N00531:70
Cases of conscience concerning evil spirits personating men, witchcrafts, infallible proofs of guilt in…
Cases of conscience concerning evil spirits personating men, witchcrafts, infallible proofs of guilt in such as are accused with that crime. All considered according to the Scriptures, history, experience, and the judgment of many learned men. / By Increase Mather, president of Harvard College, at Cambridge, and teacher of a church at Boston in New-England. ; [Six lines of quotations]
Boston printed, : and sold by Benjamin Harris at the London Coffee-House., 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.
And such Experiments better become Pagans or Papists than Professors in New England; whereas 'tis pleaded, that such things are practised by the Judges of the Imperial Chamber, I Reply, that those Judges (as Bodia relates, Lib. •. Daemon. Cap. 6.) have required suspected Witches to pronounce over the afflicted persons, these words, I Bless thee in the Name of the Father, &c. upon which they have immediately recovered; but is the […] day come upon us, that such Superstitions as these shall be practised in New-England. The Lord Jesus forbid it. See Baldwin's his Testimony against the Practice of the Camera Imperia•is. Cas. Consc. •. 3. c. 3. page 634.
And such Experiments better become Pagans or Papists than Professors in New England; whereas 'tis pleaded, that such things are practised by the Judges of the Imperial Chamber, I Reply, that those Judges (as Bodia relates, Lib. •. Daemon. Cap. 6.) have required suspected Witches to pronounce over the afflicted persons, these words, I Bless thee in the Name of the Father, &c. upon which they have immediately recovered; but is the 〈…〉 day come upon us, that such Superstitions as these shall be practised in New-England. The Lord Jesus forbid it. See Baldwins his Testimony against the Practice of the Camera Imperia•is. Cas. Consc. •. 3. c. 3. page 634.
5. If the Testimony of a Bewitched or Possessed Person, is of Validity as to what they see done to themselves, then it is so as to others, whom they see […] less then themselves. But what they affirm concerning others, is not to be taken for Evidence. Whence had they this Supernatural Sight? It must needs be either from Heaven or from Hell. If from Heaven, (as Elisha's Servant ⟨p. 49⟩