Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	change_v	countenance_n	great_a	56	3	2.1569	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A17030	The witches of Northampton-shire Agnes Browne. Ioane Vaughan. Arthur Bill. Hellen Ienkenson. Mary Barber. Witches. Who were all executed at Northampton the 22. of Iuly last. 1612.		1612 (1612)	STC 3907; ESTC S115086	12,069	29

to come vnto him to whom bewraying his minde they both ioyned together and bewitched a round ball into the Throat of his Father where it continued a great while his Father not beeing able to speake a word Howbeit the ball was afterwards had out and his Father prooued the principall witnesse against him His Mother for feare of hanging not any hatred or detestation shee bare vnto the sinne many times fainted and would often pitifully complaine vnto her Spirit that the power of the Law would bée stronger then the power of her art and that she saw no other likelihood but that shee should be hanged as her Sonne was like to bee To whom her Spirit answered giuing this sorry comfort that shee should not bee hanged but to preuent that shee should cut her owne throate Shee hearing this sentence and holding it definitiue in great agony and horror of minde and conscience fell a rauing crying out that the irreuocable Iudgement of her death was giuen and that shee was damned perpetually cu●…sing and banning the time wherein shee was borne and the houre wherein she was conceiued Her Neighbours often hearing her bitter execrations bad her call vpon God and to be sorry for the sinnes which shée had committed But shee could in no case endure to heare it And hauing thus for 3. or 4. daies tormented herselfe in this Agony at last she made good the Deuils word and to preuent the Iustice of the Law and to saue the hangman a labour cut her owne throat Her Sonne beeing all this while in prison and hearing of his Mothers death and that his Father was become a witnesse against him was much perplered in his minde that his Mother was dead in whom he most trusted and his Father liuing whom he most feared Howbeit hee stiffly stood still in the deniall of euery thing pleading nothing but his innoceney Notwithstanding that hee had before at vnawares confest that he had certaine Spirits at commaund which béeing imployed would doe any mischiefe to any man woman or child that hée would appointe It said is that hee had thrée Spirits to whom hée gaue thrée speciall names the Diuell himselfe sure was godfather to them all The first hée called Grissill The other was named Ball and the last Iacke but in what at shapes they appeered vnto him I cannot learne For Diuels can appéere both in a bodily shape and vse spéech and conference with men Dur Sauiour saith That a Spirit hath neither flesh nor bones A Spirit hath a substance but yet such as is inuisible whereupon it must néedes bée granted that Deuils in their owne nature haue no bodily shape nor visible forme it is moreouer against the Truth and against Piety to beléeue that Deuils can create or make bodies or change one body into another for those things are proper to God It followeth therefore that whensoeuer they appeare in a visible form it is no more but an apparition and counterfeit sh●…w of a body vnlesse a body be at any time lent them And when they make one body to beare the likenes of another it is but a colour Some man will say what reason is there to shew they can doe so much beeing of an essence inuisible Wee may not stay heere within the limits of our owne reason which is not able to comprehend what way Deuills should be able to worke such operations Wée may not I say measure their power and subtilties in working for our owne capacity and vnderstanding But wée must looke what the Cannon of Scripture doth testify in this behalfe Wée haue manifest proofe that the Deuill can take a bodily shape For when Aaron had cast downe his staffe and it was turned into a Serpent The enchaunters of Egypt cast downe their staues and they became Serpents which was indéed but in shew and appearance which the Deuill made For he deluded the Sences both in hiding the forme of the Staues which indéed were not any way changed As also in making a shew of such bodies as were not This was done openly otherwise it might be thought to be a méere illusion For wée see that men in extreame ●…ickenes thinke they heare a voice and sée a shape which none other in presence either heareth or séeth some are so melancholy that they imagine they heare and sée that which they doe not For Sathan doth so delude the fantasie that the party supposeth that his very outward sences doe perceiue the matter But héere was no such thing All that were with Pharao did thinke ther●… were very Serpents in déede Saning that Moses and Aaron did know it the iugling of the Deuill But to returne to this Arthur Bill Hée miserable man lying in prison from the 29 day of May to the 22 of Iuly following many resorted to him willing him to leaue off all colour and dissimulation and not to suffer his Conscience to double with his Tongue But to cleere his heart and his thoughts before the Maies●…ic of him to whome no secrets are hid That the world might be witnesse of his confession and contrition to pray with him and for him For although hee had wandred and gone astray hée might by his true contrition and their hearty prayers bée brought vnto the fold againe But his Conscience béeing feared and his heart stéeld could receiue no impression but stood like an Image of Adamant more easy to be broken in péeces then bée peirced In this obduracie of mind and Spirit hée continued vntill the ●…ssises where béeing Arraigned for seuerall crimes committed but especially for the Murther of the sayd Martha Aspine contrary to the peace of our Soueraigne Lord the King his Crowne and dygnity hée pleaded to them all not guilty and putting himselfe vpon the Countrey was by them found guilty Uppon the verdict whereof his countenance changed and he cried out that he had now found the Law to haue a Power aboue Iustice for that it had condemned an Innocent It séemes to me that these vilde Spirits which these Witches haue at commaund and by their imployment are suffred to haue power to hurt the bodyes of others haue a greater Power ouer them that set them a worke For they doe not onely féed vppon them participating with the blood of humane flesh for the redemption wherof Christ shed his owne precious blood But it appeares that they haue also power euen ouer their Soules leading them into wandring by-waies and such erroneous Laberinths that in the wilfull obstinacie and peruerse sufferance of their owne minds to stray in this daungerous desart of obduracie they are lost for euer But to conclude with this Arthur Bill that se ill concluded with the world He béeing brought to the place of Execution and standing vppon that fatall stage for offenders pleaded still his innocencie that Authority was turned to Tyranny and Iustice into extreame Iniury to the great wonder and disdaine of all the lookers on Thus with a dissembling Tongue and a corrupted Conscience hee

THE WITCHES OF NORTHAMPTON-SHIRE Witches Agnes Browne Ioane Vaughan Arthur Bill Hellen Ienkenson Mary Barber Who were all executed at Northampton the 22. of Iuly last 1612. LONDON Printed by Tho Purfoot for Arthur Iohnson 1612. THE ARRAIGNment Conuiction and execution of certaine Witches at Northampton the 22. of Iuly last past AMongest the rest of sinnes where-with the perfection of God is most of all displeased in the corruption of man There is none I suppose more distastfull or detestable to his Purity then this damnable and Deuillish sinne of Witchcraft For that it seemes to make an eternall seperation and an irreconciliable diuorce betwixt the pure Mercies of God and the tainted soules of such miserable people Who for the most part as they are of the meanest and the basest sort both in birth and bréeding so are they the most vncapeable of any instruction to the contrary and of all good meanes to reclaime them But as there are many that remaine yet in doubt whether there be any Witches or no or any such spirits who offer their seruice vnto them or rather who by fained seruice doe tyrannize ouer them So to answere their doubts would aske a greater labour and perhaps more art and better experience then I intend or happily can shew Onely this that if neither those confutations that are already learnedly set forth Nor ancient records of the Witches called Druides in old time confinde into the Isle of Man nor the ordinary reportes of the strange mischiefes done by the Witches of Norway might séeme sufficient proofes of this matter Yet mee thinkes that the common experience which our learned and Reuerend Iudges of the Land finde daily in their yéerely Circuites by the conuictions of suth offendors and the plaine and manifest Euidences brought in against them who being in this this kinde dangerously infected haue from time to time stood foorth vpon their Arraignement and as their ●…ues haue béene held to bée the most detestable so their deathes haue béene obserued to proue the most desperate might put it out of question that some such there be abroad in the world who by the damnable practise of Witch-craft haue sold themselues to the Deuils seruies In regard whereof I may conclude that either it must be granted that there are Witches both in name and nature or else the Oppositors that being I suppose more precise then wise standing rather vpon the singularity of their owne opinions then the certainty of Reason or Iudgement must needs doe palpable wrong and open Iniury to the discretions or consciences of our learned Iudges and the power and vertue of our Lawes in the excecution of Iustice making that hated and vnheard off Tyranny which is done by the lawfull power and vertue both of the Soueraigne and Subordinate authority Some doe maintaine but how wisely let the wiser iudge that all Witchcraft spoken of either by holy writers or testified by other writers to haue béene among the heathen or in later daies hath béene and is no more but either méere Cousinage or Collusion so that in the opinion of those men the Deuill hath neuer done nor can do any thing by Witches It may be some will say what hurt can grow from this opinion The hurt that may ensue and grow thereof none can tell that hath not first séene somewhat by experience Wée all sée that one kernell of Wheat béeing sowne a whole eare growes vp and sometimes brings forth an hundreth kernils in it If an error be planted who can tell what increase it may yeild in time The ground doth not bring forth the corne with such increase as the heart of Man doth errors If we draw in one linke of a Chaine anether followes and is by and by in sight which draweth wée knowe not how many after it vntill we sée the last There is no Error that goeth alone or that is not linked vnto another That holy Wrytte therefore which makes the Man of God perfect and perfectly instructed vnto euery good worke must iudge and decide the controuersie in this case Let vs then sticke vnto the same for testimony and proofe What a Witch is and the Antiquity of Witchcraft TO know things aright and perfectly is to know the causes thereof A Definition doth consist of those causes which giue the whole Essence and containe the perfect nature of the thing defined where that is therefore found out there appeares the very cléere light If it be perfect it is much the greater though it be not fully perfect yet it giueth some good light For which respect though I dare not say I can giue a perfect Definition in this matter which is hard to doe euen in knowne things because the Essentiall forme is hard to be found yet I doe giue a Definition which may at the least giue notice and make knowne what manner of Persons they be of whom I am to speake A Witch is one that worketh by the Deuill or by same Deuillish or Curious Art either hurting or healing reuealing things secret or foretelling things to come which the Deuill hath deuised to entangle and snare mens soules withall vnto damnation The Coniurer the Enchaunter the Sorcerer the Deuiner and whatsoeuer other sort there is are indéed compassed within this circle The Deuill doth no doubt after diuers sorts and diuers formes deale in these But no man is able to shew an Essentiall difference in each of them from the rest I hold it no wisedome or labour well spent to trauell much therein One Artificer hath deuised them all They are all to one end and purpose howsoeuer they much differ in outward Rules for practise of them that is little or nothing besides meere delusion Euery Man will confesse that the father of lies is not to be trusted Euery man knowes that all his dooings are hidden vnder coulorable shewss Shall wée then seeke for stedfastnes in his wayes Shall wée be so foolish as to imagine that things are effected by the vertue of words gestures figures or such like All those are doubtlesse but to deceiue and draw men forward and so plung them more déepely into sinnes and errors Touching the Antiquity of Witchcraft wée must néeds confesse that it hath béene of very ancient time because the Scriptures doe testifie so much for in the time of Moses it was very rife in Egipt Neither was it then newly sprong vp beeing common and growne vnto such ripenes among the Nations that the Lord reckoning vp diuers kinds saith that the Gentiles did commit such abhominations for which hée would cast them out before the Children of Israel How long it was before that time cannot for certainty be discussed Sauing that as is sayd it was not young in those daies when Moses wrote If wée mainetaine that it was before the flood there is great reason to iustify the Assertion Wée know that the Deuill was excéeding crafty from the beginning alwaies laboring to seduce and deceiue after the worst manner If