A26888:200
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.
I will add (saith Scribonius) an Example which I saw my self, and observed. For we must believe, that which Experience by Example showeth us. In this present year 1585. in the Summer, a Witch was apprehended at Waldecia, who is in a Town of the Illustrious Princess Barbara, Countess of Waldecia, &c. to a Servant Maid to one of her Neighbours, for whom she was to prepare a Coat (or Gown) in one of the doubles of it, sowed a certain Root, which caused as soon as she put it on, that in her Loins, which the extremities of the Coat touched, she was presently the same hour greatly troubled, and straightway tormented grievously in all her Body. And a few days after, she Vomited Bones like the great Teeth of a Horse, and small Cockleshells. I saw all the Bones, I saw a Cockle-shell, and with my Knife I cut them, and I brake them; so that I shall never be made believe, that this was any Deception of the sight.
I will add (saith Scribonius) an Example which I saw my self, and observed. For we must believe, that which Experience by Example sheweth us. In this present year 1585. in the Summer, a Witch was apprehended at Waldecia, who is in a Town of the Illustrious Princess Barbara, Countess of Waldecia, &c. to a Servant Maid to one of her Neighbours, for whom she was to prepare a Coat (or Gown) in one of the doubles of it, sowed a certain Root, which caused as soon as she put it on, that in her Loins, which the extremities of the Coat touched, she was presently the same hour greatly troubled, and straightway tormented grievously in all her Body. And a few days after, she Vomited Bones like the great Teeth of a Horse, and small Cockleshells. I saw all the Bones, I saw aCockle-shell, and with my Knife I cut them, and I brake them; so that I shall never be made believe, that this was any Deception of the sight.
Another Testimony I will add, which by a Credible Man, was sent me, Anno 1573. ⟨p. 101⟩Nov. 14. from the Town of Hallensted in the Duchy of Brunswick, Stephen Ralen accused of Witchcraft, by two of his Kindred, freely, and without Bonds confessed, that from his first Wife that was burnt with other Witches in the City of Ratelburg, he learned the Art of killing Men by Poison; And that after being Angry with his second Wife, for the Suspicion of Adultery in her Child-Bed, he had given her those Poisons. And that by the help of his first Wife, he had given one Rhetobbs Poison, which killed him in eight days, having fallen out with him in his Drinking Frolics. And another he killed with a Poison drawn from three named Animals: And he freely confessed, that to another, he laid the said Poison under the Door, and as he went out over them, he presently had a pain in his right Arm, and after in the rest of his Body, with which, he was grievously Tortured. And he after told them, that once his Hat falling, and lost in the Water, being angry with God Almighty, and Renouncing him (like our Dammee Tories) he gave himself to the Devil, and called him to him, to come to him; and said, I'll be thine, and commit my self to thee: Come to me Satan, who presently came. He was burnt, November the 20th.