tions, where he knew the faces of those whom he had seen at their hellish sabbatisms, and, upon the sight of them, told the inquisitors how they should find them marked: which they found accordingly. But he accused so many rich and poor, that favour and tenderness of the number and quality caused the persecution to surcease. This man confessed before the king (Carol. IX.) and a great company of his nobles, the very same things as the rest of them commonly did confess, about their assemblies, and the manner of their solemnities: Bodin and Remigius mention this. And the same Bodin tells us of thirty of them at once, falling out among themselves, and enviously accusing one another, and all confessing the thing to the death, and reporting the same manner of their common assemblies as the rest do this was apud Cenomannus, in France, but newly then done. The manner of their assemblies we shall speak of Of the many Valerian witches also that made the same confession of the manner of their contracts and assemblies, Danæus and Bodin give us the history; in Savoy the place is.

anon.

If now the incredulous will say, that all these people were falsely accused and unjustly burned, besides the sufficient witnesses, and the competency of the judges, their own confession may confute that objection. If it be said that they were forced to it, the contrary is certain of multitudes that confessed at the first accusation; yea, many of them refused to petition for their lives, but begged that they might presently die, professing that they were so cruelly used by the devil for not fulfilling his desires, or for having thoughts of repentance, that they had rather die than live such a life, which they could no longer endure many of them also have been seen in their assemblies, and taken in the fact. Many of them have, by anointing them, taken their husbands and children along with them, who have accused them on sight, and they have confessed all. Yea, some have been seen at their meetings in the daytime, though that is not common, and in the midst of their feast, who at the naming of God or Jesus Christ have all vanished, and left their plate behind them, which hath been brought to the magistrate, and the owners known by it, and been burned upon confession of the fact. And lest you say, that it is only silly, miserable people that are a-weary of their own lives that make such confessions, there have been many noble women, and counts, and barons, put to death in France, that have confessed all themselves, as Bodin and Remigius will tell you, with their names, the time, place, and confessions. Yea, doctors of divinity of the popish

profession, that have been executed upon confession, and undeniable proofs. If you say, that all these were but phantasms and delusions, I answer :

1. If that were so, yet must it be a diabolical power that must do so much to delude men's phantasies; and an evil spirit it must needs be, that would by such delusion abuse them unto evil.

2. But could a delusion carry people so many days' journey from home, where others have been seen and found them; even those that did but anoint themselves with their ointments? Could a delusion bring them into the sight of others? Could it enable them to do so much mischief in killing men, cattle and trees, corn and fruits, which they have commonly confessed, and hath been proved by the effects?

We had here at Worcester, the last assize save two or three, a witch condemned, among other things, for bewitching a gardener's child in Evesham, a girl, who voided flint stones and pebbles for many months, (by the uterine or urinary passage,) which were showed in the open court, of the bigness of a man's thumb some of them, of which the reverend pastor of that place, Mr. Hopkins, can give any man that doubteth satisfaction, and that sufficient search and observation was used to remove all suspicion of deceit. A hundred the like examples might be produced to satisfy any reasonable man that these things are not all phantasms.

Some of them have been seen in a storm falling down in the tops of trees, as birds do after their flight, some on the tops of houses many have confessed that they raised storms, and were carried in clouds many and many times, and describe the manner how it was done. Many of their husbands have accused them, that often missed them out of bed in the night: some of them have beaten them, till they forced them to confess all; and the men being possessed with a desire to see whether it were true or not, and how the business was carried, have pardoned their wives on condition they would show them their meetings; who being anointed with their ointment, have been presently carried thither, where they have found so great a number met together, as caused them to admire, and having accused their wives and those they have known, the thing was by them confessed, and they were put to death.

It is true that sometimes their minds are carried or employed without their bodies; a certain proof, saith Bodin, that the separated soul can nevertheless live, and move, and know, though without the body, and so is immortal.

At Bourdeaux, 1571, one of the witches confessing that she was wont to be at the meetings, and what they did there, (just as the rest commonly did,) the master of requests, Monsieur Belot, was desirous to see the truth of her confession by some experiment she told them that she could do nothing while she was a prisoner: whereupon they let her out, and before them she anointed her naked body with a certain fat, which she had with her, and presently fell down as dead, and without any feeling at all after five hours, coming to herself and rising up, she told them many things which were newly done about the country, which they found to be true by present inquiry. (Bodin, p. 177.) In the year 1549, apud Nanetas, seven men undertook, before many people, to tell them, within such an hour, what was done in ten miles' compass: they presently fell down as dead, and so lay for three hours' space and then rising up, told them what was done through the whole town, and a greater distance : whereupon they were accused of conjuration, or witchcraft, and put to death. (Idem, p. 178.)

So Turretanus, the judge that condemned her, reported of one that lay as dead before the fire, and her master beat and burnt her, and perceiving her utterly senseless left her as dead; but in the morning she awaked, and complained of her sores; and being accused before the judge, confessed she was at an assembly, and confessed many evil deeds that she had done, and was burnt.

But yet it is more ordinary to have the body itself carried to their meetings, than to have these extasies, as many hundred proofs have manifested. And Sprangerus and his colleagues write that they understood by the confession of many that they had condemned, that they could sometime go abroad only in spirit, and sometime in the body, as they desired themselves.

But it would be unseasonable and unsavoury to some readers, in a treatise of this nature, to be too particular, or too large, though for my part I conceive these kind of sensible demonstrations to be the most likely means to convince them that believe not the word of God, and a means not to be overslipped, or made so small use of as ordinarily we do.

And for those that yet will not believe that these things are true, I think they have far more to say for their incredulity, if their own eyes only had seen them; and yet it is likely they would have believed their eyes. One of the best arguments to know when sense is not deceived, is when the object appeareth to all

men, or most men of sound senses, the same as to some, but if it be but one or two that see it, the deception is much more possible or probable: if all men's senses are deceived, then are we incapable of any certain knowledge or perception; and still I say, a rod or cudgel is the best argument to confute that error, that such may be beaten till they are sure they feel. If the testimonies of judges, justices, lawyers, and juries, that have examined and heard the witnesses, and are themselves as tender of wrongfully putting people to death as these infidels are; if the confessions of so many hundred witches at the halter or fire be not sufficient; if the records of so many judicatures be not sufficient; if men of so great piety, honesty, judgment, and impartiality, may not be credited in a case which bringeth no gain to themselves; if the testimonies of so many several nations as France, Lorraine, Germany, Italy, that all have so abounded with witches, and put to death so many, be not sufficient; if the experience of all countries in the world, and all ages, who have found that same sort of wretched persons, be not sufficient; and, lastly, if the fresh experience of so many scores in a narrow compass at once imprisoned and put to death in our country, attested by so many thousand competent witnesses, and the frequent experiences of the judges in their circuits, be none of them sufficient to convince these infidels, I shall leave it either to God's grace or the devil's torments, ere long, to convince them.

Having spoken thus much of the certainty of the thing that there is such a transaction of the devil with witches, and con. sequently that there is a devil, and multitudes of them, I shall next inquire how his inclinations, interests, and designs are manifested in this way.

1. And first, It is plain that he is a hater of God, and an enemy to his honour; whereto I will add, as the main point, that I am now to prove, that he is also a hater of the Lord Jesus, and an enemy to his name. Nothing more manifest than these are. For it is his constant custom, or most ordinary, to initiate all his professed disciples, I mean witches, by their renouncing God and their baptism, and religion, and the Lord Jesus. This is the first thing that they must do, when they will be witches indeed. And so many hundred have testified, by their own confessions, the truth of this point, even when they have been at the bar, or stake, and all agree so generally in it, that there is not the least room left for rational doubting.

Doctor Guilhelm. Edelinus, of the Sorbonne, in Paris, was condemned for witchcraft, 1453, (Johan. Charterius hath wrote

the history,) on Dec. 24. He confessed that he was oft carried by night into the meetings of the witches, and there renounced God, and adored the devil in the shape of a he-goat.

In the year 1571, a blind man, condemned for witchcraft at Paris, revealed many others; one of them was a lawyer, who confessed, that by an obligation, which he made with the devil, he renounced God; and wrote this obligation with his own blood. This Bodin, Remigius, Sprangerus, and Grillandus tell you is the common confession of multitudes, whom they examined and condemned, and others of their knowledge, and the records of the judicatures ordinarily testify it; and this in several countries, Lorraine, France, Germany, and Italy, they all ordinarily confess the same thing.

In the year 1524, in the castle of Saint Paul, in the duchy of Spoletain, Paulus Grillandus having three in examination, the first confessed that, fifteen years before, she was brought by an old witch into the assembly of the witches, where the devil was among them, at whose persuasion she renounced God, and the christian faith and religion, binding herself by an oath to be faithful, and to obey the devil's commands, putting her hand to a book, which had a writing in it to that end; promising also to be present at the nightly solemnities and feast-days, when she was commanded, and to bring with her as many as she could; and that after that she had killed many men.

Apud Cenomannus, saith Bodin, lately very many were burnt that confessed all these things, that they went to these meetings, and thus behaved themselves on their sabbaths, as they call them at least, saith he, thirty witches in their falling-out, moved with envy, accused one another; whose confessions did all with one consent testify their being carried to the meeting, their adoration to the devil, their dancings, and their abjuration of religion.

The history of all the Valerian witches in Savoy, in the year 1574, is written by Danæus and Bodin, and their confession was the very same, that they were carried to the meetings, and there abjured God, adored the devil, with much more, of which we shall speak anon. I will forbear giving more examples of this, it being so common.

And a second argument also there is, that the devil is both an enemy to God and the Lord Jesus Christ, and also is afraid of his very name; in that it is the constant confession, both of the witches themselves, and of those that have been enticed by them to their meetings, that if they use but the name of