A70086:120
A further account of the trials of the New-England witches with the observations of…A further account of the tryals of the New-England witches with the observations of…
A further account of the trials of the New-England witches with the observations of a person who was upon the place several days when the suspected witches were first taken into examination : to which is added, Cases of conscience concerning witchcrafts and evil spirits personating men / written at the request of the ministers of New-England by Increase Mather ...A further account of the tryals of the New-England witches with the observations of a person who was upon the place several days when the suspected witches were first taken into examination : to which is added, Cases of conscience concerning witchcrafts and evil spirits personating men / written at the request of the ministers of New-England by Increase Mather ...
London: printed for J. Dunton, 1693
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.
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 Trials 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 eSprenger observes) desired that they might stand or fall by this Trial by hot Iron, and sometimes come off well: Indeed, this Ordeal was used in other Cases, and not in Cases of Witchcraft only it And so was the the Vulgar Probation by casting into the Water practiced upon Persons accused fwith 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, than 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 trial by Water should be so.
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 eSprenger 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 it And so was the the Vulgar Probation by casting into the Water practiced upon Persons accused