Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	deny_v	young_a	youth_n	25	3	7.9604	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81077	The kingdom of darkness: or the history of dæmons, specters, witches, apparitions, possessions, disturbances, and other wonderful and supernatural delusions, mischievous feats, and malicious impostures of the Devil Containing near fourscore memorable relations, forreign and domestick, both antient and modern. Collected from authentick records, real attestations, credible evidences, and asserted by authors of undoubted verity. Together with a preface obviating the common objections and allegations of the sadduces and atheists of the age, who deny the being of spirits, witches, &c. With pictures of several memorable accidents. By R. B. Licensed and entred according to order.	R. B., 1632?-1725?; Drapentier, Jan, fl. 1674-1713.	1688 (1688)	Wing C7342; ESTC R224752	121,198	192

before Judge Coniers at Chelmsford July 25. 1645. whereof fourteen were hanged and an hundred more detained in several Prisons in Suffolk and Essex Ibidem p. 22. LXXV NEither were other Countys free from this Hellish contagion many being discovered in Huntingtonshire of whom I shall only give you the confessions of two of the Chief Elizabeth Weed of great Catworth in that County Widdow being examined before Robert Bernard and Nicholas Pedley Esquires Justices of the Peace March 31. 1646. said That about 21 years before as she was one night going to bed there appeared to her 3 Spirits one like a young man the other 2 in the shape of Puppies one white and the other black He that was in the form of a youth spoke to her and demanded Whether she would deny God and Christ which she agreed to The Devil then offered her to do what mischief she should require of him provided she would covenant he should have her Soul after 21 years which she granted She confest further That about a week after at ten a clock at night he came to her with a paper asking whether she were willing to seal the Covenant she said she was then he told her it must be done with her bloud and so prickt her under the left arm till it bled with which he scribled and immediately a great lump of flesh rise on her arm in the same place which increased ever since After which he came to bed and had carnal knowledg of her then and many times afterward The other two Spirits came into the bed likewise and suckt upon other parts of her body where she had Teats and that the name of one was Lilly and the other Priscill One of which was to hurt Man Woman or Child and the other to destroy what Cattel she desired and the young man was to lye with her as he did often And saith that Lilly according to the Covenant did kill the Child of Mr. Henry Bedell of Catworth as she required him to do when she was angry though she does not now remember for what and that about two or three days before she sent him to kill Mr. Bedell himself who returned and said he had no power and that another time she sent the same Spirit to hurt Edward Musgrave of Catworth who likewise returned saying he was not able And that she sent her Spirit Priscill to kill two Horses and two Cows of Mr. Musgraves and Thomas Thorps in that Town which was done accordingly And being askt when the one and twenty years would be out she said To the best of her remembrance about Low Sunday next Being further demanded why she did so constantly resort to Church and to hear the Sermons of Mr. Pool the Minister she said She was well pleased with his preaching and had a desire to be rid of that unhappy burthen which was upon her Witches of Huntington p. 2. LXXVI THE other was one John Winnick of Molesworth in Huntingtonshire who being examined April 11. 1646. before the aforesaid Justices Confessed that about twenty nine years before he being then a Batchelor lived with one Bateman an Inn-keeper at the George in Thropston who was likewise a Farmer at which time he losing a purse with seven shillings in it much suspected one of the Family But the Fryday after being in the Barn making up Hay about noon he fell a swearing cursing and raging wishing that some Wise Body or Wizzard would help him to his Purse and Money again when there presently appeared to him a Spirit black and shaggy with paws like a Bear but no bigger than a Rabbit The Spirit asked him what he ailed to be so sorrowful who answered that he had lost a Purse and Money and knew not how to come by it again The Spirit replyed If you will forsake God and Christ and fall down and worship me for your God I will help you to your Purse and Money again To which he consented and thereupon fell down on his knees and held up his hands Then the Spirit told him that to morrow about the same time he should find his Purse upon the floor where he was making up the Hay and that he would come himself too John Winnick promised the Spirit to meet him there and receive it and would then again worship him And accordingly at the time perfixt he went to the place and found his purse on the floor which having opened he found the seven shillings therein As he was looking into it the Devil again appeared to him and said There is your Purse and Money in it and then Winnick fell down on his knees and said My Lord and God I thank you The Spirit at this time brought with him two other Spirits one like a white Cat and the other like a grey Rabbit both for shape bigness and colour and while he was upon his knees the Bear Spirit spoke to him saying You must worship these two Spirits as you worship me and take them also for your Gods. Whereupon he directed his Body toward them and called them his Lords and Gods. Then the Bear Spirit told him That when he died he must have his Soul whereunto he yielded He likewise told him that they must suck his Body to which he consented but they did not suck at that time The Bear Spirit promised him he should never want Victuals The Cat Spirit that it would hurt Cattle when he would desire it And that like a Rabbit that it would hurt whoever he commanded it The Bear Spirit further told him that it must have some of his bloud wherewith to seal the Covenant whereunto he consented and then it leapt upon his shoulder and prickt him on the head from whence it took bloud after which all three vanisht away Next day about noon these Spirits came to him while he was in the Field and told him they were come to suck of his Body which they did accordingly in the places where upon his being apprehended the marks were found and from that time they came constantly once in twenty four hours sometimes by day but most commonly by night And being demanded what mischief he caused any of his Spirits to do he answered never any only he sent his Bear Spirit to Mr. Says Servant of Molseworth to provoke her to steal Victuals for him out of her Masters house which she did and he received the same The Confessions of these two Persons being so clear and their cursed confederacy with Satan hereby fully discovered they were punisht according to their demerits Ibidem p. 4. LXXVII COrnelius Agrippa the great Magician going one day out of Town from Lorain in Flanders where he dwelt left the Keys of his study with his Wife strictly charging her to let no body go in till his return but it happened that the same day a friend and companion of his came to the house and having long had a desire and curiosity to see some of this Negromancers books

the KINGDOM of Darknes THE KINGDOM OF Darkness OR The History of Daemons Specters Witches Apparitions Possessions Disturbances and other wonderful and supernatural Delusions Mischievous Feats and Malicious Impostures of the Devil Containing near Fourscore memorable Relations Forreign and Domestick both Antient and Modern Collected from Authentick Records Real Attestations Credible Evidences and asserted by Authors of Undoubted Verity Together with a Preface obviating the common Objections and Allegations of the Sadduces and Atheists of the Age who deny the Being of Spirits Witches c. With Pictures of several memorable Accidents By R. B. Licensed and Entred according to Order LONDON Printed for Nath. Crouch at the Bell in the Poultrey near Cheapside 1688. THE PREFACE Obviating the Common Objections and Arguments against the Being of Spirits Witches c. THE Atheists and Sadduces of this Age like some of the Antient Heathens have thought it a great piece of wit to deny the Being of Spirits and that all stories concerning them are either fabulous or to be ascribed to Natural Causes which fond opinion many Learned men have sufficiently confuted and as the examples of former ages and places so the prodigious accidents that have happened in our times in several parts of the World make it manifest beyond contradiction that there are Devils infesting the lower World besides the evidence of Script which is fully convictive to all sober Christians Though yet it must be granted the power of God dot● so limit and restrain their malice that they c●● hurt no man nor any other creature much les● any that worship him in truth without permission from him who is God over all the Earth An● as there are many dreadful instances to evinc● the truth hereof so Satans possessing the bodies 〈◊〉 men and acting wonderfully in them is a grea● confirmation thereof Though it must be grante● that it is sometimes very hard to distinguish between natural diseases and Diabolical possessions there having been found a very near resemblance And therefore some Authors have mentioned certain signs whereby this Infernal Possession is to be distinguished from any other Malady As the revealing secret things past or t● come which without some supernatural assistanc● could not be discovered To speak with strang● Languages or discover Skill in Arts or Science never learned by them To carry burdens o● perform other matters far beyond human strength To utter words or be heard speaking and ye● their lips and tongues not to have any motion To have their bodies become inflexible neithe● to be bended backward nor forward with th● greatest force The Belly to be suddenly puft up to fall instantly flat again These among other are thought to be Arguments of a Person possesse● with an evil Spirit though very worthy Divines suppose upon Scripture grounds that men may be demoniacal when none of the aforementioned particulars happen to them and that those of whom we so of tread in the New Testament were of this kind and the Jews were of that opinion as is evident by that expression of 〈…〉 10.20 He hath a Devil and is mad and in St. Matt. 17. We read of one that was Lunatick and did oft fall into the Fire and oft into the Water Now that he was a person possessed is clear from verse 18. where it is said Jesus rebuked the Devil and he departed out of him And of the same person it is said St. Luke 9.39 A Spirit taketh him and teareth him It has been commonly thought that in our Savionrs time more persons were possessed with evil Spirits than ever before or since which if it had been true it is very probable some Jewish Historians would have recorded it as a thing strange and extraordinary but since no such observation was made we have no reason to believe it But though some will acknowledge the being of Spirits and that the bodies of men and women are actually possessed by them yet they will not believe there are any such desperate creatures as Witches or persons really confederate with the Devil and several Authors have to fidently affirmed that never any did maintain that familiarity with Evil Spirits which is usually discourst of It must be granted that many things have been judged to proceed from Witchercraft when it has not been so The Antipathies and Sympathies of nature the Sympathetick powder made without any Magical Ceremonies have been suspected of Witchcraft and by natural ma●●●● 〈…〉 the Secrets of Nature ignorant men may be made to believe the assistance of a Supernatural Power It is likewise as true that a multitude of Lyes and Fables are reported of these Familiarities with Devils and matters done by his help which are beyond the power of creatures to accomplish What Stories are related of Incubi and Succubae and of men begotten by Devils not but that the Devil may so delude the fancy of the Witch of which we shall give instances that she may really think she has carnal and cursed commerce with them nor is it impossible for him to assume a deadbody or to form a lifeless one out of the elements and therewith to debauch his forlorn Votaries though to imagine Spirits can really generate bodies is irrational There have indeed been some men in the World reported to have been thus born as the inhabitants of the Isle of Cyprus Arcturus and our British Merlin also Homer Aeneas Hercules and Alexander the great but it is altogether inconsistent with reason since it is acknowledged by all he cannot bring forth a perfect animal much less man the most noble creature of the whole creation It is altogether as false and vain which yet some grave Authors have related that Witches can transform themselves or others into other sort of Creatures as Horses Wolves Cats Mice and the like it being beyond the power of all the Devils in Hell to cause such a Transformation who are no more able to effect it than they can be the Authors of any true miracle not but that in this case likewise the Devil may so impose upon the imagination of Witches as to make them believe they are transformed into Beasts of which the following relations will give some account from whence some Persons of worth have been inclined to question whether there were any Person ever really confederate with Infernal Spirits or no. Though there are many evincing Arguments to prove the truth thereof Especially those taken from the holy Scriptures where Witchcrafts are oft forbidden and particular mention is made of many who used those cursed Arts and familiaritis with the Devil as Jannes and Jambres Baalam Manasseh Simon Elymas c. Nor are the reasons deduced from the history of the Witch of Endor sufficiently confuted by these Advocates for Witches by pretending that the Witches and familiar Spirits spoken of in holy writ were only Juglers or those who by Legerdemain could do strange seats of activity since the divine Law requires such should be cut off by

wickedness and madness and wish●ing the Witch might be repreived The Witch boast●ed to Mr. Tuckers Clark she had a purse hung about ●her neck in a green string wherewith she could do many feats and that if they would give her half a Dozen of Ale she would make a Toad leap out of it She confessed to Mr. Langley of Salisbury that she lived with Doctor Lamb and learned the art of raising Spirits from him and that she could cure diseases by charms and spells and discover stoln goods and shew any one the Theif in a glass and he asking her for the Red book half writ over with bloud being a List of the names of those that had sealed to the Devil she denied not the knowledg of the book but said it was with one in Hampshire she also professed that she used many good Prayers and said the Creed backward and forward and prayed to the Planet Jupiter for the cure of diseases She also acknowledged she had a book of Charms whereby she raised Spirits which was worth thousands of other books and that there was a particular charm in it for finding a hidden Treasure She affirmed she was sure there were Spirits to be raised and that there was no hurt in them since they would keep people from harm At the Jayl and before the Judges she was searcht and there was found on her shoulder a certain Mark or Yeat about the bigness of a womans nipple hollow and soft with a hole in the top The Powder aforementioned was likewise shown there with the peice of money that the Spirit bit and the Witch gave to the Maid The hole also in the Maids finger was then shown out of which the bloud was squeezed It was observed that when the Maid recovered out of her Fits the Spectators saw a black shade come from her whereupon she presently came to her self Notwithstanding these and many more plain and evident circumstances some Persons had the confidence to affirm that Ann Bodenham was no Witch because she denied it to the last though the Maid swore the whole truth as it was even to the hazard of her own life which the Witch indeed denies fo● the saving of hers and 't is no wonder that one who would bid a pox on the Hangman when he asked her to forgive him at her death should lye and impudently deny any thing to save her own life To conclude there being so many circumstances which do fully evince her to be a Witch and that she had the power of raising Spirits and doing several other Supernatural Actions it cannot but gain full assent from any man whom prejudice and obstinacy has not utterly blinded that what the Maid confessed concerning her self and the Witch is most certainly true She was executed at Salisbury in 1653. Edn. Bowyers Narrative III. IN 1642. One Mother Jackson was Arraigned and Condemned at Newgate in London for bewitching one Mary Glover a Merchants Daughter in Thames-street whereupon one Dr. Bancroft informed the then L. C. Justice that Mother Jackson was wronged and that the Maid did counterfeit who thereupon ordered Sir J. Crook then Recorder of London to make tryal of them at his Chamber in the Temple The Maid being sent for came with her Mother and several Neighbours and an hour after the Witch was brought in disguise like a Countrey Market-woman with a muffler about her face an old hat and a safeguard spattered with dirt when she entred the Chamber the Maid suddenly fell backward upon the floor her eyes sunk into her head her tongue was drawn to her throat and her mouth drawn up to her ears her body became stiff and senseless Her lips being close shut an audible voice came out of her Nostrils saying Hang her hang her The Recorder then called for a Candle and a sheet of paper which being lighted he held the flame to her hand till it blistred the blister broke and water came out which dropt on the floor the Maid lying senseless like a dead body with the voice still coming out of her Nostrils saying hang her hang her Then the Recorder called for a long pin which he held in the flame of the Candle till it was very hot and thrust the head of it into her Nostrils to try if that would make her sneeze wink bend her brows or stir her head but nothing moved her lying still as dead A Worthy Divine then present told the Recorder that he had often pray'd with the Maid and when he concluded with the Lords Prayer as soon as he pronounced that Petition but deliver us from evil the Maid was tost and shaken as a Mastiff Dog worries a little one Then the Recorder bid the Witch rehearse the Lords Prayer which she did till she came to those words but deliver us from evil which she skipt over and would by no means be brought to say Then they bid her say the Creed which she did till she came to Jesus Christ our Lord but would by no means be brought to confess that Jesus Christ was our Lord The Minister told the Recorder that when the Maid was in these dead senseless Fits if the Witch did but lay her hand upon her she was tost and thrown toward her Who thereupon caused her to be taken up and laid upon a bed close covered especially her head and face because she should neither hear nor see Then he made signs to the Women to stand round about the bed and that the Witch should stand among them and that every one should softly lay their hand on her which they did and the Maid did not stir till the Witch laid her hand upon her for then all the cloths were thrown off and the Maid tossed toward her Whereupon the Recorder looking upon the Witch said Lord have mercy upon thee Woman and sent her back to Newgate As soon as she was gone the voice that came out of the Maids nostrils ceased and she came to her self and went home to her Mother About three weeks or a month after the Witch was condemn'd the Maid continued every second day in most strange and dreadful Fits and Torments Whereupon several Ministers and other Christians met together to pray for her when on a sudden after a terrible conflict which so much amazed some that they cried out with a confused noise Jesus help Jesus save the Maid started up out of a wicker Chair wherein she sate and by main strength lifted up one of the Ministers with her who kneeled behind and held her in his Arms and threw white froth out of her throat and mouth round about the Chamber and on a sudden fell down into the Chair as one really dead with her head hanging on one side her neck and arms limber though before as stiff as if frozen presently after life returned into her whole body and her eyes and tongue came into their right place She then looked up with a cheerful countenance round the Chamber and with