Wonders of the Invisible World, and A Farther Account of the Tryals of the New England Witches — 35. Cases of Conscience Concerning Witchcrafts, Argument 6, Part 2

4. _There are that Question the Lawfulness of the Experiment.

_ For if this healing power in the Witch is not a Divine but a Diabolical Gift, it may be dangerous to meddle too much with it.

If the Witch may be ordered to touch afflicted Persons in order to their healing or recovery out of a sick Fit, why may not the Diseased Person be as well ordered to touch the Witch for the same cause?

And if to touch him, why not to scratch him and fetch Blood out 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 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[71] I have expressed) a solid Principle, which the Learned _Sennertus_ 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+[72] 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 Witchcraft 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 'tis pleaded, that such things are practised by the Judges of the Imperial Chamber, I reply, that those Judges (as _Bodin_ 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 _Brockmand_, _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.

6. 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.

7. 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, 'tis the easiest thing in the World to discover them; for it is done to our hand, and there needs no enquiry into the Matter.

8. _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.

9. 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 Sympathetico_, 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_[73] have determined, that to make use of those _Media_ to come to the Knowledge of any Matter, which have no such power in them by Nature, nor by Divine Institution is an Implicit going to the Devil to make a discovery: Now there is no natural Power in the Look or Touch of a Person to bewitch another; nor is this by Divine Institution the means whereby Witchcraft is discovered: Therefore it is an unwarrantable Practice.

We proceed now to the third Case proposed to Consideration; If the things which have been mentioned are not infallible Proofs of Guilt in the accused Party, it is then Queried, _Whether there are any Discoveries of this Crime, which Jurors and Judges may with a safe Conscience proceed upon to the Conviction and Condemnation of the Persons under Suspicion?

_ Let me here premise Two things, 1. The Evidence in this Crime ought to be as clear as in any other Crimes of a Capital nature.

The Word of God does no where intimate, that a less clear Evidence, or that fewer or other Witnesses may be taken as sufficient to convict a Man of Sorcery, which would not be enough to convict him were he charged with another evil worthy of Death, _Numb.

35. 30. _ if we may not take the Oath of a distracted Person, or of a possessed Person in a Case of Murder, Theft, Felony of any sort, then neither may we do it in the Case of Witchcraft.

2. Let me premise this also, that there have been ways of trying Witches long used in many Nations, especially in the dark times of Paganism and Popery, which the righteous God never approved of.

But which (as judicious Mr. _Perkins_ expresseth it in plain _English_) were invented by the Devil, that so innocent Persons might be condemned, and some notorious Witches escape: Yea, many Superstitious and Magical experiments have been used to try Witches by: Of this sort is that of scratching the Witch, or seething the Urine of the Bewitched Person, or making a Witch-cake with that Urine: And that tryal of putting their Hands into scalding Water, to see if it will not hurt them: And that of sticking an Awl under the Seat of the suspected Party, yea, and that way of discovering Witches by tying their Hands and Feet, and casting them on the Water, to try whether they will sink or swim: I did publickly bear my Testimony against this Superstition in a Book printed at _Boston_ eight Years past.

I hear that of late some in a Neighbour Colony have been playing with this Diabolical invention: It is to be lamented, that in such a _Land of Uprightness_ as _New-England_ once was, a Practice which Protestant Writers generally condemn as sinful, and which the more sober and learned Men amongst Papists themselves have not only judged unlawful, but (to express it in their own terms) to be no less than a _Mortal Sin_, should ever be heard of.

Were it not that the coming of Christ to judge the Earth draweth near, I should think that such Practices are an unhappy Omen that the Devil and Pagans will get these dark Territories into their Possession again: But that I may not be thought to have no reason for my calling the impleaded Experiment into Question, I have these things further to alledge against it.

1. It has been rejected long agone, by Christian Nations as a thing Superstitious and Diabolical: In _Italy_ and _Spain_ it is wholly disused; and [74]in the _Low-Countries_, and in _France_, where the Judges are Men of Learning.

In some parts of _Germany_ old _Paganism_ Customs are observed more than in other Countries, nevertheless all the [75]_Academies_ throughout _Germany_ have disapproved of this way of Purgation.

2. The Devil is in it, all Superstition is from him; and when Secret things, or latent Crimes, are discovered by superstitious Practices, some Compact and Communion with the Devil is the Cause of it, as _Austin_[76] has truly intimated; and so it is here; for if a Witch cannot be drowned, this must proceed either from some natural Cause, which it doth not, for it is against Nature for Humane Bodies, when Hands and Feet are tied, not to sink under the Water: Besides, they that plead for this Superstition, say that if Witches happen to be condemned for some other Crime and not for Witchcraft, they will not swim like a Cork above Water, which Cause sheweth that the Cause of this Natation is not _Physical_: And if not, then either it must proceed from a Divine Miracle to save a Witch from drowning; or lastly, it must be a diabolical Wonder: This superstitious Experiment is commonly known by the Name of, _The Vulgar Probation_, because it was never appointed by any lawful Authority, but from the Suggestion of the Devil taken up by the rude Rabble: And some [77]learned Men are of Opinion, that the first _Explorator_ (_being a white Witch_) did explicitely covenant with the Devil, that he should discover latent Crimes in this way: And that it is by Virtue of that first Contract that the Devil goeth to work to keep his Servants from sinking, when this Ceremony of his ordaining is used.

Moreover, we know that _Diabolus est Dei Simia_, the Devil seeks to imitate Divine Miracles.

We read in Ecclesiastical Story, that some of the Martyrs when they were by Persecutors ordered to be drowned, prov'd to be immersible: This Miracle would the Devil imitate in causing Witches, who are his Martyrs, not to sink when they are cast into the Waters.

3. This way of Purgation is of the same nature with the old _Ordeals_ of the Pagans.

If Men were accused with any Crime, to clear their innocency, they were to take an hot Iron into their Hands, or to suffer scalding Water to be poured down their Throats, and if they received no hurt thereby they were acquitted.

This was the Devil's Invention, and many times (as the Devil would have it) they that submitted to these Tryals suffered no inconvenience.

Nevertheless, it is astonishing to think what innocent Blood has been shed in the World by means of this _Satanical_ device.

Witches have often (as [78]_Sprenger_ observes) desired that they might stand or fall by this Tryal by hot Iron, and sometimes come off well: Indeed, this _Ordeal_ was used in other Cases, and not in Cases of Witchcraft only: And so was the _Vulgar Probation_ by casting into the Water practiced upon Persons accused[79] with other Crimes as well as that of Witchcraft: How it came to be restrained to that of Witchcraft I cannot tell; it is as supernatural for a Body whose Hands and Feet are tied to swim above the Water, as it is for their Hands not to feel a red hot Iron.

If the one of these _Ordeals_ is lawful to be used, then so is the other too: But as for the fiery _Ordeal_ it is rejected and exploded out of the World; for the same reason then the tryal by Water should be so.

4. It is a tempting of God when Men put the Innocency of their Fellow-Creatures upon such tryals; to desire the Almighty to shew a Miracle to clear the Innocent, or to convict the Guilty is a most presumptuous tempting of him.

Was it not a Miracle when _Peter_ was kept from sinking under the Water by the Omnipotency of Christ?

As for Satan, we know that his Ambition is to make his Servants believe that his Power is equal to God's, and that therefore he can preserve whom he pleaseth.

I have read[80] of certain Magicians, who were seen walking on the Water: If then guilty Persons shall float on the Waters, either it is the Devil that causes them to do so, (as no doubt it is) and what have Men to do to set the Devil on work; or else it is a Divine Miracle, like that of _Peter's_ not sinking, or that of the Iron that swam at the Word of _Elisha_.

And shall Men try whether God will work a Miracle to make a discovery?

If a Crime cannot be found out but by Miracle, it is not for any Judge on Earth to usurp that Judgment which is reserved for the Divine Throne.

5. This pretended Gift of Immersibility attending Witches, is a most fallible deceitful thing; for many a Witch has sunk under the Water.

_Godelmannus_[81] giveth an account of six notorious and clearly convicted Witches, that when they were brought to their _vulgar Probation_, sunk down under the Water like other Persons; _Althusius_ affirms the like concerning others; in the _Bohemian_ History[82] it is related, that _Uratslaus_ the King of _Bohemia_, extirpated Witches out of his Kingdom, some of which he delivered to the Ax, others of them to the Fire, and others of them he caused to be drowned: If Witches are immersible, how came they to die by drowning in _Bohemia_?

Besides, it has sometimes been known that Persons who have floated on the Water when the Hangman has made the Experiment on them, have sunk down like a Stone, when others have made the tryal.