unto her this last night as shee thought in the forme of a woman mumbling but shee could not understand what it said And being asked whether shee were not in a dreame or slumber when shee thought she saw it she said no and that she was as walking as at this present Alexander Amoors Thomas Robinson test The Examination of Joane Willimot of Goadby in the County of Leicester widow taken the 17. of March 1618. by Sir Henry Hastings Knight and Samuel Fleming Doctor of Divinity two of his Majesites Iustices of the Peace of the said County of Leicester SHe saith That she told one Cookes wife of Stathorne in the said County Labourer that Iohn Patchet might have had his child alive if he would haue sought forth for it in time and if it were not death stricken in her wayes and that Patchets wife had an evill thing within her which should make an end of her and that she knew by her girdle Shee saith further That Gamaliel Greete of Waltham in the said County Shepherd had a Spirit like a white
WITCHCRAFTS Strange and Wonderfull Discovering the damnable practises of seven Witches against the lives of certaine Noble Personages and other of this Kingdome as shall appeare in this lamentable History With an approved triall how to finde out either Witch or any Apprentise to Witch-craft Imprinted at London by M. F. for Thomas Lambert at the Horshooe neere the Hospitall Gate in Smithfield 1635. WITCHCRAFTS Strange and Wonderfull MY meaning is not to make any contentious Arguments about the discourses distinction or definition of Witch-craft the power of Deuills the nature of Spirits the force of Charmes the secrets of Incantation and such like because the Scriptures are full of prohibitions to this purpose and proclaimes death to the presumptuous attempters of the same Besides both Princes yea our owne learned and most judicious King Philosophers Poets Chronologers Historiographers and many worthy Writers have concurred and concluded in this that divers impious and facinorous mischiefes have beene effectuated through the instruments of the deuil by permission of God so that the Actors of the same have carried away the opinion of the world to doe that which they did by Witch-craft or at least to be esteemed Witches for bringing such and such things to passe For howsoever the learned have charactered delinquents in this kinde by titles of sundry sorts and most significant attributes as Pythonissae dealing with artificiall charmes Magi anciently reputed so for extraordinary wisedome and knowledge in the secrets of Simples and Hearbes Chaldei famous for Astronomie and Astrologie Negromancers for practising to raise dead bodies and by them to foretell euents of the earth Geomantici for conversing with Spirits and using Incantations Genethliaci for presuming on the calculating of Nativities or if you will assuming the credit of Figure-casting Ventriloqui for speaking with hollow voyces as if they were possessed with Devills Venefici for dealing with poyson and either killings or curing that way For you must understand however the Professors aforesaid practise murther and mischiefe yet many times they pretend cures and preservation with many others carrying the shew of great learning and admired knowledge yet have they all but one familiar terme with us in English called Witches As for the conceit of Wise-men or Wise-women they are all meerely coseners and deceivers so that if they make you beleeve that by their meanes you shall heare of things lost or stolne it is either done by Confederacie or put off by protraction to deceive you of your money Onely as I said before there bee certaine men and women growne in yeares and over-growne with Melancholie and Atheisme who out of a malicious disposition against their betters or others thriving by them but most times from a heart-burning desire of revenge having entertained some impression of displeasure and unkindnesse studie nothing but mischiefe and exoticke practises of loathsome Arts and Sciences yet I must needs say that sometimes the fained reputation of wisedome cunning and to be reputed a dangerous skilfull person hath so prevailed with divers that they have taken upon them indeed to know more than God ever afforded any creature and to performe no lesse than the Creator both of heaven and earth making you beleeve with Medea that they can raise tempests turne the Sunne into blood pull the Moone out of her Sphere and saile ouer the Sea in a cockell shell according to the Poet Flectere si neueam Superos Acheronta movebo If Art doe faile to move the Gods consent unto my minde I will the Devils raise to doe what they can in their kinde But howsoever speciall persons are transported with an opinion of their owne worth prevailing in this kinde yet by lamentable experience we know too wel what monstrous effects have been produced even to the horror of the hearers and damnation of their owne soules by such kinde of people For as it is in the tale of the envious man that put out one of his eyes to have his companion lose both so fareth it with them and worse to give away their soules to be revenged of their adversaries bodies where in the monstrous subtlety of the Devill is so apparent that it is wonderfull one way to relate and lamentable another way to observe the same For no sooner shall such motives poyson the inward conceit or apprehension of such damnable caitiffes But then steppeth forth the Devill and not onely sheweth them the way but prescribeth the manner of effecting the same with facility and easinesse assuring that bee himselfe Will attend them in some familiar shape of Rat Cat Toad Bird Cricket c. yea effectuate whatsoever they shal demand or desire and for their better assurance and corroboration of their credulity they shall have palpable and forcible touches of sucking pinching kissing closing colling and such like whereupon without any feare of God or man knowledge of Christ hope of redemption confidence of mercy or true beliefe that there is any other thing to be looked after but this present world according to that Atheisticall position of Epicurus Ede bibe lude post mortem nulla voluptas Eat drinke sport play and take thy pleasures rest For after death who knowes what shall be best they admit of those execrable conditions of commutation of soules for the entertaining of the spirits and so fall to their abominable practises continuing in the same till God laugh them to scorne and will by no meanes suffer them to abuse his holy Name nor deceive others by their prophane lives any longer Witnesse for the generall those infinite Treatises of many of them convinced by Law and condemned to death to the fearefull example of all carnall and hypocriticall Christians but more especially you may over-looke if you please that learned Discourse of Daemonology composed in forme of a Dialogue by the high and mighty Prince Iames by the grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland c. and printed as I take it according to the copie of Edenburgh 1603. As also a Treatise of Witch-craft made by that learned Mr. Alexander Roberts Preacher at Kings-Linne in Norfolke 1615 upon the discovery of the Witchcrafts of Mary Smith wife of Henry Smith Glover with her vocall contract between the Devill and her selfe in solemne termes and such like imposturing filthinesse with many hurts and mischiefes which thereby she procured As also a certaine discovery 1611. made by Iohn Cotta Doctor of Physicke in Northampton of Empericks women about sicke persons Quacksalvars and Fugitives which seeme to worke iugling wonders Surgeons Apothecaries practisers by Spels the true discovery of Witch-craft especially in the sicke with many instances of that kinde Wizards and servants of Physicians who may be called ministring helpers To this he hath added the Methodian learned deceiver or heretick physician Astrologers Ephemerides-masters Conjecters by urine Travellers and last of all the true Artist his right description and election As also a Dialogue concerning Witches and Witch-craft composed
Mouse put into him in his swearing and that if hee did looke upon any thing with an intent to hurt it should be hurt and that he had marke on his left arme which was cut away and that her owne Spirit did tell her all this before it went from her Further shee saith That Ioane Flower Margaret Flower and she did meet about a weeke before Ioane Flowers apprehension in Blackborrow hill and went from thence home to the said Ioane Flowers house and there shee saw two Spirits one like a Rat and the other like an Owle and one of them did sucke under her right eare as she thought and the said Ioane told her that her Spirit did say she chould neither be hanged nor burnt Further she saith That the said Ioatie Flower did take up some earth and spit upon it and did worke it with her finger and put it up into her purse and said Though she could not hurt the Lord himselfe yet she had sped his sonne which is dead H. Hastings Samuel Fleming The Examination of Ellen Greene of Stathorne in the County of Leicester taken the 17. of March 1618. by Sir Henry Hastings Knight and Samuel Fleming Doctor of Divinity SHe saith That one Ioane Willimot of Goadby came about sixe yeares since to her in the Wowlds and perswaded this Examinate to forsake God and betake her to the Devill and she would give her two Spirits to which she gave her consent and thereupon the said Ioane Willimot called two Spirits one in the likenes of a Kitlin and the other of a Moldiwarp the first the said Willmot called Pusse the other Hiffe hiffe and they presently came to her and she departing left them with this Examinate and they lept on her shoulder and the Kitlin suckt under her right eare on her necke and the Moldiwarp on the left side in the like place After they had suckt her shee sent the Kitlin to a Baker of that Towne whose name she remembers not who had called her Witch and stricken her and bade her said Spirit goe and bewitch him to death the Moldiwarp she then bade goe to Anne Dawse of the same Towne and bewitch her to death because shee had called this Examinate Witch whore jade c. and within one fortnight after they both died And further this Examinate saith That she sent both her Spirits to Stonesby to one Willison a husband-man and Robert Williman a husbandmans sonne and bade the Kitlin goe to Willison and bewitch him to death and the Moldiwarp to the other and bewitch him to death which they did and within ten dayes they died These foure were bewitched while this Examinate dwelt at Waltham aforesaid About three yeares since this Examinate removed thence to Stathorne where she now dwelt upon a difference betweene the said Willimot and the wife of Iohn Patchet of the said Stathorne Yeoman she the said Willimot called her this Examinate to goe and touch the said Iohn Patchets wife and her childe which she did touching the said Iohn Patchets wife in her bed and the child in the Grace-wifes armes and then sent her said Spirits to bewitch them to death which they did and so the woman lay languishing by the space of a moneth and more for then she died the child died the next day after she touched it And shee further saith That the said Ioane Willimot had a Spirit sucking on her under the left flanke in the likenesse of a little white dogge which this Examinate saith that shee saw the same sucking in Barley-harvest last being then at the house of the said Ioane Willimot And for her selfe this Examinate further saith That she gave her soule the Deuill to have these Spirits at her command for a confirmation whereof she suffered them to sucke her alwayes as aforesaid about the Change and full of the Moone H. Hastings Samuel Fleming The Examination of Philip Flower sister of Margaret Flower and daughters of Ioane Flower before Sir William Pelham and Master Butler Iustices of the Peace February 4. 1618. Which was brought in at the Assizes as evidence against her sister Margaret SHe saith That her mother and her sister maliced the Earle of Rutland his Countesse and cheir children because her sister Margaret was put out of the Ladies service of Laundry and exempted from other services about the house whereupon her said sister by the commandement of her mother brought from the Castle the right hand glove of the Lord Henry Rosse which she delivered to her mother who presently rubd it on the backe of her Spirit Rutterkin then put it into hot boyling water afterward she pricked it often and buried it in the yard wishing the Lord Rosse might never thrive and so her sister Margaret continued with her mother where she often saw the Cat Rutterkin leape on her shoulder and suck her neck Shee further confessed that she heard her mother often curse the Earle and his Lady and thereupon would boyle feathers and blood together using many Devillish speeches and strange gestures The Examination of Margaret Flower SHe saith and confesseth That about foure or five yeare since her mother sent her for the right hand glove of Henry Lord Rosse afterward that her mother bade her goe againe into the Castle of Bever and bring downe the glove or some other thing of Henry Lord Rosse and she askt what to doe Her mother replied to hurt my Lord Rosse whereupon shee brought downe a glove and delivered the same to her mother who stroked Rutterkin her Cat with it after it was dipt in hot water and so prickt it often after which Henry Lord Rosse fell sicke within a weeke and was much tormented with the same Shee further faith That finding a glove about two or three yeares since of Francis Lord Rosse on a dunghill shee delivered it to her mother who put it into hot water and after tooke it out and rubd it on Rutterkin the Cat and bad him goe upwards and after her mother buried it in the yard and said a mischiefe light on him but hee will mend againe Shee further saith That her mother and shee and her sister agreed together to bewitch the Earle and his Lady that they might have no more children and being demanded the cause of their malice and ill-will shee saith that about foure yeares since the Countesse growing into some mislike with her gave her forty shillings a bolster and an attresse and bade her lie at home and come no more to dwell at the Castle which she not onely tooke in ill-part but grudged at it exceedingly swearing in her heart to be revenged After this her mother complained to the Earle against one Peake who had offred her some wrong wherein shee conceived that the Earle tooke not her part as she expected which dislike with the rest exasperated her displeasure against him and so she watched an opportunity to bee revenged whereupon shee tooke wooll out of the said mattresse and a
paire of gloves which were given her by Master Vavasor and put them into warme water mingling them with some blood and stirring it together then shee tooke the wooll and gloves out of the water and rubd them on the belly of Rutterkin her Cat saying the Lord and the Lady should have more children but it would be long first Shee further confesseth that by her mothers commandment she brought to her a piece of a handkerchiefe of the Lady Katherine the Earles daughter and her mother put it into hot water and then taking it out rubd it on Rutterkin bidding him flie and goe whereupon Rutterkin whined and cried Mew whereupon she said that Rutterkin had no power over the Lady Katherine to hurt her Another Examination of Philip Flower before Francis Earle of Rutland Francis Lord Willoughby of Ersby Sir George Manners and Sir William Pelham SHee confesseth and saith That shee hath a Spirit sucking on her in the forme of a white Rat which keepeth her left breast and hath so done for three or foure yeares and concerning the agreement betwixt her Spirit and her selfe shee confesseth and saith That when it came first unto her she gave her soule to it and it promised to doe her good and cause Thomas Simpson to love her if shee would suffer it to sucke her which she agreed unto and so the last time it suckt was on Tuesday at night the 23. of February Margaret Flower at the same time confesseth that she hath two familiar Spirits sucking on her the one white the other blacke spotted the white sucked under her left breast and the blacke spotted within the inward parts of her secrets When shee first entertained them shee promised them her soule and they covenanted to doe all things which shee commanded them c. Shee further saith That about the 30. of Ianuary last past being Saturday foure Devills appeared unto her in Lincolne Jayle at eleven on twelve a clocke at midnight The one stood at her beds feet with a blacke head like an Ape and spake unto her but what she cannot well remember at which she was very angry because hee would speake no plainer or let her understand his meaning the other three were Rutterkin Little Robin and Spirit but she never mistrusted them nor suspected her selfe till then THese Examinations and some others were taken and charily preserved for the contriving of sufficient evidences against them and when the Judges of Assize came downe to Lincolne about the first wecke of March being Sir Henry Hobert Lord chiefe Justice of the Common-Pleas and Sir Edward Bromely one of the Barons of the Exchequer they were presented unto them who not onely wondred at the wickednesse of these persons but were amazed at their practises and horrible contracts with the Devill to damne their owne soules And although the Right Honourable Earle had sufficient griefe for the losse of his children yet no doubt it was the greater to consider the maner and how it pleased God to inflict on him such a fashion of visitation Besides as it amazed the hearers to understand the particulars and the circumstances of this devillish contract was it as wonderfull to see their desperate impenitency and horrible distraction according to the rest of that sort exclaiming against the Devill for deluding them and now breaking promise with them when they stood in most need of his helpe Notwithstanding all these aggravations such was the unparalleld magnanimity wisedome and patience of this generous Noble-man that he urged nothing against them more then their owne confessions and so quietly left them to judiciall triall desiring of God mercy for their soules and of men charity to censure them in their condemnation but God is not mocked and so gave them over to judgement nor man so reformed but for the Earles sake they cursed them to that place which they themselves long before had bargained for What now remaines gentle Reader but for thee to make use of so wonderfull a story and remarkeable an accident out of which to draw to a conclusion thou mayest collect these particulas First that God is the supreame Commander of all things and permitteth wonderfull actions in the World for the triall of the godly the punishment of the wicked and his owne glory of which man shall never attaine to know the reason or occasion Secondly that the Devill is the meere servant and agent of God to prosecute whatsoever he shall command rather then give leave unto limiting him yet thus farre in his owne nature that he can goe no further then the bounds within which he is hedged Thirdly that this God hath punishments ad correctionem that is to say chastisements of the godly Ad ruinam Videlicet judgements against the wicked wherein yet man must disclaime any knowledge and forsake prejudicate opinions For the very just shall be tried like gold and no man exempted from castigation whom God doth love Fourthly that this Devill though hee bee Gods instrument yet worketh altogether by deceit for as he was a lier from the beginning so let no man trust him because hee aimes at the confusion of all mankinde Fifthly that the wicked however they may thriue and prosper for a time yet in the end are sure to be payed home either with punishment in this life or in the life to come or both as a finall reward of menstrous impicty Sixthly that man in his frailty must not presume of prosperity but prepare a kind of stooping under the hand of God when it pleaseth him to strike or punish us Seventhly that there is no murmuring nor repining against God but quietly to tolerate his inflictings whensoever they chance of which this worthy Earle is a memorable example to all men and ages Eightly that the punishments of the wicked are so many warnings to all irregular sinners to amend their lives and avoid the judgement to come by penitency and newnesse of life Ninthly that though man could bee content to passe over blasphemies and offences against the Statutes of Princes yet God will overtake them in their owne walkes and pull them backe by the sleeve into a slaughter-house as here you know the evidences against these people tooke life and power from their owne Confessions Tenthly and last of all that private opinion cannot prevaile against publike censures for here you see the learned and religious Judges cried out with our Saviour Ex ore tuo Therefore though it were so that neither Witch nor Devill could doe these things yet Let not a Witch live saith God and Let them die saith the Law of England that have conversation with spirits and presume to blaspheme the Name of God with spels and incantations O then you sonnes of men take warning by these examples and either divert your steps from the broad way of destruction and irrecoverable gulfe of damnation or with Iosuahs counsell to Achan Blesse God for the discovery of wickednesse and take thy death patiently as the prevention of thy future judgement and saving innocents from punishment who otherwise may be suspected without a cause Vtinam tam facile vera invenire possem quam falsa convincere The triall of a Witch Now as touching the triall and discovery of a Witch then which these cannot be any president more necessary and behoovefull for us there are divers opinions holden As some by the pricking of a sharpe knife naule or other pointed instrument under the stoole or seate on which the Witch sitteth for thereon shee is not able to sit or abide others by scratching or drawing of blood from the Witch by either party that is grieved or the next of blood to the same and others by fire as by burning any relique or principall ornament belonging to the suspected Witch which shall no sooner bee on fire but the Witch will presently come running to behold it and of these trials have beene made both in Hartfordshire Northamptonshire and Huntingtonshire But the onély assured and absolute perfect way to finde her out is to take the Witch or party suspected either to some Mildam Pond Lake or deepe River and stripping her to her smocke tie her armes acrosse onely let her legs have free liberty then fastening arope about her middle which with the helpe of by standers may be ever ready to save her from drowning in case she sinke throw her into the water and if shee swimme aloft and not sincke then draw her foorth and have some honest and discreet women neere which may presently search her for the secret marke of Witches as Teates blood-moales moist warts and the like which found then the second time binding her right thumbe to her left toe and her left thumbe to her right toe throw her into the water againe with the assistance of the former rope to save her if shee should chance to sincke and if then shee swim againe and doe not sincke you may most assuredly resolve she is a Witch and of this many pregnant and true proofes have beene made as namely by one Master Enger of Bedfordshire upon the person of Mary Sutton a notable Witch whom he cast into his Mildam at Milton Mills and found the effect as hath beene declared and for her Witchcraft was there condemned and executed and as this so I could recite a world of others in the same nature But the trueth is so manifest that it needeth no flourish to adorne it FINIS