Wonders of the Invisible World, and A Farther Account of the Tryals of the New England Witches — 34. Cases of Conscience Concerning Witchcrafts, Argument 6, Part 1

Arg.

6. _Our own Experience has confirmed the Truth of what we affirm.

_ I have in another Book given an account concerning _Elizabeth Knap_ of _Groton_, who complained that a Woman as eminent for Piety as any in that Town, did appear to her, and afflict her: But afterwards she was satisfied that that Person never did her any harm, but that the Devil abused them both.

About two Years ago, a bewitched Person in _Chelmsford_ in her Fits, complained that a worthy good Man, a near Relation of hers did afflict her: So did she likewise complain of another Person in that town of known integrity and Piety.

I have my self known several of whom I ought to think that they are now in Heaven, considering that they were of good Conversation, and reputed Pious by those that had the greatest Intimacy with them, of whom nevertheless, some complained that their Shapes appeared to them, and threatned them: Nor is this answered by saying, we do not know but those Persons might be Witches: We are bound by the Rule of Charity to think otherwise: And they that censure any, meerly because such a sad Affliction as their being falsly represented by Satan has befallen them, do not do as they would be done by.

I bless the Lord, it was never the portion allotted to me, nor to any Relation of mine to be thus abused: But no Man knoweth what may happen to him, since _there be just Men unto whom it happeneth according to the Work of the Wicked_, _Eccles.

8. 14. _ But what needs more to be said, since there is one amongst our selves whom no Man that knows him, can think him to be a Wizzard, whom yet some bewitched Persons complained of, that they are in his Shape tormented: And the Devils have of late accused some eminent Persons.

It is an awful thing which the Lord has done to convince some amongst us of their Error: This then I declare and testifie, that to take away the Life of any one, meerly because a _Spectre_ or Devil, in a bewitched or possessed Person does accuse them, will bring the Guilt of innocent Blood on the Land, where such a thing shall be done: Mercy forbid that it should, (and I trust that as it has not it never will be so) in _New-England_.

What does such an Evidence amount unto more than this: Either such an one did afflict such an one, or the Devil in his likeness, or his Eyes were bewitched.

The things which have been mentioned make way for, and bring us unto the second Case, which is to come under our Consideration, _viz.

_ _If one bewitched is struck down at the Look or cast of the Eye of another, and after that recovered again by a Touch from the same Person, Is not this an infallible Proof, that the Person suspected and complained of is in League with the Devil?

_ _Answer;_ It must be owned that by such things as these Witchcrafts and Witches have been discovered more than once or twice: And that an ill Fame, or other Circumstances attending the suspected Party, this may be a Ground for Examination; but this alone does not afford sufficient Matter for Conviction: As _Spectres_ or _Devils_ appearing in the Shapes of Men that have been murdered, declaring that they were murdered by such Persons and in such a place, may give just occasion to the Magistrate for Enquiry into the Matter: One great Witch-Advocate[49] confesseth, that by this means Murders have been brought to light; yet that alone, if other Circumstances did not concur, would not by the Law of God take away the Life of any Man.

If my Reader pleaseth, he shall hear what old Mr. _Bernard_ of _Batcomb_ saith to a Case not unlike to this, and the former: His Words are these,[50] 'The naming of the suspected in their Fits, and also where they have been, and what they have done here or there, as Mr. _Throgmorton's_ Children could do, and that often and ever found 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, shewing the true and right Method of the Discovery, with a Confutation of Erroneous ways_ (which Book he dedicates to the Right Honourable Sir _Edward Cook_, Lord Chief Justice of _England_,)[51] 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,[52] '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 interested 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 subtility 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_[53] 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.

'Tis reported[54] 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 of evil Angels, as [55]_Thyraeus_ 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[56] 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_[57] 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 #ERGOMAI# _Agitor_: They whose Bodies are preternaturally 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[58] 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 [59]secret things, _Acts 6. 16. _ past, or future, [60]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 Fits, in the which they speak of things, that afterwards they have no remembrance of,[61] or, if they are by cruel Devils tortured, so as to cause horrendous Clamours in the distressed Sufferers, that's another sign of Obsession by evil Spirits: If all these things concur in the Persons concerning where the Question is, we may conclude them to be _Daemoniacks_: And if so, no _Juror_ can with a safe Conscience look on the Testimony of such, as sufficient to take away the Life of any Man.

2. _Falling down by the cast of an Eye proceeds not from a natural, but an arbitrary Cause;_[62] not from any Poyson in the Eye of the Witch, but from the Agency of some _Daemon_: The opinion of Fascination by the Eye is an old Fable, and (saith Mr. _Perkins_) as fond as old.

_Pliny_[63] speaks of a People that killed folks by looking on them; and he adds, that they had two Apples in each Eye: and _Tully_ writes of women who had two Apples in one Eye that always did mischief with their meer looks; so _Ovid_, _Pupula duplex fulminat.

_ And _Plutarch_[64] writes that some persons have such a Poyson in their Eyes, as that their Friends and Familiars are Fascinated thereby; nay he speaks of one that Bewitched himself sick by looking on his own Face in a Glass: Others write of Fascination by a meer Prolation of Words; and for ought I know, there may be as much Witchery in the Tongue as there is in the Eye.

_Sennertus_[65] has discovered the Superstition of these Fancies; Sight does not proceed from an Emission of Rays from the Eye, but by a reception of the visible Species; and if it be (as Philosophers conclude) an innocent Action and not an Emission of optick Spirits, so that sight as such, does receive something from the Object, and not act upon it, the Notion of Fascination by the Eye is unphilosophical: It is true, that sore Eyes will affect those that look upon them, _Dum spectant Oculi Laesos, Leduntur & ipsi_, for which a natural Reason is easily to be assigned; but if the Witches Eyes are thus infected with a natural Contagion, Whence is it, that only Bewitched Persons are hurt thereby?

If the vulgar Error concerning the _Basilisks_ killing with the Look of his Poysonful Eye were a Truth, whatever person that Serpent cast his Eye upon would be poysoned.

So if Witches had a physical Venom in their Eyes, others as well as Fascinated Persons would be sensible thereof; there is as much Truth in this fancy of Physical Venom in the Eye of a Witch, as there is in what _Pliny_[66] and others relate concerning the _Thibians_, _viz.

_ that they have two Apples in one Eye, and the Effigies of an Horse in the other Eye; and that they are a people that cannot be drowned.

3. _As for that which concerns the Bewitched Persons being recovered out of their Agonies by the Touch of the suspected Party, it is various and fallible.

_ For sometimes the afflicted Person is made sick, (instead of being made whole) by the Touch of the Accused; sometimes the Power of Imagination is such, as that the Touch of a Person innocent and not accused shall have the same effect.

It is related in the Account of the Tryals of Witches at _Bury_ in _Suffolk_ 1664, during the time[67] of the Tryal, there were some Experiments made with the Persons afflicted, by bringing the accused to touch them, and it was observed that by the least Touch of one of the supposed Witches, they that were in their Fits, to all mens Apprehension wholly deprived of all Sense and Understandings, would suddenly shriek out and open their Hands.

Mr. Serjeant _Keeling_ did not think that sufficient to Convict the Prisoners, for admitting that the Children were in truth Bewitched, yet (saith he) it cannot be applyed to the Prisoners upon the Imagination only of the Parties afflicted; for if that might be allowed, no Person whatsoever can be in safety, for perhaps they might fancy another Person who might altogether be innocent in such matters: To avoid this Scruple it was privately desired by the Judge, that some Gentlemen there in Court would attend one of the distempered Persons in the farther part of the Hall, whilst she was in her Fits, and then to send for one of the Witches to try what would happen, which they did accordingly.

One of them was conveyed from the Bar, and brought to the Afflicted Maid.

They put an Apron before her Eyes, and then another person (not the Witch) touched her, which produced the same effect, as the Touch of the Witch did in the Court.

Whereupon the Gentlemen returned much unsatisfied.

_Bodin_[68] relates, that a Witch who was Tryed at _Nants_, was commanded by the Judges to touch a Bewitched person, a thing often practised by the Judges of _Germany_ in the _Imperial Chamber_.

The Witch was extreamly unwilling, but being Compelled by the Judges, she cryed out, _I am undone;_ and as soon as ever she touched the Afflicted person, the Witch fell down dead, and the other recovered.

That horrid Witch of _Salisbury_, _Ann Bodenham_[69] who had been Servant to the Notorious Conjurer Dr. _Lamb_, could not bear the sight of one that was Bewitched by her.

As soon as ever she saw the Afflicted Person, she ran about shrieking, and crying, and roaring after an hideous manner, that the Devil would tear her in pieces, if that person came near her.

And whilst the Witch was in such Torment, the Bewitched was at ease.

By these things we see, that the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom of darkness, are not always and in all places the same.

And it is good for men to concern themselves with them as little as may be.

I think there is weight in Dr. _Cotta's_[70] Argument, _viz.

_ _That the Gift of healing the Sick and Possessed, was a special Grace and Favour of God, for the Confirmation of the Truth of the Gospel, but that such a Gift should be annexed to the Touch of Wicked Witches, as an infallible sign of their guilt, is not easie to be believed.

_ It is a thing well known, that if a person possessed by an Evil Spirit, is (as oft it so happens) never so outragious whilst a good man is Praying with and for the Afflicted, let him lay his hand on them, and the Evil Spirit is quiet.

I hope this is no evidence of any Covenant, or voluntary Communion between the Good Man that is Praying and the Evil Spirit; no more does the Case before us evince any such thing.