N00531:71
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.
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⟩and Balaam's Ass could discern Angels) let their Testimony be received. But if they had t•is Knowledge from Hell, tho' there may possibly be truth in what they affirm, they are not legal Witnesses. For the Law of God allows of no Revelation from any other Spirit but himself, Isai. 8. 19. It is a Sin against God to make use of the Devils help to know that which cannot be otherwise known. And I te•ti•ie against it, as a great Transgression, which may justly provoke the Holy One of Israel, to let loose Devils on the whole Land. Luk. 4. 35. See Mr. Bernards Guide to Juries in cases of Witchcraft. p. 1•6, 137, 138. And Brochmand. Theol. de Angelis p. 227. Although the Devil Accusations may be so far regarded as to cause an Enquiry into the Truth of things. Job 1. 11, 12. & 2. 5, 6. yet not so as to be an Evidence or ground of Conviction. The Persons, concerning whom the Question is, •ee things through Diabolical Mediums. On which account their Evidence is not mere humane Testimony. And if it be in any part Diabolical, it is not to be owned as Authentic. For the Devils Testimony ought not to be received neither in whole, nor in part. •. I am told by credible persons, who say it is certainly true, that • Bewitched Person has complained that she was •a•t into Fits by the Look of a Dog; and that he was no more able to bear the sight of that Dog, then of the person whom she accused as Bewitching