Lectures on Witchcraft: Comprising a History of the Delusion in Salem, in 1692 |
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accused ancestors Andover Ann Putnam appear arts awful believed bewitched blessed Boston brought Burroughs called capital punishment carried cause century character charms Christian church circumstances condemned confess conviction Cotton Mather court credulity crime dark death declared demonology devil diabolical divination doctrine doubt Dr Mather England error evidence evil execution George Burroughs girl gracious Lord given guilty hand honored human imagination imposture Increase Mather influence instance judges jury justices learned lecture magic malignant manner MARGARET JACOBS Mary Easty Mascon ment mercy mind ministers Moll Pitcher mysterious nature Noyes opinion philosophy prayer present pretended prevailed prison proceedings prosecutions reason Rebecca Nurse religion Richard Baxter Salem Village Satan says scene sion sorcery soul spectral evidence spirit suffer supernatural superstition supposed things thought thrown tion transaction trial truth unto whole wife witch witchcraft delusion witness woman
Popular passages
Page 237 - I conjure you, by that which you profess, (Howe'er you come to know it,) answer me : Though you untie the winds, and let them fight Against the churches ; though the yesty waves Confound and swallow navigation up; Though bladed corn be lodg'd, and trees blown down; Though castles topple on their warders...
Page 160 - It may please your grace to understand that witches and sorcerers within these few last years are marvellously increased within your grace's realm. Your grace's subjects pine away, even unto the death ; their colour fadeth, their flesh rotteth, their speech is benumbed, their senses are bereft. I pray God they never practise further than upon the subject.
Page 216 - In short, when I consider the question, whether there are such persons in the world as those we call witches, my mind is divided between the two opposite opinions, or rather (to speak my thoughts freely) I believe in general that there is, and has been such a thing as witchcraft; but at the same time can give no credit to any particular instance of it.
Page 148 - Daphnim. 95 has herbas atque haec Ponto mihi lecta venena ipse dedit Moeris, nascuntur plurima Ponto; his ego saepe lupum fieri et se condere silvis Moerim, saepe animas imis excire sepulcris atque satas alio vidi traducere messis.
Page 203 - God having appointed that secret supernatural sign, for trial of that secret unnatural crime : so that it appears that God hath appointed (for a supernatural sign of the monstrous impiety of witches) that the water shall refuse to receive them in her bosom, that have shaken off them the sacred water of baptism, and wilfully refused the benefit thereof...
Page 84 - It cost the Court a wonderful deal of trouble, to hear the testimonies of the sufferers ; for when they were going to give in their depositions, they would for a long time be taken with fits that made them uncapable of saying any thing. The chief judge asked the prisoner, who he thought hindered these witnesses from giving their testimonies? And he answered, "He supposed it was the devil." That honourable person replied, " How comes the devil then to be so loath to have any testimony borne against...
Page 237 - Though castles topple on their warders' heads; Though palaces, and pyramids, do slope Their heads to their foundations ; though the treasure Of nature's germins tumble all together, Even till destruction sicken, answer me To what I ask you. 1 Witch. Speak. 2 Witch. Demand. 3 Witch. We'll answer, i Witch. Say, if thou'dst rather hear it from our mouths, Or from our masters
Page 244 - In June next ensuing, a great thunder-storm arose out of the north-west after which (the hemisphere being serene) about an hour before sun-set, a SHIP of like dimensions with the aforesaid, with her...
Page 98 - ... you are a liar; I am no more a witch than you are a wizard, and if you take away my life, God will give you blood to drink.
Page 160 - There in a gloomy hollow glen she found A little cottage, built of stickes and reedes In homely...