A70086:131
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.
When the Amalekite confessed that he killed Saul, whom he had no legal Authority to meddle with, although 'tis probable that he belied himself, David gave order for his Execution, and said to him, Thy Blood be upon thy Head, for thy Mouth hath Testified against thee, 2 Sam. 1. 16. But as for the Testimony of Confessing Witches against others, the case is not so clear as against themselves, ⟨p. 36⟩they are not such credible Witnesses, as in a Case of Life and Death is to be desired: It is beyond dispute, that the Devil makes his Witches to dream strange things of themselves and others which are not so. There was (as Authors beyond Exception relate) in appearance a sumptuous Feast prepared, the Wine and Meat set forth in Vessels of Gold; a certain Person whom an amorous young Man had fallen in Love with, was represented and supposed to be really there; but Apollonius Tyanaeus odiscovered the Witchery of the Business, and in an instance all vanished, and nothing but dirty Coals were to be seen: The like to this is mentioned in the Arausican Council. There were certain Women that imagined they road upon Beasts in the Night, and that they had Diana and Herodius in company with them, besides a Troop of other Persons; the Council giveth this Sentence on it; Satanas qui se transfigurat in Angelum Lucis, transformat see in diversarum personarum species, & mentem quam captivam tenet, in somnis deludit. Satan transforms himself into the likeness of divers Persons, and deludes the Souls that are his Captives with Dreams and Fancies; see Dr. Willet on 1 Sam. 28. p. 165. What Credit can be given to those that say they can turn Men into Horses? If so, they can as well turn Horses into Men; but all the Witches on Earth in Conjunction with all the Devils in Hell, can never make or unmake a rational Soul, and then they cannot transform a Brute into a Man, nor a Man into a Brute; so that this Transmutation is fantastical. The Devil may and often does impose on the Imaginations of his Witches and Vassals, that they believe themselves to be be Converted into Beasts, and reverted into Men again; as Nebuchadnezzar whilst under the Power of a Daemon really imagined himself to be an Ox, and would lye out of Doors and eat Grass: The Devil has inflicted on many a Man the Disease called Lycanthropia, from whence they have made lamentable Complaints of their being Wolves: