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.
Richard Baxter 1615–1691London: printed for T. Parkhurst, 1691
[16], 252 p. · 56k words · Wing B1214 · ESTC R13061
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 Have been very uneasy to think that I should so long delay the Answer of your Desire about the Affair related underneath: The distance of the Place in which it was transacted, with the slowness of my Correspondent in Replies, hath made me uncapable of giving you so full and quick Satisfaction, as might else have been. All that I can relate at present is briefly this, viz.
I Have been very uneasie to think that I should so long delay the Answer of your Desire about the Affair related underneath: The distance of the Place in which it was transacted, with the slowness of my Correspondent in Replies, hath made me uncapable of giving you so full and quick Satisfaction, as might else have been. All that I can relate at present is briefly this, viz.
County of Down, and Claudius Gilbert, Minister of Belfast, about their Right to Drumbeg, a small Parish within four Miles of Belfast, it proved very troublesome to the Parishioners, who generally paid their Dues to Mr. Gilbert the Incumbent in Possession; but the Arch-deacon claimed the same to be paid to him also, for which he procured a Warrant; and in the Execution of it by his Servants, at the House of one Charles Loftin, one of the Parishioners, they offered some Violence to his Wife, who refused Entrance to them, who died within a few Weeks after the Injury received; but she being otherwise an infirm Woman, little notice was taken of her Death, till that some time after, by her strange Appearance to one Thomas Donelson, (a Spectator of the Violence done to her,) she affrighted him into a Prosecution of Robert Eccleson, the Criminal. She appeared divers times, but chiefly upon one Lord's Day-Evening, when she fetched him, with a strange Force, out of his House, into the Yard, and Fields adjacent. Before her last Coming, (for she did so three times that Day,) several Neighbours were called in, to whom he gave notice that she was again coming, and beckoned to him to come out; upon which, they went to shut the Door, but he forbade it, saying, that she looked with a terrible Aspect upon him,
⟨p. 216⟩
when they offered it: But his Friends laid hold on him, and embraced him, that he might not again go out; notwithstanding which, (a plain Evidence of some invisible Power,) he was drawn out of their Hands in a surprising manner, and carried abroad into the Field and Yard, as before, she charging him to prosecute Justice; which Voice, as also Donelson's Reply, the People heard, though they saw no shape. There are many Witnesses of all this yet alive, particularly Sarah, the Wife of Charles Lof•in, Son to the deceased Woman; and one William Holiday and his Wife, &c.
There having been a long Contest between Lemuel Matthews, Archdeacon in the ⟨p. 215⟩County of Down, and Claudius Gilbert, Minister of Belfast, about their Right to Drumbeg, a small Parish within four Miles of Belfast, it proved very troublesome to the Parishioners, who generally paid their Dues to Mr. Gilbert the Incumbent in Possession; but the Arch-deacon claimed the same to be paid to him also, for which he procured a Warrant; and in the Execution of it by his Servants, at the House of one Charles Loftin, one of the Parishioners, they offered some Violence to his Wife, who refused Entrance to them, who died within a few Weeks after the Injury received; but she being otherwise an infirm Woman, little notice was taken of her Death, till that some time after, by her strange Appearance to one Thomas Donelson, (a Spectator of the Violence done to her,) she affrighted him into a Prosecution of Robert Eccleson, the Criminal. She appeared divers times, but chiefly upon one Lord's Day-Evening, when she fetch'd him, with a strange Force, out of his House, into the Yard, and Fields adjacent. Before her last Coming, (for she did so three times that Day,) several Neighbours were called in, to whom he gave notice that she was again coming, and becken'd to him to come out; upon which, they went to shut the Door, but he forbad it, saying, that she looked with a terrible Aspect upon him, ⟨p. 216⟩when they offered it: But his Friends laid hold on him, and embraced him, that he might not again go out; notwithstanding which, (a plain Evidence of some invisible Power,) he was drawn out of their Hands in a surprizing manner, and carried abroad into the Field and Yard, as before, she charging him to prosecute Justice; which Voice, as also Donelson's Reply, the People heard, though they saw no shape. There are many Witnesses of all this yet alive, particularly Sarah, the Wife of Charles Lof•in, Son to the deceased Woman; and one William Holyday and his Wife, &c.
Upon this, the said Donelson deposed what he knew of the aforesaid Violence, before Mr. Randal Brice, a Neighbour-Justice, and confirmed all at the Assizes at Down, in the Year 1685. (as I remember;) where the several Witnesses were heard and sworn, and their Examinations were entered into the Records of that Assizes, to the Amazement and Satisfaction of all the Country, and of the Judges, whom I have heard speak of it at that time with much Wonder; insomuch that the said Eccleson hardly escaped with his Life, but was Burnt in the Hand.
Upon this, the said Donelson deposed what he knew of the aforesaid Violence, before Mr. Randal Brice, a Neighbour-Justice, and confirmed all at the Assizes at Down, in the Year 1685. (as I remember;) where the several Witnesses were heard and sworn, and their Examinations were entred into the Records of that Assizes, to the Amazement and Satisfaction of all the Country, and of the Judges, whom I have heard speak of it at that time with much Wonder; insomuch that the said Eccleson hardly escaped with his Life, but was Burnt in the Hand.
I could learn many more Circumstances, but that you are in haste; and all this I ⟨p. 217⟩heard spoken of my self, with universal Amazement, at the time when transacted, living in Belfast at that time; and I should not have been beholden to any to have believed this Relation, that had been there, and at the Trial at Down.
In her said Uncle's House she was pursued with very terrible Noises; as by violent Strokes on the Wainscots and Chests, in what Chambers she frequented.
In her said Uncle's House she was pursued with very terrible Noises; as by violent Stroaks on the Wainscots and Chests, in what Chambers she frequented.
The Blows were heard throughout the House, and were so troublesome, as to occasion the Removal of the young Woman to an House near Smithfield in Dublin, not without Hopes that the Disturbance might thereby cease: But the Noise pursued her thither, and was no more heard in her former Dwelling.
From this place, she was removed to a little House in Patrick-street, near the Gate. Here she met with the same Exercise, ⟨p. 219⟩and the Noise was generally about Two a-Clock in the Morning greater than at other Times.
From this place, she was removed to a little House in Patrick-street, near the Gate. Here she met with the same Exercise, ⟨p. 219⟩and the Noise was generally about Twoa-Clock in the Morning greater than at other Times.
The author
Richard Baxter 1615–1691
PuritansEngland
Pastor at Kidderminster and prolific nonconformist author.
