A70086:78
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.
Arg. 4. It is certain both from Scripture and History, that Magicians by their Enchantments and Hellish Conjurations, may cause a false Representation of Persons and Things. An enchanted eye shall see such things as others cannot discern; it is a thing too well known to be denied, that some by rubbing their eyes with a bewitched Water, have immediately thereupon seen that which others could not discern; and there are Persons in the World, who have a strange Spectral sight. Mr. Glanvil fspeaks of a Dutch-man that could see Ghosts which others could perceive nothing of. There are in Spain a sort of men whom they call Zahurs, these can see into the Bowels of the Earth; they are able to discover Minerals and hidden Treasures; nevertheless, they have their extraordinary sight only on Tuesdays and Fridays, and not on the other days of the Week. Delrio saith, that when he was at Madrid, Anno Dom. 1575. he saw some of these strange sighted Creatures. Mr. George Sinclare, in his Book Entitled, Satan's Invisible World discovered, hhas these Words, I am undoubtedly informed, that men and women in the High-lands can discern Fatality approaching others, by seeing them in the Waters or with Winding Sheets about ⟨p. 13⟩them. And that others can lecture in a Sheeps shoulder-bone a Death within the Parish seven or eight Days before it come. It is not improbable but that such Preternatural Knowledge comes first by a Compact with the Devil, and is derived downward by Succession to their Posterity: Many such I suppose are Innocent, and have this sight against their Will and Inclination. Thus Mr. Sinclare, I concur with his supposal, that such Knowledge is originally from Satan, and perhaps the Effect of some old Enchantment. There are some at this day in the World, that if they come into a House where one of the Family will die within a Fortnight, the smell of a dead Corpse offends them to such a degree, as that they cannot stay in that House. It is reported that near unto the Abby of St. Maurice in Burgundy ithere is a Fishpond in which are Fishes put according to the number of the Monks of that place; if any one of them happen to be sick, there is a Fish seen to Float and Swim above Water half dead, and if the Monk shall die, the Fish a few days before dieth.