10. That Perfone inhabiles in other Cafes, even infamous Perfons, are lawful Evidence in the Cafe of Witchcraft. Sadd. Debell. p. 53.

11. That Tortures may be made ufe of to extort Confeffions. See the Practice of Lorain, Scotland, and moft Nations.

12. That the Witches may be kept long from Sleep, and then be examined. It hath been faid by the Witch-finders, in their own Juftification, that because our English Law does not allow Tortures, the People have made ufe of this keeping them awake, and swimming, and walking of them betwixt two till they have not been able to ftand for Wearinefs, which is both a great Torture, and exceedingly diforders the Understanding.

I meet with little Mention of Imps in any Country but ours, where the Law makes the feeding, fuckling, or rewarding of them to be Felony; but ⚫ amongft our Witch-finders, it hath been a Rule,

13. That the fufpected Witches may be watched till their Imps appear; and their Imps may come in the Shapes of Cats, Dogs, Rats, Mice, Spiders, Fleas, Nits, Birds, Flies, a Toad, a Frog, a Hen, a Crow a Hornet, or a Mole.

This is a pernicious way of Tryal, because it would be strange if no Creature should happen near them. Befides, if we know any thing of Spirits, this is contradictory to the true Notion of them; for if they are, or can make themselves invifible, What fignifies watching.

14. When

14. When the Accufed are upon their Tryal for bewitching any particular Perfon, it is lawful to give in Evidence Matters that are no ways relating to that Fact, and done many Years before; and which confequently they cannot be prepared to anfwet to. See moft Tryals.

15. That ill Fame of their Ancestors is a reafonable Ground of Sufpicion.

16. That Imps may be kept in Pots, or other Veffels; and that the Pots and Places where they are kept, ftink deteftably; and that therefore fuch ftink ing Places in their Houfes are Signs that they have Imps. Dalton's Country-Fuftice, c. 118.

17. That received Rules, that have been practifed by Courts of Juftice, are not to be examined by Reafon. Sadd. Debell.

18. That tho' these Arguments fingle, are not concluding, yet feveral of them together are fufficient, as Five little Candles give as much Light as one great one. Sadd. Debell. p. 51. Which, by the way, is a fallacious Comparifon for Forty bad Arguments prove no more than one, that is, nothing at all; but it can never be faid fo of lighted Candles in a Room.

This is the Second View of Principles, and tho' I will confider them more particularly afterward, I think, I may fay at prefent, that they are unfcriptural, fuperftitious, and falfe. And fince it is true in Fact, that Nations and Ages have many Witches, or few Witches, according as they have allowed of more or fewer of thefe Principles; the great Number of Executions weighs very little with me. Tho' thefe Tragedies have been fad and many, I think

it

it is God's Mercy there have been no more; for tho' Judges may have been otherwife great Men, and taken Care, that is nothing. Falfe Principles will make falfe Conclufions. In Arithmetick, he that works by a falfe Rule will have a falfe Sum, and if he works by it a hundred Times, and with never fo great Care, it will give a hundred wrong Inftances as well as one.

CHAP IV.

J

Adv.

of

TH

HERE is no doubt to be made but that the Cafe of Witchcraft is a very tender and difficult Point; but pray confider, This Argument of yours is Notion against Fact, and be fides it is too general, & Dolus verfat in generalibus. Let us examine fome of the more famous Cafes more particularly. Perhaps they have not proceeded by these Rules. And I will begin with those that were executed at Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk, and the neighbouring Counties. You have reckoned up above Fourfcore, and Mr. Ady faith, they were near a hundred. You impute their Condemnation to the Principles of thofe Times. But Mr. Baxter gives us another Account of them; I will repeat it in his own Words. They are in his Certainty of the World of Spirits. p. 52.

"The hanging of a great Number of Witches in "Suffolk, and Effex, by the Discovery of one Hop"kins in 1645, and 1646, is famoufly known. Mr. "Calamy went along with the Judges in the Circuit,

to

"to hear their Confeffions, and fee that there were no Fraud or Wrong done them. I fpake with many understanding, pious and credible Perfons, "that lived in the Countries, and fome that went. "to them to the Prifons, and heard their fad Con"feffions. Amongst the reft, an old Reading Parfon "named Lowis, not far from Framglingham, was one "that was hanged; who confeffed, that he had Two Imps, that one of them was always putting him on doing Mischief, and (he being near the Sea) as he "faw a Ship under fail, it moved him to fend him "to fink the Ship, and he confented, and faw the Ship fink before him. One penitent Woman confeffed, that her Mother lying fick, and fhe looking to her, fomewhat like a Mole ran into the Bed to her, which the being startled at, her Mother "bad her not fear it, but gave it her, faying, keep "this in a Pot by the Fire, &c. and thou fhalt never want. She did as he was bid; fhortly after a poor Boy (feemingly) came in, and afk'd leave "to fit and warm him at the Fire, and when he was gone, the found Money under the Stool; and

afterwards oft did fo again, and at laft laid hold "of her, and drew Blood of her, and the made no "other Compact with the Devil, but that her Imps. "fucked her Blood; and as I heard fhe was deli"vered. Abundance of fad Confeffions were made them; by which fome teftified, that there are "certain Punishments that they were to undergo, "if they did not fome hurt as was appointed them.---These are Mr. Baxter's Words, what have you to fay against them?

Clerg. I fay, that by Mr. Baxter's Method of writing Hiftories, I fee one of the Ways, how lying Legends come to get Belief in the World. In the beginning there is fomething true for a Foundation. Forty or Fifty Years after, when the Parties con

cerned

cerned are dead, Men of too eafy a Belief venture to publifh hearfay Stories. None trouble themselves to confute them, or if they do, many Times the Confutation is feen but by a few, and may foon be loft, when the Hiftory may continue: As very likely Mr. Baxter's Book upon fuch an acceptable Subject, may have a Tenth Impreffion, when this obfcure Dialogue will be forgotten. Thus fabulous Hiftories get Credit, and poifon the Generations after them.

You must know then, that in the Years 1644, 1645, and 1646, Matthew Hopkins of Manningtree in Effex, and one John Stern, and a Woman along with them, went round from Town to Town, through many Parts of Effex, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Huntingtonshire, to discover Witches. Several Clergymen preached, and fpake against them, as far as thofe Times would fuffer, and particularly Mr. Gaul, of Stoughton, in Huntingtonfhire, oppofed very heartily that Trade, that thefe People drove. In the beginning of his Book, he hath printed a Letter, that Hopkins wrote to one in his Town. I will put down the Letter juft as Mr. Gaul printed it; because it fhews us the Man, and the gainful Trade they made of it, and how any that oppofed them were difcouraged by the Committees.

•

M. N.

MY

Y Service to your Worship prefented, I have this Day received a Letter, &c. to come to a Town called Great Stoughton, to fearch " for evil difpofed Perfons called Witches (tho' I "heare your Minifter is farre against us through

tr

Ignorance.) I intend to come (God willing) the "fooner to heare his fingular Judgement in the be"halfe of fuch Parties; I have known a Minifter "in Suffolk preach as much against their Discovery "in a Pulpit, and forced to recant it, (by the Com

mitte?,