true this is a great Presumption yet is this but a Presumption because this is only the Devils Testimony who can lie and that more often than speak Truth Christ would not allow his Witness of him in a point most true nor St. Paul in the due Praises of him and Sylas his Witness then may not be received as sufficient in case of ones Life He may accuse an Innocent as I shewed before in Mr. Edmund's giving over his Practice to find Stollen Goods and Satan we read would accuse Job to God himself to be an Hypocrite and to be ready to be a Blasphemer and he is called the Accuser of the Brethren Albeit I cannot deny but this has very often proved true yet seeing the Devil is such an one as you heard Christian Men should not take his Witness to give in Verdict upon Oath and so swear that the Devil has therein spoken the Truth be it far from good men to confirm any Word of the Devil by Oath if it be not an evident Truth without the Devil's Testimony who in speaking the Truth has a lying Intent and speaks some Truths of things done which may be found to be so that he may wrap with them some pernicious Lye which cannot be tried to be true but must rest upon his own testimony to ensnare the Blood of the Innocent Thus Mr. Bernard resolved the Case above sixty Years ago and truly in my Opinion like a Wise and Orthodox Divine what he says reacheth both this and the former Case Dr. Cotta a Learned Physician in his Book about The Tryal of Witchcraft showing the true and right Method of the Discovery with a Confutation Erroneous ways which Book he dedicates to the Right Honourable Sir Edward Cook Lord Chief Justice of England He discourses concerning Exploration of Witches by the touch of the Witch curing the touched bewitched and sheweth the Fallibility and Vanity of that way of Tryal tho' he had often seen Persons bewitched in that way immediately delivered from the present Fit or Agony which was upon them But he taketh it to be a Diabolical Miracle He argueth thus No Man can doubt but that the Vertue wherewith this touch was indued is supernatural If it be so How can Man to whom nothing is simply possible that is not natural be justly reputed an Agent therein If he cannot be esteemed in himself any possible or true Agent then it remaineth that he can only be interessed therein as an Accessary in Consent or as a Servant unto a Superior Power If that Superior Power be the Devil the least reasonable doubt whether the Devil alone or with the Consent or Contract of the suspected Person has produced that wonderful effect with what Religion or Reason can any Man incline rather to credit the Devil's mouth in the Bewitched than to pity the Accused and believe them against the subtilty of a deceitful Devil If the Devil by Divine Permission may cause supernatural Concomitances and Consequences to attend the natural Actions of Men without their allowance as is manifest in possessed Persons how is it reasonable and just that the Impositions of the Devil should be imputed unto any Man And saith he God forbid that the Devil's Signs and Wonders nay his Truths should become any legal Allegations or Evidences in Law We may therefore conclude it unjust that the forenamed miraculous Effect by the Devil wrought and imputed by the Bewitched should be esteemed an infallible mark against any Man as therefore convinced for that the Devil and the Bewitched have so decyphered him Thus that Learned Man But to the Case in hand I have several things to offer 1. It is possible that the Persons in Question may be possessed with Cacodaemons That bewitched Persons are many times really possessed with evil Spirits is most certain And as Mr. Perkins observes no Man can prove but that Witchcraft might be the Cause of many of those Possessions which we read of in the Gospel And that Devils have been immitted into the Bodies of miserable Creatures by Magicians and Witches Histories and Experience do abundantly testifie Hierom relates concerning a certain Virgin that a young Man whose Amours she despised prevailed with a Magician to send an evil Spirit into her by means whereof she was strangely besotted 'T is reported of Simon Magus that after he had used an Hellish Sacrifice to be revenged of some that had called him a great Witch he caused infernal Spirits to enter into them Many confessing Witches have acknowledged that they were the Cause of such and such Persons being possessed by evil Angels as Thyaeus and others have observed Now no Credit ought to be given to what Daemons in such as are by them obsessed shall say Our Saviour by his own unerring Example has taught us not to receive the Devil's Testimony in any thing The Papists are justly condemned for bringing Diabolical Testimony to confirm the Principles of their Religion Peter Cotton the Jesuite enquired of the Devil in a possessed Person what was the clearest Scripture to prove Purgatory At the time when Luther died all the possessed People in the Netherlands were quiet The Devils in them said the Reason was because Luther had been a great Friend of theirs and they owed him that respect as to go as far as Germany to attend his Funeral Another time when there was a talk of some Ministers of the Reformed Religion the Devils in the Obsessed laughed and said they were not at all afraid of them for the Calvinists and they were very good Friends The Jesuits insult with these Testimonies as if they were Divine Oracles But the Father of Lyes is never to be believed He will utter twenty great truths to make way for one lye He will accuse twenty Witches if he can but thereby bring one innocent Person into trouble He mixeth Truths with Lyes that so those truths giving credit unto lyes Men may believe both and so be deceived And whereas some say that the Persons in question are only bewitched and not possessed let it be considered that possessed Persons are called Energumens from EPLOMAI Agitor They whose Bodies are prenaturally agitated so as to be in danger of being thrown into the Fire or into the Water though they may be bewitched are undoubtedly possessed with Daemons Mark 9. 22 25. Learned Men give it as a most certain sign of Possession when the afflicted Party can see and hear that which no one else can discern any thing of and when they can discover secret things Acts 6. 16. past or future as a possessed Person in Germany foretold the War which broke out in the Year 1546. And when the Limbs of miserable Creatures are bent and disjointed so as could not possible be without a Luxation of Joints were it not done by a preternatural Hand and yet no hurt raised thereby that argueth Possession Also when Persons are by the Devil cast into
instructed him only he would not attend his Instructions how to make a Magical Glass which should represent any Person or thing according as he should desire If a Magician by an Inchanted Glass can do this he may as well by the help of a Daemon cause false Idaeas of Persons and Things to be impressed on the Imaginations of bewitched Persons the Blood and Spirits of a Man that is bitten with a Mad-Dog are so envenomed as that strange Impressions are thereby made on his Imagination let him be brought into a Room where there is a Looking-Glass and he will if put upon it not only say but swear that he sees a Dog tho' in truth there is no Dog it may be within 20 Miles of him and is it not then possible for the Dogs of Hell to poyson the Imaginations of miserable Creatures so as that they shall believe and swear that such Persons hurt them as never did so I have heard of an Inchanted Pin that has caused the Condemnation and Death of many scores of innocent Persons There was a notorious Witchfinder in Scotland that undertook by a Pin to make an infallible Discovery of suspected Persons whether they were Witches or not if when the Pin was run an Inch or two into the Body of the accused Party no Blood appeared nor any sense of Pain then he declared them to be Witches by means hereof my Author tells me no less then 300 persons were Condemned for Witches in that Kingdom This Bloody Jugler after he had done enough in Scotland came to the Town of Berwick upon Tweed an honest Man now living in New-England assureth me that he saw the Man thrust a great Brass Pin two Inches into the Body of one that some would in that way try whether there was Witchcraft in the Case or no the accused Party was not in the least sensible of what was done and therefore in danger of receiving the Punishment justly due for Witchcraft only it so happened that Collonel Fâ—nwick that worthy Gentleman who many years since lived in New-England was then the Military Governour in that Town he sent for the Mayor and Magistrates advising them to be careful and cautious in their proceedings for he told them it might be an Inchanted Pin which the Witch-finder made use of Whereupon the Magistrates of the place ordered that he should make his Experiment with some other Pin as they should appoint But that he would by no means be induced unto which was a sufficient Discovery of the Knavery and Witchery of the Witch-finder There is a strange Diabolical Energy goeth along with Incantations If Balak had not known that he would not have sent for Balaam to see whether he could inchant the Children of Israel The Scripture intimates that Inchantments will keep a Serpent from biting Eccles 10. 11. A Witch in Sweedland confessed that the Devil gave her a wooden Knife and that if she did but touch any living thing with that Knife it would die immediately And that there is a wonderful Power of the Devil attending things inchanted we have confirmed by a prodigious Instance in Major Wein a Scotch Man That wretched Man was a perfect Prodigy a Man of great Parts esteemed a Saint yet lived in secret Uncleanness with his own Sister for thirty four Years together After his wickedness was discovered he did not seem to be troubled at any of his Crimes excepting that he had caused a poor Woman to be publickly whipped because she reported that she had seen him committing Bestiality which thing was true only the Woman could not prove it This horrid Creature if he had his Inchanted Staff in his Hand could pray to admiration and do extraordinary things as is more amply related in the Postscript to Mr. Sinclares his Book before mentioned But if he had not his Inchanted Rod to lean upon he could not transform himself into an Angel of Light But by all these things we may conclude that it is not impossible but that a guilty Conjurer that so he may render himself the less suspected may by his Magical Art and Inchantment cause innocent Persons to be represented as afflicting those whom the Devil and himself are the Tormentors of Arg. 5. The Truth we affirm is so evident as that many Learned and Judicious Men have freely subscribed unto it The memorable Relation of the Devils assuming the shape of an innocent Citizen in Zurick is in the Judgment of that great Divine Lud Levater of weighty Consideration And he declares that he does therefore mention it that so Judges might be cautelous in their Proceedings in Cases of this nature inasmuch as the Devil does often in that way intangle innocent Persons and bring them into great Troubles His Words are Hanc Historiam ideo recito ut Judices in hujusmodi Casibus cauti sint Diabolus enim hac via sape innocentibus insidiatur He confirms what he saith by reciting a Passage out of Alertus Granzius who writes that the Devil was seen in the shape of a Nobleman to come out of the Empress's Chamber But to clear her Innocency she according to the superstitious Ordeals then in fashion walked blinfold over a great many of glowing hot Irons without touching any of them Voetius in his Disputation of Spectres proposeth that Question whether the Devil may not untruly personate a Godly Man and answers in the Affirmative And withal adds that it is a sufficient Argument ad hominem to answer the Papists with their own Histories which give Instances of Satan's appearing in the Figure of Saints nay of Christ himself And in his Discourse concerning the Operations of Daemons he has the like Problem whether the Devil may not possibly put on the shape of a true Believer a real Saint not only of such as are dead but still living and answers Quidni Why not It is true Popish Casuists do generally incline to the Negative in this Question Nevertheless the Instance of Germanus who saw a Company of honest People represented by the Devil as if they had been feasting together when they were really asleep in their Beds does a little puzzle them so as that they are necessitated to take up with this Conclusion That by an extraordinary Permission of God innocent Persons may be represented by Satan in the Noctural Conventicles of Witches And if so much more as afflicting bewitched Persons Delrio giveth an account of an innocent Monk whose Reputation was indangered by a Daemon's appearing in his shape He writes more like a Divine than Jesuits use to do when he saith that It is not absolutely to be denied but that the Devils may exhibite the Forms of innocent Persons if God permit it who when he does permit it usually by some Providence discovers the Fraud of the Devils that so the Innocent may be vindicated or if not it is to bring them to repentance for some Sin or to try their Patience It is rare
of him which is but an harder kind of touch But as for this Mr. Perkins doubts not to call it a Practice of Witchcraft It is not safe to meddle with any of the Devils Sacraments or Institutions For my own part I should be loath to say to a Man that I knew or thought it was a Witch do you look on such a Person and see if you can Witch them into a Fit and there is such an afflicted Person do you take them by the Hand and see if you can Witch them well again If it is by vertue of some Contract with the Devil that Witches have Power to do such things it is hard to conceive how they can be bid to do them without being too much concerned in that Hellish Covenant I take it to be as elsewhere I have expressed a solid Principle which the Learned Sâ—nnertus insists on viz. That they who force another to do that which he cannot possibly do but by vertue of a Compact with the Devil have themselves implicitely Communion with the Diabolical Covenant The Devil is pleased and honoured when any of his Institutions are made use of this way of discovering Witches is no better than that of putting the Urine of the afflicted Person into a Bottle that so the Witch may be tormented and discovered The Vanity and Superstition of which practice I have formerly shewed and testified against There was a Conjurer his name was Edward Drake who taught a Man to use that Experiment for the Relief of his afflicted Daughter who found benefit thereby But we ought not to practice Witchcrafts to discover Witches nor may we make use of a White healing Witch as they call them to find out a Black and Bloody one And how did men first come to know that Witches would be discovered in such ways as these which have been mentioned If Satan himself were the first Discoverer as there is reason to believe the experiment must needs have deceit in it See Dr. Willet on Exod. 7. Quest 9. And such Experiments better become Pagans or Papists than Professors in New England whereas 't is pleaded that such things are practised by the Judges of the Imperial Chamber I reply that those Judges as Bodia relates Lib. 3. Daemon Cap. 6. have required suspected Witches to pronounce over the afflicted persons these words I bless thee in the Name of the Father c. upon which they have immediately recovered but is the dark day come upon us that such Superstitions as these shall be practised in New-England The Lord Jesus forbid it See Baldwin's Testimony against the Practice of the Camera Imperialis Cas Consc L. 3. c. 3. p. 634. 5. If the Testimony of a bewitched or possessed Person is of Validity as to what they see done to themselves then it is so as to others whom they see afflicted no less than themselves But what they affirm concerning others is not to be taken for Evidence Whence had they this Supernatural Sight It must needs be either from Heaven or from Hell If from Heaven as Elisha's Servant and Balaam's Ass could discern Angels let their Testimony be received But if they had this Knowledge from Hell tho' there may possibly be truth in what they affirm they are not legal Witnesses For the Law of God allows of no Revelation from any other Spirit but himself Isa 8. 19. It is a Sin against God to make use of the Devil's help to know that which cannot be otherwise known And I testifie against it as a great Transgression which may justly provoke the Holy One of Israel to let loose Devils on the whole Land Luke 4. 35. See Mr. Bernard's Guide to Juries in Cases of Witchcraft p. 136 137 138. And Brochmand Theol. de Angelis p. 227. Altho' the Devil's Accusations may be so far regarded as to cause an enquiry into the truth of things Job 1. 11 12. 2. 5 6. yet not so as to be an Evidence or Ground of Conviction The Persons concerning whom the Question is see things through Diabolical Mediums on which account their Evidence is not meer humane Testimony and if it be in any part Diabolical it is not to be owned as Authentick for the Devil's Testimony ought not to be received neither in whole nor in part I am told by credible Persons who say it is certainly true that a bewitched Person has complained that she was cast into Fits by the Look of a Dog and that she was no more able to bear the sight of that Dog than of the Person whom she accused as bewitching her And that thereupon the Dog was shot to death This Dog was no Devil for then they could not have killed him I suppose no one will say that Dogs are Witches It remains then that the casting down with the Look is no infallible sign of a Witch 8 It has always been said that it is a difficult thing to find out Witches But if the Representation of such a Person as afflicting or the Look or Touch be an infallible proof of the guilt of Witchcraft in the Persons complained of 't is the easiest thing in the World to discover them for it is done to our hand and there needs no enquiry into the Matter 9. Let them say this is an infallible Proof produce any Word out of the Law of God which does in the least countenance that Assertion The Word of God instructs Jurors and Judges to proceed upon clear humane Testimony Deut. 35. 30. But the Word no where giveth us the least Intimation that every one is a Witch at whose look the bewitched Person shall fall into Fits nor yet that any other means should be used for the discovery of Witches than what may be used for the finding out of Murderers Adulterers and other Criminals 10. Sometimes Antipathies in Nature have strange and unaccountable Effects I have read of a Man that at the sight of his own Son who was no Wizzard would fall into Fits There are that find in their Natures an averseness to some Persons whom they never saw before of which they can give no better an account than he in Martial concerning Sabidius Non Amo te Sabidi nec possum dicere quare That some Persons at the sight of Bruit-Creatures Cats Spiders c. Nay at the sight of Cheeses Milk Apples will fall into Fits is too well known to be denied Pensingius in his Learned Discourse De Pulvere Sympathatico p. 128. saith there was one in the City of Groning that could not bear the sight of a Swine's Head And that he knew another who was not able to look on the Picture thereof Amatus Lusitanus speaks of one that at the sight of a Rose would swoon away This proveth that the falling into a Fit at the sight of another is not always a sign of Witchcraft It may proceed from Nature and the Power of Imagination To conclude Judicious Casuists have determined that to make use of
ordered to be on the Monday following she desired to speak with a Minister to whom she declared freely that she was guilty of Witchcraft acknowledging also many other Crimes committed by her desiring that she might die with the rest She said particularly that she had Covenanted with the Devil and was become his Servant about twenty years before and that he kissed her and gave her a Name but that since he had never owned her Several Ministers who were jealous that she accused herself untruly charged it on her Conscience telling her that they doubted she was under a Temptation of the Devil to destroy her own Body and Soul and adjuring her in the Name of God to declare the Truth Notwithstanding all this she stifly adhered to what she had said and was on Monday morning Condemned and ordered to be Executed that day When she came to the place of Execution she was silent until the Prayers were ended then going to the Stake where she was to be Burnt she thus expressed herself All you that see me this day Know ye that I am to die as a Witch by my own Confession and I free all Men especially the Ministers and Magistrates from the guilt of my Blood I take it wholly on my self and as I must make answer to the God of Heaven I declare I am as free from Witchcraft as any Child but being accused by a Malicious Woman and Imprisoned under the Name of a Witch my Husband and Friends disowned me and seeing no hope of ever being in Credit again through the Temptation of the Devil I made that Confession to destroy my own Life being weary of it and chusing rather to Die than to Live This her lamentable Speech did astonish all the Spectators few of whom could refrain from Tears The Truth of this Relation saith my Author is certainly attested by a worthy Divine now living who was an Eye and an Ear-Witness of the whole matter but thus did that miserable Creature suffer Death and this was a just Execution When the Amalakite confessed that he killed Saul whom he had no legal Authority to meddle with although 't is probable that he belyed himself David gave order for hiis Execution and said to him Thy Blood be upon thy Head for thy Mouth hath Testified against thee 2 Sam. 1. 16. But as for the Testimony of Confessing Witches against others the case is not so clear as against themselves they are not such credible Witnesses as in a Case of Life and Death is to be desired It is beyond dispute that the Devil makes his Witches to dream strange things of themselves and others which are not so There was as Authors beyond Exception relate in appearance a sumptuous Feast prepared the Wine and Meat set forth in Vessels of Gold a certain Person whom an amorous young Man had fallen in Love with was represented and supposed to be really there but Apollonius Tyanaeus discovered the Witchery of the Business and in an instance all vanished and nothing but dirty Coals were to be seen The like to this is mentioned in the Arausican Council There were certain Women that imagined they road upon Beasts in the Night and that they had Diana and Herodius in company with them besides a Troop of other Persons the Council giveth this Sentence on it Satanas qui se transfigurat in Angelum Lucis transformat se in diversarum personarum species mentem quam captivam tenet in somnis deludit Satan transforms himself into the likeness of divers Persons and deludes the Souls that are his Captives with Dreams and Fancies see Dr. Willet on 1 Sam. 28. p. 165. What Credit can be given to those that say they can turn Men into Horses If so they can as well turn Horses into Men but all the Witches on Earth in Conjunction with all the Devils in Hell can never make or unmake a rational Soul and then they cannot transform a Bruit into a Man nor a Man into a Bruit so that this Transmutation is fantastical The Devil may and often does impose on the Imaginations of his Witches and Vassals that they believe themselves to be be Converted into Beasts and reverted into Men again as Nebuchadnezzar whilst under the Power of a Daemon really imagined himself to be an Ox and would lye out of Doors and eat Grass The Devil has inflicted on many a Man the Disease called Lycanthropia from whence they have made lamentable Complaints of their being Wolves In a word there is no more Reality in what many Witches confess of strange things seen or done by them whilst Satan had them in his full Power than there is in Lucian's ridiculous Fable of his being Bewitched into an Asse and what strange Feats he then played so that what such persons relate concerning Persons and Things at Witch-meetings ought not to be received with too much Credulity I could mention dismal Instances of Innocent Blood which has been shed by means of the Lies of some Confessing Witches there is a very sad Story mentioned in the Preface to the Relation of the Witchcrafts in Sweedland how that in the Year 1676 at Stockholm a young Woman accused her own Mother who had indeed been a very bad Woman but not guilty of Witchcraft and Swore that she had carried her to the Nocturnal Meetings of Witches upon which the Mother was burnt to Death Soon after the Daughter came crying and howling before the Judges in open Court declaring that to be revenged on her Mother for an Offence received she had falsely accused her with a Crime which she was not guilty of for which she also was justly Executed A most wicked Man in France freely confessed himself to be a Magician and accused many others whose Lives were thereupon taken from them and a whole Province had like to have been ruined thereby but the Impostor was discovered The Confessing pretended Wizzard was burnt at Paris in the year 1668. I shall only take notice further of an awful Example mentioned by A. B. Spotswood in his History of Scotland p. 449. His words are these This Summer viz. Anno 1597. there was a great business for the Tryal of Witches amongst others one Margaret Atkin being apprehended on suspicion and threatned with Torture did confess herself Guilty being examined touching her Associates in that Trade she named a few and perceiving her Delations find Credit made offer to detect all of that sort and to purge the Country of them so she might have her Life granted For the reason of her Knowledge she said That they had a secret mark all of that sort in their Eyes whereby she could surely tell how soon she looked upon any whether they were Witches or not and in this she was so readily believed that for the space of 3 or 4 Months she was carried from Town to Town to make Discoveries in that kind many were brought in question by her Delations especially at Glasgow where