A26888:176
The certainty of the worlds of spirits and, consequently, of the immortality of souls…
The certainty of the worlds of spirits and, consequently, of the immortality of souls of the malice and misery of the devils and the damned : and of the blessedness of the justified, fully evinced by the unquestionable histories of apparitions, operations, witchcrafts, voices &c. / written, as an addition to many other treatises for the conviction of Sadducees and infidels, by Richard Baxter.The certainty of the worlds of spirits and, consequently, of the immortality of souls of the malice and misery of the devils and the damned : and of the blessedness of the justified, fully evinced by the unquestionable histories of apparitions, operations, witchcrafts, voices &c. / written, as an addition to many other treatises for the conviction of Sadduces and infidels, by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for T. Parkhurst, 1691
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
As to Houses disquieted with Noises, I shall tell you one that happened since I was a Married Man, and hint at more, which if you please, I can get you authentically attested.
Within four Miles of Edinburgh, there lived an Aged Godly Minister, one that was esteemed a Puritan; his Son now Minister of the same place, and then ordained his Assistant. Their House was extraordinarily troubled with noises, which they, and their Family, and many Neighbours (who for divers Weeks used to go watch with them) did ordinarily hear. It troubled them most on the Saturday Night, and the Night before their weekly Lecture day. Sometimes they would hear all the Locks of the House, on Doors and Chests to fly open; yea, their Clothes which were ⟨p. 68⟩at Night locked up into Trunks and Chests, they found in the Morning all hanging about the Walls. Once they found their best Linen taken out, the Table covered with it, Napkins, as if they had been used, yea and Liquor in their Cups, as if Company had been there at Meat. The rumbling was extraordinary: The good old Man commonly called his Family to Prayer when it was most troublesome; and immediately it was converted into gentle knocking, like the modest knock of a Finger: But as soon as Prayer was done, they should hear excessive knocking, as if a Beam had been heaved by strength of many Men against the Floor. Never was there Voice nor Apparition, but one thing was remarkable: (You must know, that it is ordinary in Scotland to have a half Cannon Bullet in the Chimney-corner, on which they break their great Coals.) A merry Maid in the House, being accustomed to the Rumblings, and so her Fear gone, told her fellow Maid-Servant, That if the Devil troubled them that Night, she would brain him; so she took the Half-Cannon Bullet into Bed: The Noise did not fail to awake her, nor did she fail in her design, but took up the great Bullet, and with a threatening, threw it as she thought, on the Floor, but the Bullet was never more seen; the Minister turned her away for meddling and talking to it. All these ⟨p. 87⟩Particulars I have had from the Mouth of the Minister now living, he is an Honest Man, of good Natural Parts, well bred both in Learning and by Travel into Foreign Parts in his Youth. I was not in the Country my self during the time, but I have it from many other Witnesses, and my Father's Steward lived then in a House of mine within a Mile of the place, and sent his Servants constantly thither; his Son now serves me, who knows it.