A26888:222
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.
See Fernelius de abditis rerum Causis, lib. 2. c. 16. of many things that he saw himself, that are convincing.
XXIV. Dr. Henricus ab Heer, Observ. viii. A little Girl in the ninth year of her Age, for Beauty, Education, or Birth inferior to none where she lived, having innocently put into her Mouth a Sorrel Leaf, which was given her by a Witch that begged at the Door, to whom she had first given a piece of Bread, and then some Beer, it was scarce swallowed by her, when she began to be Tortured in her Bowels, to Tremble all over, and then to be convulst, and in fine, to swoon away, and fall as one dead. The Doctor and Doctress being called (for at Utrecht, where this thing happened in May, 1625. it is Customary for both Sexes to practise Physic) though they for many days Experimented the Remedies usual in this case, the Child found no Relief, but was still Afflicted with very frequent and most terrible paroxysms. Whereupon, as the Custom of the Country is, they Consult the Exorcists. The Priest appointed for that work, a Capuchin had scarce laid his hand on the Ritual, when the Child was Transformed by the Demon into such Shapes, as a Man that hath not beheld it with his Eyes, will hardly be brought to imagine. It began first to roll it self about, and next to Vomit Horse-dung, Needles, Pins, Hairs, Feathers, Bottoms of Thread, Pieces of glass Windows, Nails ⟨p. 110⟩drawn out of Cart or Coach Wheels, an Iron Knife above a Span long, Egg and Fish Shells. In the mean while, her Parents and those of the Neighbourhood, observe that whenever the Witch came near the House, or so much as turned her Eye towards it, even at the Distance of two hundred paces the poor Child was in much greater Torment than before, insomuch, that she could by no means be eased of her Fit, or show one sign of Life, until she was at a very great Distance from her. This Witch was soon after apprehended, and confessed both this, and infinite other the like Feats, for which she was Strangled and Burnt. Being desired by a Father Jesuit, who Assisted her in her last Agony, and at that Moment, on which depends Eternity, when the Executioner had now sitted the Rope to her Neck, that she would dissolve the the Spell, and ease the Child, she said, it was not in her Power; Because the Ember Weeks were past, since she had Bewithtced her; adding, that should she undo the Villainies she had perpetrated, the Child would not so quickly recover: