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Library of Old Authors.


JNIŲ
OF


Evefunctions Motherus
INCREASE MATHER,
REMARKABLE
PROVIDENCES
ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE EARLIER DAYS
OF AMERICAN COLONISATION.
BY
INCREASE MATHER.
WITH INTRODUCTORY PREFACE,
BY GEORGE OFFOR.
LONDON:
REEVES AND TURNER
196, STRAND.
1
1890.
Guft
Dr. S. L. Hubbard
11-27-1928

INTRODUCTION.

HE very natural and laudable curiosity to ex-
amine and compare the past with the present,
has been recently gratified to a great extent
by the republication of rare and curious books.
The labours of the Percy, Parker, Camden, Shakespeare,
and Hansard Knollys Societies, have contributed a store
of information most pleasant and profitable. The Harleian
and Somers' collection of Tracts have rendered acces-
sible a vast number of singularly interesting but rugged
pamphlets, in contrast with which our popular literature
sheds a benign influence over society, while it exhibits an
equally superior elegance of appearance.
The volume now offered to the public is one of a series
of the popular books of a bygone age, which will form a
valuable library of old authors, that in their original forms
are too rare and expensive to be generally accessible.
These singular narrations were collected by one of the
most valuable men of a most eventful period. It exhibits.
Oli
vi
INTRODUCTION
a striking and interesting display of the state of public
feeling of those times, as to supernatural appearances and
strange or mysterious events; and the dawn of light upon
an enquiring mind, imbued with godly piety, leading him
to attempt to penetrate the gloom with which the human
intellect has been for ages shrouded.
*
The subtle craft of a wily priesthood-first Pagan, and
then Christian-led them to claim the exercise of dominion
over the invisible world, and especially over demons.
This may be traced to a pure source, which, by the craft
of man, became streams most polluted. "God, who at
sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in time past.
unto the fathers," completed his revelations by his Son,
and with the death of those who were in personal com-
munion with him, miraculous powers ceased.
But as
false prophets among the heathen had deceived the people,
so did false apostles in the Christian church, by pretended
miracles. Upon the ignorance of man they constructed a
subtle system, transforming the teaching of Christianity,
which by its divine Founder had been based upon the
purest philanthropy, into a mine of pelf in its extent in-
credible as it is dishonourable. The pagan priesthood
practised delusions puerile and absurd, consulting the
entrails of beasts, the flight of birds, the hum of oracles;
and this gave place to practises equally childish—rotten
bones, relics, incantations, and holy water.
Upon the ignorance of man they built up a curious and
ancient system, now fast falling to decay; and in countries
INTRODUCTION
vii
where old inventions have lost their influence, as a last
refuge of lies, they fly to a mystic apostolic descent, con-
veying some obscure undefined miraculous powers. Thus
have they acquired an ascendency over their fellow-men-
soul-destroying, tyrannous, and almost universal. They
limit to their own order all mortal influence to appease
Heaven or to overcome hell. He who dared to doubt
the appearance of ghosts, witches, or goblins, and their
power to torment man, and the power of the priesthood
over these mysterious tormentors, was denounced as an
infidel. The priest alone could cope with satanic power;
and the more firmly they fixed upon the people a belief in
the supernatural, the stronger became their influence over
them. Terrors handed down from mother to daughter
became almost indelible. How strange, how incredibly
absurd is it, even at this day, to see in a doorway an
article of faith, in the shape of an old horseshoe, to pre-
vent the entrance of sprites or fairies; or to witness the
"foolish sorcery," as our author calls it, of foretelling
events by the white of an egg! Almost equal in
absurdity, and much more mischievous, is the authority
still claimed by the priesthood. Who is it that in a
twinkling turns an innocent babe from being a child of
the devil into being "the child of God"? Who is it that
says to the sick and dying, “I absolve thee from all thy
sins" and who is it that buries the body of the vi est.
malefactor, “in sure and certain hope of the resurrection
to eternal life"? None but a priest is supposed to
a2
viii
INTRODUCTION
possess these mysterious powers, while men, even scientific
philosophers, affect to believe the potent spell.
If such things are now believed, it affords a strong
plea for indulgence to Doctor Matherand our pilgrim fathers,
whose minds were clouded with some of those chimeras
which had overshadowed all mankind; but struggling to
throw them off. To see a child totter into walking, and
to hear him stammer into speech, is interesting; but
how much more so to watch the progress of man when
emerging with anxious care from slavery and darkness
to liberty and light! He feels the solemn responsibility
of private judgment-of praying for Divine guidance, in-
stead of paying for pater-nosters to sham intercessors.
The editor of this singular collection of Remarkable
Providences was the son of one of those seventy-seven
pious clergymen who, with four thousand of their fol-
lowers, found refuge among the Indians in the wilds of
America from the ferocious tyranny of Archbishop Laud.
Dr. Mather, who was one of the most extraordinary men
of the age, was born at Dorchester, N.E., June 21, 1639,
and received his name from a very extraordinary increase
with which the colony was at that time favoured. He
was educated for the ministry, and coming to England,
obtained literary honours at Dublin University, being
then only nineteen years of age. At that time he con-
versed familiarly in Latin, and had read the Old Testament
in Hebrew, and the New in Greek. He was highly dis-
tinguished for his attainments in mathematics, philosophy,
INTRODUCTION
ix
history, theology, and rabbinical learning. It pleased
God, at a very early age, to baptize his spirit into divine.
truth, and he became a valuable preacher in England.
Upon the accession of Charles the Second, he refused
to submit his conscience to the dictates of the state, and
chose rather to trust God's providence than to violate
the tranquillity of his mind. To escape persecution, he
returned to New-England, and was ordained pastor over
the North Church in Boston, May 27, 1664, after
having preached on probation three years. He fulfilled
his duties to that Church for sixty-two years; retaining
his full power of intellect, popularity and usefulness,
until he fell asleep in the arms of his son, and was
gathered to his fathers in the eighty-first year of his age.
He was the author of ninety-two distinct works, besides
many learned and useful prefaces.
During the long period of his ministry at Boston, he,
in a faithful proclamation of the gospel, sowed those seeds
of religious and political liberty which, when mature,
brought forth an abundant harvest. In the early part of
his ministerial career, the colony of New-England was
sorely oppressed. That tiger in human shape, Colonel
Kirk, of West-of-England notoriety, was governor. The
people determined to send their most talented man to
represent their grievances to Charles the Second, and in
their wisdom selected Dr. Mather. This alarmed the
oppressors: every effort was made to prevent his em-
barkation. A letter was forged, bearing his name, offen-
X
INTRODUCTION
sive to Government, and was purposely intercepted in its
supposed route to Holland, and sent to the English Court.
His wisdom overcame all obstacles; he escaped every
snare, found access to the King, took advantage of his
declaration of liberty of conscience, and obtained a re-
mission of their persecutions. He had several interviews
with James the Second, but all terminated with that weak
monarch in good words and promises. On the accession
of William, he with great difficulty obtained a new
charter, and in 1692 returned in the same ship with
the new governor. By these wise exertions, crowned
with complete and extraordinary success, he laid the
foundation upon which Washington, Franklin, and their
compatriots established the vast and extending empire of
the United States of America.
Such was the eminent divine, the decided patriot, the
truthful historian, who to promote the best interests of
man, collected, arranged, and published these Remarkable
Providences and Marvellous Escapes by Sea and Land.
They faithfully delineate the state of public opinion two
hundred years ago, the most striking feature being an
implicit faith in the power of the invisible world to hold
visible intercourse with man;-not the angels to bless
poor erring mortals, but of demons imparting power to
witches and warlocks to injure, terrify, and destroy.
These superstitions prevailed in all nations in propor-
tion to ignorance and priestly domination. All professed
to believe in witchcraft, excepting only those few en-
INTRODUCTION
xi
lightened philosophers who were branded as "impious
atheists." It was at this period, when oppressed by the
ruthless hand of persecution, our pilgrim fathers, threat-
ened with torture and death, succumbed not to man, but,
trusting on an Almighty arm, braved the dangers of an
almost unknown ocean, and threw themselves into the
arms of men called savages, who proved more beneficent
than rational Christians. Their exodus was unlike that of
the Israelites, fenced about with miracles, guided by an
inspired leader, and in one great body. Our refugees
divided into small parties, fled in frail vessels more fit for
ferry-boats over an arm of the sea than to brave the
billows of the Bay of Biscay, the stormy perils of the
great Atlantic, and the foggy dangers of Newfoundland.
Theirs was a solemn covenant, that at all hazards they
would render unto God the homage of the heart in obey-
ing his high commands, however contrary to human laws,
which are void of obligation when they infringe the rights
of conscience.
They sought an asylum in an unknown wilderness, and
there founded a mighty nation, which when purified from
slave-holding, bids fair to become the greatest nation in
the world. Kingdoms governed by despots will melt.
away, while those where religious freedom reigns must
flourish. The exiles took with them their educational
prejudices, which the solitariness of the wilderness had a
tendency to increase. Their faith in supernatural appear-
ances, possessions by devils or by the souls of deceased
xii
INTRODUCTION
persons, and in witchcraft, was strengthened. Their belief
was supported by plausible arguments, apparently well-
attested facts, and embraced by the great, the wise, and
the good. Nor did they feel the difference between faith
in unseen spiritual existences and faith in their visible
appearance to man. Dreams, like that of Dr. Frith¹, are
told by one narrator to another, with additions and
embellishments, until they became visions. The French
scholar, having spent the produce of robbery in de-
bauchery, goes on to shed blood-his conscience drives
him mad—he raves of having sold his soul to the fiend,
and sealed the contract with blood. The priests assemble;
they pray and exorcise; the bystanders are
1
It may have been that one of them, who had previously
written and threw it up, catches a paper fluttering in the
air; it is signed and sealed with blood; it is the accursed
deed, and is torn in fragments. The maniac recovers, like
the rich man in the humorous tale of the Cobbler, by
Samuel Wesley. Who could doubt but that the devil had
so befooled himself? One such tale was quite enough to
be told with a thousand variations-all derived from one
original, and all attested by the same spectators. The
most cruel and mischievous of all these delusions was that
of witchcraft. Poor defenceless old women, especially the
ill-favoured and ill-tempered, were sacrificed to that horrid
Moloch. The history of their sufferings, with that of the
martyrs, forms the most gloomy, the blackest, and most
1 See Preface.
INTRODUCTION
xiii
revolting pages of history. The prevailing opinion was
that under the Mosaic law, answering to the Greek
word papuakela,¹ conveyed the same idea as the English
word "witch," and that such characters were, by divine
command, sentenced to death. These words convey no
such meaning as a Satanic compact, but allude to an
acquired human knowledge, as skill in medicine some-
times perverted to administering poison, and at others to
poisoning the mind with the cruel ceremonies of idolatry.
Thus it was with Manasseh,2 who persuaded the people
to murder their offspring as an act of religion. A witch
is defined by the statute to be "One that shall use,
practise, or exercise any invocation or conjuration of any
evil or wicked spirit, or consult, covenant with, entertain,
or employ, feed or reward any evil or wicked spirit," &c.,
"whereby any person shall be killed, destroyed, wasted,
consumed, pined, or lamed in his or her body, or any part
thereof." So early as Edward VI, 1547, Cranmer's
Articles of Visitation inquires of every parish officer:
"Item. Whether you know any that use charms, sorcery,
enchantments, witches, or any like craft invented by the
devil." The Virgin Queen continues this inquiry with
the addition, "and especially in the time of women's
travel." The fear was lest the devil should steal away the
1 Gal. v, 19, 20.
22 Chron. xxxiii, 6. The word 2, "Obi Man," is still
used in Africa for doctor, or wise man.
3 5 Eliz. and 1 James.
xiv
INTRODUCTION
soul of the infant, and introduce an imp of his own in its
place—a superstitious notion derived from the Jews. In
the same reign, some Jesuits practised extraordinary
delusions at the mansion of Lord Vaux, at Hackney, near
London. Weston and Campian were the chief performers;
their abettors were Sarah Williams and some other aban-
doned young women. They were taught to throw them-
selves into a kind of mesmeric trance, and, with strange
distortions of body, uttered a pretended inspiration from
the world of spirits. There were awful denunciations of
wrath upon all who embraced the doctrines of the
Reformation, as being possessed by Satan and doomed to
eternal misery. These young women were restored from
these paroxysms by the aid of holy water, purgatives, and
emetics, and, when these failed, the foul fiend was driven
out by the application of reliques in a most indelicate
manner. 1
The Stuart race kept all these delusions in fashion,
especially witchcraft. King James asserts the compact
between Satan and the witch; and, among many amusing
ceremonies, states that the devil teaches his disciples how
to draw triangular circles-a most potent spell; but
unfortunately, his Majesty of England does not furnish
us with a diagram to illustrate his infernal majesty's
problem. At length, in the latter part of the seventeenth
1 Published, with the confession of the poor woman, in a
small 4to, in possession of the writer.
INTRODUCTION
XV
century, witchcraft became a dreadful epidemic, and the
number of lives that were sacrificed will never be known.
Drowning, hanging, and even burning the victims, only
increased the horrid appetite for such slaughter. A
Scotch witch-finder was tempted at Newcastle and in
Northumberland to condemn poor women as witches for
a reward of twenty shillings for every one that, on his
evidence, was put to death. When he was hung for
some villany in Scotland, he confessed that he had been
the death of above two hundred and twenty women.¹
Matthew Hopkins, another of these wretches, hanged
no less than sixty reputed witches in one year in Essex
alone. Dr. Zachary Grey saw a list of between three
and four thousand persons who suffered death for witch-
craft. These cruelties were permitted while the victims
were poor, old, decrepid women, but attacks on the
wealthier classes occasioned alarm. A highly respectable
Quaker lady, named Morlin, was tried for witchcraft, and
saved from an ignominious death by the wisdom of Judge
Windham. The evidence-a lewd woman named Pryer-
swore that the lady appeared at her bedside one night,
about two years ago; took her from her husband's side,
turned her into a bay mare, and rode her several miles up-
dirty lanes to a meeting; that on her return her husband
did not discover it. In answer to the judge, she said her
feet were a little sore, but not her hands; nor was she
¹ See the testimony upon oath in Gardiner's England's
Grievance.
xvi
INTRODUCTION
dirty. Upon promise of a reward she had made it known.
The judge directed an acquittal, ascribing the evidence
to a dream, but did not punish the perjured wretch.¹
Many of the poor creatures were subjected to cruel
tortures, until they confessed anything that was suggested
them. At length Sir Robert Filmer published an adver-
tisement to the jurymen of England touching witches.
In this he shows the difference between a Hebrew and
an English witch, and proves that the devil is the prin-
cipal, and the witch only an accessary before the fact.
Now, an accessary cannot be convicted before the prin-
cipal is tried or outlawed upon summons for non-appear-
ance; that he could not be tried by his peers, who, if
he could, would never convict him; and that, by the
rules of common law, the devil could neither be summoned
nor outlawed, and therefore a witch could not be tried.
As the people became enlightened, these cruel outrages
became less frequent. Even Luther says "When I was
a child there were many witches, which bewitched both
cattle and men, especially children. But now these things
be not so commonly heard of, for the gospel thrusteth the
devil out of his seat.”2
It was reserved to Lord Chief Justice Holt to put an
end to witchcraft in England, which he most effectually
accomplished, by ordering prosecutions against all prose-
1 Strange and Terrible News from Cambridge proved to be
a Lie. Small 4to.
2 Com. on Gal. v, 19.
INTRODUCTION
xvii
cutors who pretended to have been bewitched. One was
convicted, and, as an impostor, stood in the pillory; and
Lord Campbell adds "No female was ever after in
danger of being hanged or burned for being old, wrinkled,
or paralytic." Soon after this, the laws against witch-
craft were repealed, as a disgrace to the statutes of the
realm. Thus ended witchcraft in England, after a long,
brutal, sanguinary reign. Satan was despoiled of his
power to carry old women through the air on broomsticks
to his nocturnal assemblies, or of diverting himself with
good people's butter, cheese, pigs and geese.
The Rev. Walter Scott, in his Congregational Lecture,
has entered with great skill into this difficult question,
which can now be discussed without much fear of being
branded with infidelity, "The existence and agency of
evil spirits." The existence of good and evil spirits is
generally admitted, but their agency is disputed. It
requires no argument to prove that an immaterial invisible
being can neither be seen by day or night. Mr. Scott
fully admits that a disordered imagination, or disease in
the organs of vision, has often led mankind to a firm
belief in that which never existed, and gives some very
amusing instances of it, well authenticated. We know
from divine revelation, that an impassable barrier, a great
gulf, is fixed between this world and that of departed
spirits-impenetrable to either side.2 Which is the infidel:
¹ Lives of Justices, ii, 170.
2 See page 150.
xviii
INTRODUCTION
he who believes this solemn portion of holy writ, or he
who believes it not?
A desire to pry into futurity-to be wise above what is
written, has been interwoven into fallen nature. The
Almighty, by the wisest of men, has told us that "man
knoweth not that which shall be." This is reiterated by
the inspired apostle-" Ye know not what shall be on the
morrow."" Universal experience proves that foreknow-
ledge is limited to the Most High; yet man is so exceed-
ingly weak and wicked as to apply to vagabond fortune-
tellers or conjurors, and thus prove his faith in the promise
made by the father of lies, "Ye shall be as gods." To this
evil spirit we owe all that craft, deception and robbery
displayed by conjurors and wizards. Man has all the fore-
knowledge that he needs, in Job iv, 8, and Gal. vi., 7, 8, 9.
If such learned and pious men as Dr. Preston and
Judge Hale were carried away by the popular delusions,
we may bear with Dr. Mather, more especially as he was
one of the first divines who discovered that many very
strange events, which were considered preternatural, had
occurred in the course of nature or by deceitful juggling ;³
that the devil could not speak English, nor prevail with
Protestants; the smell of herbs alarms the devil; that
medicine drove out Satan !7
1 Ecc. viii, 7.
2 James iv, 14.
" Pp. 132-138.
7 Page 186.
4
4
* Page 142.
5 Page 144.
6
Page 180.
.8
INTRODUCTION
xix
All the narratives, many of which are deeply affecting,
bear the evidence of a truthful conviction on the part of
the relators; but most of them were handed down, doubt-
less with some embellishments. They are arranged in
methodical order, and form a very amusing volume,
more especially as it conveys a faithful portrait of the
state of society, when the doctrine of a peculiar providence
and of personal intercourse between this world and that
which is unseen was fully believed.
We are bound to admire the accuracy and beauty of
this specimen of typography. Following in the path of
my late friend William Pickering, our publisher rivals
the Aldine and Elzevir presses, which have been so uni-
versally admired. May every success attend his efforts.
GEORGE OFFOR.
1
Hackney,
Dec. 1, 1855.

THE PREFACE.

BOUT six-and-twenty years ago, a Design for
the Recording of Illustrious Providences was
under serious consideration among some emi-
nent ministers in England and in Ireland.
That motion was principally set on foot by the learned
Mr. Matthew Poole, whose Synopsis Criticorum, and
other books by him emitted, have made him famous in the
world. But before any thing was brought to effect, the
persons to have been employed had their thoughts diverted
another way; nevertheless there was a MS. (the com
poser whereof is to me unknown) then written, wherein
the subjects proper for this record, and some rules for the
better managing a design of this nature, are described.
In that MS. I find notable stories related and attested,
which elsewhere I never met with, particularly the story
of Mr. Earl of Colchester, and another mentioned in
our subsequent essay. And besides those, there are some
b
THE PREFACE
very memorable passages written, which have not as yet
been published, so far as I understand. There are in that
MS. several remarkables about apparitions: e. g. it is
there said that Dr. Frith (who was one of the prebends
belonging to Windsor), lying on his bed, the chamber
doors were thrown open, and a corps, with attending
torches, brought to his bed-side upon a bier-the corps
representing one of his own family. After some pause
there was such another shew, till he, the said doctor, his
wife and all his family, were brought in on the bier in
such order as they all soon after died. The doctor was
not then sick, but quickly grew melancholly, and would,
rising at midnight, repair to the graves and monuments at
Eton Colledge, saying that he and his must shortly take
up their habitation among the dead. The relater of this
story (a person of great integrity) had it from Dr. Frith's
son, who also added, "My fathers vision is already exe-
cuted upon all the family but myself; my time is next,
and near at hand.”
In the mentioned MS. there is also a marvelous relation
concerning a young Scholar in France; for it is there
affirmed, that this prophane student, having by extrava-
gant courses outrun his means, in his discontent walking
solitarily, a man came to him, and enquired the cause of
his sadness; which he owning to be want of money, had
presently a supply given him by the other. That being
quickly consumed upon his lusts, as soon as his money
was gone, his discontent returned; and in his former walk
THE PREFACE
he met with his former reliever, who again offered to
supply him, but askt him to contract with him to be his,
and to sign the contract with his blood. The woful wretch
consented; but not long after, considering that this con-
tract was made with the devil, the terrors of his con-
science became insupportable, so as that he endeavoured
to kill himself to get out of them. Some ministers, and
other Christians, being informed how matters were circum
stanced, kept dayes of prayer for him and with him; and
he was carefully watched that so he might be kept from
self-murder. Still he continued under terror, and said he
should do so, as long as the covenant which he had signed
remained in the hands of the devil. Hereupon the minis-
ters resolve to keep a day of fasting and prayer in that
very place of the field were the distressed creature had
made the woful bargain, setting him in the midst of them.
Thus they did; and being with special actings of faith
much enlarged to pray earnestly to the Lord to make
known his power over Satan, in constraining him to give
up that contract; after some hours continuance in prayer,
a cloud was seen to spread itself over them; and out of it
the very contract signed with the poor creatures blood was
dropped down amongst them; which being taken up and
viewed, the party concerned took it and tore it in pieces.
The relator had this from the mouth of Mr. Beaumond,
a minister of note at Caen in Normandy, who assured
him that he had it from one of the ministers that did
assist in carrying on the day of prayer when this memo-
b2
THE PREFACE
rable providence hapned. Nor is the relation impossible
to be true; for Luther speaks of a providence, not unlike
unto this, which hapned in his congregation.
This MS. doth also mention some most remarkable
judgments of God upon sinners, as worthy to be recorded.
for posterity to take notice of. It is there said, that when
Mr. Richard Juxon was a fellow of Kings Colledge in
Cambridge, he led a most vicious life; and whereas such
of the students as were serious in matters of religion did
endeavour, by solemn fasting and prayer, to prepare them-
selves for the communion which was then (this was about
the year 1636) on Easter-Day. This Juxon spent all the
time of preparation in drunken wild meetings, and was up
late and drunk on the Saturday night. Nevertheless, on
the Lords Day, he came with others to the communion,
and sat next to the relater, who, knowing his disorder
the night before, was much troubled, but had no remedy,
Church-discipline not being then so practised as ought to
have been. The Communion being ended, such of the
scholars as had the fear of God in their hearts, repaired
to their closets. But this Juxon went immediately to a
drunken meeting, and there to a cockfight, where he fell
to his accustomed madness, and pouring out a volley of
oaths and curses; while these were between his lips, God
smote him dead in the twinkle of an eye. And though
Juxon were but young, and of a comely person, his car-
case was immediately so corrupted as that the stench of
it was insufferable, insomuch that no house would receive
:
THE PREFACE
it, and his friends were forced to hire some base fellows
to watch the carcase till night; and then with pitch, and
such-like gums, covered him in a coffin, and so made a
shift to endure his interment. There stood by a scholar,
whose name was George Hall, and who acted his part
with Juxon in his prophaneness, but he was so astonished
with this amazing providence of God, as that he fell
down upon his knees, begging pardoning mercy from
Heaven, and vowing a reformation; which vow the Lord
enabled him to keep, so as that afterwards he became an
able and famous minister of the Gospel.
One strange passage more I shall here relate out of the
MS. which we have thus far made mention of. Therein I
find part of a letter transcribed, which is as followeth :-
"Lismore, Octob. 2, 1658. In another part of this
countrey, a poor man being suspected to have stollen a
sheep was questioned for it; he forswore the thing, and
wished, that if he had stollen it, God would cause the
horns of the sheep to grow upon him. This man was
seen within these few dayes by a minister of great repute
for piety, who saith, that the man has an horn growing
out of one corner of his mouth, just like that of a sheep;
from which he hath cut seventeen inches, and is forced to
keep it tyed by a string to his ear, to prevent its growing
up to his eye. This minister not only saw but felt this
horn, and reported it in this family this week, as also a
gentleman formerly did, who was himself an eye-witness
thereof. Surely such passages are a demonstrative evi-
THE PREFACE
dence that there is a God who judgeth in the earth, and
who, though he stay long, will not be mocked alwayes."
I shall say no more concerning the MS. only that
it was sent over to Reverend Mr. Davenport by (as I
suppose) Mr. Hartlib. How it came to lie dormient in
his hands I know not; though I had the happiness of
special intimacy with that worthy man, I do not remem-
ber that ever I heard him speak any thing of it. But
since his death, looking over his MSS. I met with this,
and communicated it to other ministers, who highly ap-
proved of the noble design aimed at therein. Soon after
which, some proposals, in order to the reviving of this
work, were drawn up, and presented at a general meeting
of the ministers in this colony, May 12, 1681, which it
may not be unsuitable here to recite.
"Some Proposals concerning the Recording of Illustrious
Providences.
"I. In order to the promoving of a design of this
nature, so as shall be indeed for Gods glory and the good
of posterity, it is necessary that utmost care shall be taken
that all and only Remarkable Providences be recorded and
published.
"II. Such Divine judgements, tempests, floods, earth-
quakes, thunders as are unusual, strange apparitions, or
whatever else shall happen that is prodigious, witchcrafts,
diabolical possessions, remarkable judgements upon noted
THE PREFACE
sinners, eminent deliverances, and answers of prayer, are
to be reckoned among illustrious providences.
(C
III. Inasmuch as we find in Scripture, as well as in
ecclesiastical history, that the ministers of God have been
improved in the recording and declaring the works of the
Lord, and since they are in divers respects under peculiar
advantages thereunto, it is proposed, that each one in
that capacity may diligently enquire into and record such.
illustrious providences as have hapned, or from time to
time shall happen, in the places whereunto they do
belong; and that the witnesses of such notable occurrents
be likewise set down in writing.
1
“IV. Although it be true that this design cannot be
brought into perfection in one or two years, yet it is much
to be desired that something may be done therein out of
hand, as a specimen of a more large volume, that so this
work may be set on foot, and posterity may be encouraged
to go on therewith.
"V. It is therefore proposed that the elders may con-
curre in desiring some one that hath leisure and ability for
the management of such an undertaking, with all conve-
nient speed to begin therewith.
"VI. And that, therefore, other elders do without delay
make enquiry concerning the remarkable occurrents that
have formerly fallen out, or may fall out hereafter, where
they are concerned, and transmit them unto the aforesaid
person, according to the directions above specified, in
order to a speedy publication.
THE PREFACE
"VII. That notice be given of these proposals unto our
brethren, the elders of the neighbour colonies, that so we
may enjoy their concurrence and assistance herein.
"VIII. When any thing of this nature shall be ready
for the presse, it appears on sundry grounds very expe-
dient that it should be read and approved of at some
meeting of the elders, before publication."
These things being read and considered, the author of
this essay was desired to begin the work which is here
done; and I am engaged to many for the materials and
informations which the following collections do consist of.
It is not easie to give an account of things, and yet no cir-
cumstantial mistakes attend what shall be related. Nor
dare I averr that there are none such in what follows;
only I have been careful to prevent them; and as to the
substance of each passage, I am well assured it is accord-
ing to truth. That rare accident about the lightning,
which caused a wonderful change in the compasses of a
vessel then at sea, was as in the book expressed, pages
91, 92; only it is uncertain whether they were then
exactly in the latitude of 38, for they had not taken an
observation for several dayes; but the master of the vessel
affirms that to be the latitude so near as they could con-
jecture. Since the needle was changed by the lightning,
if a lesser compass be set over it, the needle therein (or
any other touched with the loadstone) will alter its polarity,
and turn about to the south, as I have divers times to
THE PREFACE
my great admiration experimented. There is near the
north point a dark spot, like as if it were burnt with a
drop of brimstone, supposed to be caused by the lightning.
Whether the magnetic impressions on that part of the
needle being dissipated by the heat of the lightning, and
the effluvia on the south end of the needle only remaining
untouched thereby, be the true natural reason of the mar-
velous alteration, or whether it ought to be ascribed to
some other cause, the ingenious may consider.
There is another remarkable passage about lightning
which hapned at Duxborough, in New England, concerning
which I have lately received this following account:-
September 11, 1653 (being the Lords Day), there were
small drizling showers, attended with some seldome and
scarce perceivable rumbling thunders, until towards the
evening; at what time, Mr. Constant Southworth of
Duxbury returning home after evening exercise, in com-
pany with some neighbours, discoursing of some extraordi-
nary thunder-claps with lightning, and the awful effects
and consequents thereof, being come into his own house
(there were present in one room, himself, his wife, two
children, viz. Thomas, he was afterwards drowned, and
Benjamin, he was long after this killed by the Indians,
with Philip Delano, a servant), there broke perpendicularly
over the said house and room a most awful and amazing
clap of thunder, attended with a violent flash, or rather
flame of lightning, which brake and shivered one of the
needles of the katted or wooden chimney, carrying divers
THE PREFACE
splinters seven or eight rods distance from the house. It
filled the room with smoke and flame; and set fire in the
thatch of a lean-to which was on the back-side of a room
adjoyning to the former, in which the five persons above.
mentioned were. It melted some pewter, so that it ran
into drops on the outside, as is often seen on tin ware;
melted round holes in the top of a fire-shovel proportion-
able in quantity to a small goose-shot; struck Mrs.
Southworths arm so that it was for a time benummed;
smote the young child Benjamin in his mothers arms, de-
prived it of breath for a space, and to the mothers appre-
hension squeased it as flat as a planck; smote a dog stone
dead which lay within two foot of Philip Delano; the dog
never moved out of his place or posture in which he was
when smitten, but giving a small yelp, and quivering with
his toes, lay still, blood issuing from his nose or mouth.
It smote the said Philip, made his right arm senseless for
a time, together with the middle finger in special (of his
right hand), which was benummed, and turned as white as
chalk or lime, yet attended with little pain. After some
few hours, that finger began to recover its proper colour at
the knuckle, and so did gradually whiten unto its extre-
mity; and although the said Delano felt a most violent.
heat upon his body, as if he had been scorched in the
midst of a violent burning fire, yet his clothes were not
singed, neither had the smell of fire passed thereon.
I could not insert this story in its proper place, because
I received it after that chapter about thunder and
}
THE PREFACE
lightning was printed. Some credible persons, who have
been eye-witnesses of it, inform me that the lightning in
that house at Duxborough, did with the vehemency of its
flame, cause the bricks in the chimney to melt like molten
lead which particular was as remarkable as any of the
other mentioned in the narrative, and therefore I thought
good here to add it.
In this essay I design no more than a specimen; and
having (by the good hand of God upon me) set this wheel
a going, I shall leave it unto others, whom God has fitted
and shall incline thereto, to go on with the undertaking.
Some digressions I have made in distinct chapters,
handling several considerable Cases of Conscience, sup-
posing it not unprofitable or improper so to do, since the
things related gave the occasion. Both leisure and exer-
cise of judgement are required in the due performance of
a service of this nature. There are some that have more
leisure, and many that have greater abilities, than I have:
I expect not that they should make my method their stan-
dard; but they may follow a better of their own, as they
shall see cause. The addition of parallel stories is both
pleasing and edifying; had my reading and remembrance
of things been greater, I might have done more that way,
as I hope others will in the next essay.
I could have mentioned some very memorable passages
of Divine Providence, wherein the countrey in general hath
been concerned: some remarkables of that kind are to be
seen in my former relations of the troubles occasioned by
THE PREFACE
the Indians in New-England. There are other particulars
no less worthy to be recorded, but in my judgement this
is not so proper a season for us to divulge them. It has
been in my thoughts to publish a discourse of Miscellaneous
Observations concerning Things Rare and Wonderful, both
as to the Works of Creation and Providence, which in
my small readings I have met with in many authors; but
this must suffice for the present. I have often wished that
the Natural History of New-England might be written and
published to the world; the rules and method described
by that learned and excellent person Robert Boyle, Esq.,
being duely observed therein. It would best become some
scholar that has been born in this land to do such a
service for his countrey. Nor would I myself decline to
put my hand (so far as my small capacity will reach) to so
noble an undertaking, did not manifold diversions and em-
ployments prevent me from attending that which I should
account a profitable recreation. I have other work upon
me which I would gladly finish before I leave the world,
and but a very little time to do it in. Moreover, not
many years ago, I lost (and that's an afflictive loss indeed!)
several moneths from study by sickness. Let every God-
fearing reader joyn with me in prayer, that I may
enabled to redeem the time, and (in all wayes wherein I
am capable), to serve my generation.
Boston in New-England,
January 1, 1682.
INCREASE MATHER.
be
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
OF REMARKABLE SEA-DELIVERANCES.—Mr. Anthony
Thacher's relation concerning his and his wife's being
marvellously preserved alive, when all the ship's com-
pany perished. The wonderful preservation of Major
Gibbons and his company. Several other remarkable
sea-deliverances mentioned by Mr. Janeway, wherein
New England men were concerned. Mr. Grafton's
preservation. A vessel lately coming from Bristol for
New England saved out of great distress at sea. Some
providentially met with by a New England vessel in an
open boat, many leagues off from any shore, strangely
preserved. An account of a remarkable sea-deliverance
which happened this present year. Another like unto
it which happened above twenty years ago
CHAPTER II.
•
A FURTHER ACCOUNT OF SOME OTHER REMARKABLE
PRESERVATIONS.-Of a child that had part of her
brains struck out, and yet lived and did well. Remark-
able deliverances of some in Windsor. Of several in
the late Indian War. The relation of a captive.
Skipper How's memorable preservation. Several ex-
amples somewhat parallel wherein others in other parts
of the world were concerned
CHAPTER III.
CONCERNING REMARKABLES ABOUT THUNDER AND
LIGHTNING.-One at Salisbury in New England struck
dead thereby. Several at Marshfield. One at North-
Hampton. The captain of the castle in Boston. Some
remarkables about lightning in Rocksborough, Wenham,
Marble-head, Cambridge. And in several vessels at
PAGE
1
23
CONTENTS
sea. Some late parallel instances. Of several in the
last century. Scripture examples of men slain by light-
ning
CHAPTER IV.
SOME PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS.-Concerning Anti-
pathies and Sympathies. Of the loadstone. Of the
nature and wonderful effects of lightning. That
thunder storms are often caused by Satan, and
sometimes by good angels. Thunder is the voice of
God, and, therefore, to be dreaded. All places in the
habitable world are subject to it, more or less. No
amulets can preserve men from being hurt thereby.
The miserable estate of wicked men upon this account,
and the happiness of the righteous, who may be above
all disquieting fears with respect unto such terrible
accidents
CHAPTER V.
HAVE
PAGE
51
. 70
CONCERNING THINGS PRETERNATURAL WHICH
HAPNED IN NEW ENGLAND.—A remarkable relation
about Ann Cole, of Hartford. Concerning several
witches in that Colony. Of the possessed maid at
Groton. An account of the house in Newberry lately
troubled with a dæmon. A parallel story of an house
at Tedworth, in England. Concerning another in Hart-
ford. And of one in Portsmouth, in New England,
lately disquieted by evil spirits. The relation of a
woman at Barwick, in New England, molested with
apparitions, and sometimes tormented by invisible
agents
. 96
CHAPTER VI.
THAT THERE ARE DEMONS AND POSSESSED PERSONS.
Signs of such. Some mad men are really possessed,
notwithstanding many fabulous stories about witch-
crafts. That there are witches proved by three argu-
ments. That houses are sometimes troubled by evil
spirits. Witchcraft often the cause of it. Sometimes
CONTENTS.
by the devil without witchcraft. Ordered by Providence
as punishment for sin. The disturbance in Waltons
house further considered, with a parallel story. That
the things related in the preceding chapter were un-
doubtedly præternatural and diabolical
CHAPTER VII.
•
CONCERNING APPARITIONS.-They are not so frequent in
places where the Gospel prevaileth as in the dark corners
of the earth. That good angels do sometimes visibly
appear. Confirmed by several histories. That caco-
dæmons oftentimes pretend to be good angels. That
Satan may appear in the likeness of holy men, proved
by notable instances. Concerning the appearance of
persons deceased. Theprocuring cause thereof is usually
some sin committed. Some late remarkable examples.
Of mens covenanting to appear after their dea h. It is
an heavy judgement when places are infested with such
doleful spectres
CHAPTER VIII.
Several CaseS OF CONSCIENCE CONSIDERED.—That it is
not lawful to make use of herbs or plants to drive away
evil spirits; nor of words or characters. An objection
answered. Whether it be lawful for persons bewitched
to burn things, or to nail horse-shoes before their doors,
or to stop urin in bottles, or the like, in order to the
recovery of health. The negative proved by several
arguments. Whether it be lawful to try witches by
casting them into the water. Several reasons evincing
the vanity of that way of probation. Some other super-
stitions witnessed against
CHAPTER IX.
→ DEAF AND DUMB PERSONS.-A strangerelation of a woman
in Weymouth in New-England that has been dumb and
deaf ever since she was three years old,who,nevertheless,
has a competent knowledge in the mysteries of religion,
and is admitted to the sacrament. Some parallel in-
stances. Of wayes to teach those that are naturally
PAGE
119
143
176
CONTENTS.
leaf and dumb to speak. Another relation of a man in
Hull in New-England, under whose tongue a stone bred.
Concerning that petrification which humane bodies are
subject unto. That plants and diverse sorts of animals
have sometimes bred in the bodies of men
CHAPTER X.
PACE
205
OF REMARKABLE Tempests, ETC., IN NEW-England.-
A remark upon the hurricane, anno 1635. A remark-
able accident by a sudden freezing of rain, in the year
1659. A strange whirl-wind in Cambridge, 1680.
Another in New-Haven Colony, 1682, Another at
Springfield. Some parallel instances. Of earthquakes
in this countrey. Land wonderfully removed. Parallel
stories. Of remarkable floods this year, not only in
New-England, but in other parts of the world. An
account of a prodigious flood in France five years ago,
with conjectures concerning the natural reason of it 220
CHAPTER XI.
CONCERNING REMARKABLE JUDGEMENTS.-Quakers judi-
cially plagued with spiritual judgements. Of several
sad instances in Long Island and in Plimouth Colony.
That some of the Quakers are really possessed with
infernal spirits proved by a late wonderful example of
one at Balsham, near Cambridge in England. Of
several who imprecated vengeance upon themselves.
The woful end of drunkards; and of those that have
designed evil against the Churches of Christ in New-
England
CHAPTER XII.
CHA
AN ACCOUNT OF SOME REMARKABLES AT NORWICH IN
NEW-ENGLAND.--Special answers of prayer made in
that place. That people marvellously preserved. The
scandalous miscarriage of one so over-ruled by Pro-
vidence, as to be an occasion of the conversion of several
others. A further account of some personal deliverances
in Norwich. Concerning sudden deaths which have
hapned in New-England
239
256

REMARKABLE
PROVIDENCES
CHAPTER I.
OF REMARKABLE SEA DELIVERANCES.
Mr. Anthony Thacher's relation concerning his and his wife's being mar-
vellously preserved alive, when all the ship's company perished. The
wonderful preservation of Major Gibbons and his company. Several
other remarkable sea-deliverances mentioned by Mr. Janeway, wherein
New England men were concerned. Mr. Grafton's preservation. A
vessel lately coming from Bristol for New England saved out of great
distress at sea. Some providentially met with by a New England vessel
in an open boat, many leagues off from any shore, strangely preserved.
An account of a remarkable sea-deliverance which happened this present
year.
Another like unto it which happened above twenty years ago.
HE royal pen of the prophet David hath most
truly affirmed, "that they who go down to the
sea in ships, that do business in great waters,
see the works of the Lord, and his wonders
in the deep." And, in special, they see wonders of Divine
goodness in respect of eminent deliverances wrought
by the hand of the Most High, who stills the noise.
of the seas, the noise of their waves.
such providences should be ever had in remembrance, as
most of all by the persons concerned in them, so by others,
that the God of Salvation, who is the confidence of them
that are afar off upon the sca, may have eternal praise..

It is meet that
1
2
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
Many remarkable stories of this kind are to be seen in books
already published:-e.g. in Mandelslo's Travels; Hackluyt
and Linschoten's Voyages; Wanley's History; Caussin's
Holy Court; Mr. Burton's Treatises, lately printed; and
in Mr. Janeway's Sea Deliverances. I shall in this
chapter confine myself unto things which have happened.
either in New England, or wherein New England vessels
have been concerned. We shall begin with that remarkable
sea-deliverance which Mr. Anthony Thacher did experience
at his first coming to New England. A full and true
relation whereof I find in a letter directed to his brother,
Mr. Peter Thacher, then a faithful minister of Christ in
Sarum in England (he was father to my worthy dear friend,
Mr. Thomas Thacher, late pastor of one of the churches in
this Boston). This letter of Mr. Anthony Thacher to his
brother, being written within a few days after that eminent
providence happened unto him, matters were then fresh in
his memory; I shall, therefore, here insert his narrative
in his own words, who expresseth himself as followeth :—
"I must turn my drowned pen and shaking hand to
indite the story of such sad news as never before this
happened in New England. There was a league of per-
petual friendship between my cousin Avery (note that this
Mr. Avery was a precious holy minister, who came out of
England with Mr. Anthony Thacher) and myself never to
forsake each other to the death, but to be partakers of
each others misery or welfare, as also of habitation in the
same place. Now, upon our arrival in New England,
there was an offer made unto us. My Cousin Avery was
invited to Marble-head, to be their pastor in due time;
there being no church planted there as yet, but a town
SEA DELIVERANCES.
3
appointed to set up the trade of fishing. Because many
there (the most being fishermen) were something loose and
remiss in their behaviour, my Cousin Avery was unwilling
to go thither, and so refusing we went to Newbery,
intending there to sit down. But being solicited so often,
both by the men of the place and by the magistrates, and
by Mr. Cotton and most of the ministers, who alleged
what a benefit we might be to the people there, and also
to the country and commonwealth: at length we embraced
it, and thither consented to go. They of Marble-head
forthwith sent a pinnace for us and our goods.
We em-
barked at Ipswich, August 11, 1635, with our families
and substance, bound for Marble-head, we being in all
twenty-three souls, viz., eleven in my cousin's family,
seven in mine, and one Mr. William Eliot, sometimes
of New Sarum, and four mariners. The next morning,
having commended ourselves to God, with cheerful hearts
we hoisted sail; but the Lord suddenly turned our cheer-
fulness into mourning and lamentations; for on the 14th
of this August, 1635, about ten at night, having a fresh
gale of wind, our sails being old and done, were split. The
mariners, because that it was night, would not put to new
sails, but resolved to cast anchor till the morning. But
before daylight it pleased the Lord to send so mighty a
storm, as the like was never known in New England since
the English came, nor in the memory of any of the Indians.
It was so furious that our anchor came home. Where-
upon the mariners let out more cable, which at last slipped
away. Then our sailors knew not what to do, but we
were driven before the wind and waves. My cousin and
I perceived our danger, solemnly recommended ourselves to
God, the Lord both of earth and seas, expecting with every
la
4
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
wave to be swallowed up and drenched in the deeps. And
as my cousin, his wife, and my tender babes, sat comforting
and cheering one the other in the Lord against ghastly
death, which every moment stared us in the face, and sat
triumphing upon each one's forehead, we were by the vio-
lonce of the waves and fury of the winds (by the Lord's
permission), lifted up upon a rock between two high rocks,
yet all was one rock, but it raged with the stroke which
came into the pinnace, so as we were presently up to our
middles in water as we sat. The waves came furiously and
violently over us, and against us; but by reason of the
rock's proportion could not lift us off, but beat her all to
pieces. Now look with me upon our distress, and consider
of my misery, who beheld the ship broken, the water in
her, and violently overwhelming us, my goods and provi-
sions swimming in the seas, my friends almost drowned,
and mine own poor children so untimely (if I may so term
it without offence), before mine eyes drowned, and ready
to be swallowed up, and dashed to pieces against the rocks
by the merciless waves, and myself ready to accompany
them. But I must go on to an end of this woful relation.
In the same room whereas he sat, the master of the pin-
nace not knowing what to do, our foremast was cut down,
our mainmast broken in three pieces, the fore part of the
pinnace beat away, our goods swimming about the seas,
my children bewailing me, as not pitying themselves, and
myself bemoaning them; poor souls, whom I had occa-
sioned to such an end in their tender years, when as they
could scarce be sensible of death. And so likewise my
cousin, his wife, and his children, and both of us bewailing
each other, in our Lord and only Saviour Jesus Christ, in
whom only we had comfort and cheerfulness, insomuch
SEA DELIVERANCES.
5
that from the greatest to the least of us, there was not one
screech or outcry made, but all as silent sheep were con-
tentedly resolved to die together lovingly, as since our
acquaintance we had lived together friendly. Now as I
was sitting in the cabin-room door, with my body in the
room, when lo! one of the sailors, by a wave, being washed
out of the pinnace was gotten in again, and coming in to
the cabin-room over my back, cried out, 'We are all cast
away! the Lord have mercy upon us! I have been washed
overboard into the sea, and am gotten in again!' His
speeches made me look forth. And looking towards the
sea, and seeing how we were, I turned myself to my cousin
and the rest, and spake these words: 'Oh, cousin! it hath
pleased God to cast us here between two rocks, the shore
not far off from us, for I saw the tops of trees when I looked
forth.' Whereupon the master of the pinnace looking up
at the scuttle-hole of the quarter-deck, went out at it, but
I never saw him afterwards. Then he that had been
in the sea went out again by me, and leaped overboard
towards the rocks, whom afterwards also I could not see.
Now none were left in the barque that I knew or saw, but
my cousin, his wife and children, myself and mine, and his
maid-servant. But my cousin thought I would have fled
from him, and said unto me-‘Oh, cousin, leave us not,
let us die together,' and reached forth his hand unto me.
Then I, letting go my son Peter's hand, took him by the
hand, and said-'Cousin, I purpose it not, whither shall I
go? I am willing and ready here to die with you and my
poor children. God be merciful to us, and receive us to
himself,' adding these words, 'the Lord is able to help and
deliver us.' He replied, saying-Truth, cousin; but
what his pleasure is we know not; I fear we have been
too unthankful for former deliverances, but he hath pro-
6
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES
mised to deliver us from sin and condemnation, and to
bring us safe to heaven through the all-sufficient satisfac-
tion of Jesus Christ, this therefore we may challenge of him.
To which I replying, said, 'that is all the deliverance I now
desire and expect.' Which words I had no sooner spoken,
but by a mighty wave I was with the piece of the barque,
washed out upon part of the rock, where the wave left me
almost drowned, but recovering my feet I saw above me
on the rock my daughter Mary, to whom I had no sooner
gotten, but my cousin Avery, and his eldest son came to
us, being all four of us washed out by one and the same
wave, we went all into a small hole on the top of the rock,
whence we called to those in the pinnace, to come unto us,
supposing we had been in more safety than they were in.
My wife seeing us there, was crept into the scuttle of the
quarter deck to come unto us, but presently came another
wave, and dashing the pinnace all to pieces, carried my
wife away in the scuttle, as she was, with the greater part
of the quarter-deck unto the shore, where she was cast
safely, but her legs were something bruised, and much
timber of the vessel being there also cast, she was sometime
before she could get away, being washed by the waves.
All the rest that were in the barque were drowned in the
merciless seas. We four, by that wave, were clean swept
away from off the rock also, into the sea; the Lord, in one
instant of time, disposing of fifteen souls of us, according
to His good pleasure and will; His pleasure and wonderful.
great mercy to me, was thus: standing on the rock as
before you heard with my eldest daughter, my cousin and
his eldest son, looking upon and talking to them in the
barque, when as we were by that merciless wave washed off
the rock as before you heard. God in his mercy caused me
to fall by the stroke of the wave, flat on my face, for my face
SEA DELIVERANCES.
7
was toward the sea, insomuch, that as I was sliding off the
rock into the sea, the Lord directed my toes into a joint in
the rock's side, as also the tops of some of my fingers with
my right hand, by means whereof, the wave leaving me,
I remained so, having in the rock only my head above the
water. When on the left hand I espied a board or plank
of the pinnace; and as I was reaching out my left hand to
lay hold on it, by another coming over the top of the rock,
I was washed away from the rock, and by the violence of
the waves, was driven hither and thither in the seas a great
while, and had many dashes against the rocks. At length,
past hopes of life, and wearied in body and spirits, I even
gave over to nature, and being ready to receive in the
waters of death, I lifted up both my heart and hands to
the God of heaven. For note, I had my senses remaining
perfect with me all the time that I was under and in water,
who at that instant lifted up my head above the top of the
water, that so I may breathe without any hindrance by
the waters. I stood bolt upright as if I had stood upon
my feet, but I felt no bottom, nor had any footing for to
stand upon, but the waters. While I was thus above the
waters, I saw by me a piece of the mast, as I suppose
about three feet long, which I laboured to catch into my
arms. But suddenly I was overwhelmed with water, and
driven to and fro again, and at last I felt the ground
with my right foot. When immediately, whilst I was thus
groveling on my face, I presently recovering my feet, was
in the water up to my breast, and through God's great
mercy had my face unto the shore, and not to the sea. I
made haste to get out, but was thrown down on my hands
with the waves, and so with safety crept to the dry shore.
Where blessing God, I turned about to look for my
8
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
children and friends, but saw neither, nor any part of the
pinnace, where I left them as I supposed. But I saw my
wife about a butt length from me, getting herself forth
from amongst the timber of the broken barque; but before
I could get unto her, she was gotten to the shore; I was
in the water after I was washed from the rock, before I
came to the shore, a quarter of an hour at least. When
we were come to each other, we went and sat under the
bank. But fear of the seas roaring, and our coldness,
would not suffer us there to remain. But we went
But we went up into
the land and sat us down under a cedar tree which the
wind had thrown down, where we sat about an hour
almost dead with cold. But now the storm was broken
up, and the wind was calm, but the sea remained rough
and fearful to us. My legs were much bruised, and so
was my head, other hurt had I none, neither had I taken
in much quantity of water; but my heart would not let
me sit still any longer, but I would go to see if any more
were gotten to the land in safety, especially hoping to have
met with some of my own poor children, but I could find
none, neither dead nor yet living. You condole with me my
miseries, who now began to consider of my losses. Now
came to my remembrance the time and manner, how and
when I last saw and left my children and friends. One
was severed from me sitting on the rock at my feet, the
other three in the pinnace; my little babe (ah! poor Peter)
sitting in his sister Edith's arms, who to the uttermost of
her power sheltered him from the waters, my poor William
standing close unto them, all three of them looking rue-
fully on me on the rock; their very countenances calling
unto me to help them, whom I could not go unto, neither
could they come at me, neither would the merciless waves
SEA DELIVERANCES.
afford me space or time to use any means at all, either to
help them or myself. Oh! I yet see their cheeks, poor
silent lambs, pleading pity and help at my hands. Then
on the other side to consider the loss of my dear friends,
with the spoiling and loss of all our goods and provisions,
myself cast upon an unknown land, in a wilderness, I knew
not where, nor how to get thence. Then it came to my
mind how I had occasioned the death of my children, who
caused them to leave their native land, who might have
left them there, yea, and might have sent some of them
back again, and cost me nothing: these and such like
thoughts do press down my heavy heart very much. But
I must let this pass, and will proceed on in the relation of
God's goodness unto me in that desolate island on which I
was cast. I and my wife were almost naked, both of us, and
wet and cold even unto death. I found a knapsack cast
on the shore, in which I had a steel and flint and powder
horn. Going further I found a drowned goat, then I
found a hat, and my son William's coat, both which
I put on. My wife found one of her petticoats, which she
I found also two cheeses and some butter, driven
Thus the Lord sent us some clothes to put on,
and food to sustain our new lives which we had lately
given unto us; and means also to make fire, for in an
horn I had some gunpowder, which to my own (and since
to other men's) admiration was dry; so taking a piece of
my wife's neckcloth, which I dried in the sun, I struck
fire, and so dried and warmed our wet bodies, and then
skinned the goat; and having found a small brass pot, we
boiled some of her. Our drink was brackish water;
bread we had none. There we remained till the Monday
following. When about three of the clock, in the after-
put on.
ashore.
10
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
noon, in a boat that came that way, we went off that
desolate island, which I named after my name, Thacher's
Woe; and the rock, Avery his Fall: to the end that their
fall and loss, and mine own, might be had in perpetual
remembrance. In the isle lieth buried the body of my
cousin's eldest daughter, whom I found dead on the shore.
On the Tuesday following, in the afternoon, we arrived at
Marble-head."
Thus far is Mr. Thacher's relation of this memorable
providence. We proceed to some other:
Remarkable was that deliverance mentioned both by
Mr. Janeway and Mr. Burton, wherein that gallant com-
mander, Major Edward Gibbons, of Boston, in New
England, and others were concerned. The substance of
the story is this:-A New England vessel going from
Boston to some other parts of America, was, through the
continuance of contrary winds, kept long at sea, so that
they were in very great straits for want of provision; and
seeing they could not hope for any relief from earth or sea,
they apply themselves to heaven in humble and hearty
prayers; but no calm ensuing, one of them made this
sorrowful motion, that they should cast lots, which of
them should die first to satisfy the ravenous hunger of
the rest. After many a sad debate, they come to a result,
the lot is cast, and one of the company is taken, but
where is the executioner to be found to act this office upon
a poor innocent? It is death now to think who shall act
this bloody part in the tragedy. But before they fall
upon this involuntary execution, they once more went
unto their prayers; and while they were calling upon
God, he answered them, for there leaped a mighty fish
SEA DELIVERANCES.
11
into the boat, which was a double joy to them, not only
in relieving their miserable hunger, which, no doubt, made
them quick cooks, but because they looked upon it to be
sent from God, and to be a token of their deliverance.
But alas! the fish is soon caten, and their former exi-
gencies come upon them, which sink their spirits into
despair, for they know not of another morsel. To lot
they go again a second time, which falleth upon another
person; but still none can be found to sacrifice him: they
again send their prayers to heaven with all manner of
fervency, when, behold a second answer from above! a
great bird alights, and fixes itself upon the mast, which
one of the company espies, and he goes, and there she
stands till he took her with his hand by the wing. This
was life from the dead a second time, and they feasted
themselves herewith, as hoping that second providence
was a forerunner of their complete deliverance. But they
have still the same disappointments; they can see no land;
they know not where they are. Hunger increaseth again
upon them, and they have no hopes to be saved but by a
third miracle. They are reduced to the former course of
casting lots; when they were going to the heart-breaking
work, to put him to death whom the lot fell upon, they
go to God, their former friend in adversity, by humble
and hearty prayers; and now they look and look again;
but there is nothing. Their prayers are concluded, and
nothing appears, yet still they hoped and stayed; till at
last one of them espies a ship, which put new life into all
their spirits. They bear up with their vessel, they man
their boat, and desire and beg like perishing, humble sup-
plicants to board them, which they are admitted. The
vessel proves a French vessel-yea, a French pirate.
12
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
Major Gibbons petitions them for a little bread, and offers
ship and cargo for it. But the commander knows the
Major (from whom he had received some signal kindnesses
formerly at Boston), and replied readily and cheerfully-
"Major Gibbons, not a hair of you or your company shall
perish, if it lie in my power to preserve you."
And
accordingly he relieveth them, and sets them safe on shore.
Memorable also is that which Mr. Janeway, in his
Remarkable Sea Deliverances, p. 35, hath published. He
there relates, that in the year 1668, a ketch, whereof
Thomas Woodbery was master, sailing from New England
for Barbadoes; when they came in the latitude 35 deg.,
because there was some appearance of foul weather, they
lowered their sails, sending up one to the top of the mast,
he thought he saw something like a boat floating upon
the sea; and calling to the men below, they made towards
it, and when they came near, it appeared to be a long-
boat with eleven men in it, who had been bound for
Virginia; but their ship proved leaky, and foundered in
the sea, so that they were forced suddenly to betake them-
selves to their long-boat, in the which they had a capstan-
bar, which they made use of for a mast, and a piece of
canvas for a sail, so did they sail before the wind.
they having no victuals with them, were soon in miserable
distress. Thus they continued five days, so that all des-
paired of life. Upon the sixth day they concluded to cast
lots for their lives, viz., who should die, that the rest
might eat him and have their lives preserved. He that the
lot fell upon, begged for his life a little longer; and being
in their extremity, the wonder-working providence of God
was seen, for they met with this New England vessel,
But
SEA DELIVERANCES.
13
which took them in and saved their lives. An hour after
this a terrible storm arose, continuing forty hours, so that
if they had not met the vessel that saved them in the
nick of opportunity, they had all perished! and if the
New England men had not taken down some of their sails,
or had not chanced to send one up to tallow the mast, this
boat and men had never been seen by them. Thus admi-
rable are the workings of Divine Providence in the world
Yet further:
That worthy and now blessed minister of God, Mr.
James Janeway, hath published several other Remarkable
Sea Deliverances, of which some belonging to New
England were the subjects. He relates (and I am in-
formed that it was really so) that a small vessel-the
master's name Philip Hungare coming upon the coast of
New England suddenly sprang a leak, and so foundered.
In the vessel there were eighteen souls, twelve of which
got into the long-boat. They threw into the boat some
small matters of provision, but were wholly without fire.
These twelve men sailed five hundred leagues in this small
boat, being by almost miraculous providences preserved
therein for five weeks together. God sent relief to them
by causing some flying-fish to fall into the boat, which
they eat raw, and were well pleased therewith. They also
caught a shark, and opening his belly, sucked his blood
for drink. At the last the Divine Providence brought
them to the West Indies. Some of them were so weak
as that they soon died; but most of them lived to declare
the works of the Lord.
Again, he relates that Mr. Jonas Clark, of New England,
14
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
going for Virginia, the vessel was cast ashore in the night.
They hoped to get their ship off again; to which end the
master with some others going in the boat, when they
were about sixty fathoms from the shore there arose a
great sea, which broke in upon them, and at last turned
the boat over.
Four men were drowned. Mr. Clark was
held under water till his breath was gone, yet, through
the good hand of a gracious God, he was set at liberty,
and was enabled to swim to the shore, where the provi-
dence of God did so overrule the hearts of barbarians, as
that they did them no hurt; until at last they were
brought safe unto the English plantations. These things
have (as was said) been related by Mr. Janeway. I pro-
ceed therefore to mention some other sea deliverances.
And that notable preservation deserves to be here inserted
and recorded, wherein Mr. John Grafton and some others
of his ship's company were concerned; who as they were
bound in a voyage from Salem in New England, for the
West Indies, in a ketch called the Providence, on Septem-
ber 16, 1669, their vessel suddenly struck upon a rock;
at the which they were amazed, it being then a dark and
rainy night; the force of the wind and sea broke their vessel
in a moment. Their company was ten men in number,
whereof six were drowned. The master and the mate
were left upon the rock. As they sat there the sea came
up to their waists. There did they embrace each other,
looking for death every moment; and if the tide had risen
higher it would have carried them off. By the same
rock was one of the seamen, being much wounded and
grievously groaning. In the morning they saw an island
about half a mile off from them. The rocks were so sharp
and cragged that they could not tread upon them with
SEA DELIVERANCES.
15
1.
their bare feet, nor had they shoes or stockings. But
they found a piece of tarpauling, which they wrapped
about their feet, making it fast with rope yarns; so getting
each of them a stick, they sometimes went on their feet,
and sometimes crept, until at last they came to the island,
where they found another of their company ashore, being
carried thither by a piece of the vessel. Upon the island
they continued eight days, four of which they had no fire.
Their provision was salt-fish and rain-water, which they
found in the holes of the rocks. After four days they
found a piece of touchwood, which the mate had formerly
in his chest, and a piece of flint, with which, having a
small knife, they struck fire. A barrel of flour being cast
on shore, they made cakes thereof. Now their care was
how to get off from the island, there being no inhabitants
there. Finding a piece of the mainsail, and some hoops
of cask, they framed a boat therewith. Yet had they no
tools to build it with. But Providence so ordered, that
they found a board twelve feet long, and some nails; also
a box was cast ashore, wherein was a bolt-rope needle;
they likewise found a tar-barrel, wherewith they tarred
their canvas. Thus did they patch up a boat, in fashion
like a birchen canoe; and meeting with some thin boards
of ceiling, which came out of the cabin, they made paddles
therewith; so did they venture in this dangerous vessel
ten leagues, until they came to Anguilla and St. Martin's,
where they were courteously entertained, the people ad-
miring how they could come so many leagues in such a
strange kind of boat. Besides all these particulars, which
have been declared, information is brought to me con-
cerning some sea preservations which have happened more
lately.
16
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
There was a small vessel set sail from Bristol to New
England, September 22, 1681; the master's name William
Dutten. There were seven men in the vessel, having on
board provisions for three months, but by reason of con-
trary winds, they were twenty weeks before they could
make any land; and some unhappy accidents fell out,
which occasioned their being put to miserable straits for
victuals, but most of all for drink. The winds were fair
and prosperous until October 28, when they supposed
themselves to be gotten 600 leagues westward. But after
that, the north-west winds blew so fiercely that they were
driven off from the coast of New England, so that, De-
cember 12, they concluded to bear away for Barbadoes.
But before this, one of their barrels of beer had the head
broken out, and the liquor in it lost. They had but seven
barrels of water, three of which proved leaky, so that the
water in them was lost. When their victuals failed, the
providence of God sent them a supply, by causing dolphins
to come near to the vessel; and that still as their wants
were greatest, nor could they catch more than would serve
their present turn. But still their misery upon them was
great, through their want of water. Sometimes they
would expose their vessels to take the rain-water; but
oft, when it rained, the winds were so furious that they
could save little or no rain; yet so it fell out, that when
they came near to the latitude of Bermudas they saved
two barrels of rain water, which caused no little joy
amongst them.
·
But the rats did unexpectedly cat holes
through the barrels, so that their water was lost again.
Once when a shower of rain fell they could save but a
made bitter by the tar, it
pint, which, though it was
seemed very sweet to them.
They divided this pint of
SEA DELIVERANCES.
17
rain-water amongst seven, drinking a thimbleful at a time,
which went five times about, and was a great refreshing to
them. On January 27, a good shower of rain fell; that
so they might be sure to save some water, and not be
again deprived thereof by the rats, they laid their shirts.
open to the rain, and wringing them dry, they obtained
seven gallons of water, which they put into bottles, and
, were, for a time, much refreshed thereby. But new
straits come upon them. They endeavoured to catch the
rats in the vessel, and could take but three or four, which
they did eat, and it seemed delicate meat to their hungry
souls. But the torment of their drought was insufferable..
Sometimes, for a week together, they had not one drop of
fresh water. When they killed a dolphin they would open
his belly and suck his blood, a little to relieve their thirst;
yea, their thirst was so great that they fell to drinking of
salt water. Some drank several gallons, but they found
that it did not allay their thirst. They greedily drank
their own urine when they could make any. They would
go overboard, with a rope fastened to their bodies, and
put themselves into the water hoping to find some refresh-
ment thereby. When any of them stood to steer the
vessel, he would think a little to refresh himself by having
his feet in a pail of sea-water. In this misery, some of
the seamen confessed that it was just with God thus to
afflict them, in that they had been guilty of wasting good
drink, and of abusing themselves therewith before they
came to sea. The divine Providence so ordered, that on
February 7, they met with a vessel at sea, which happened
to be a Guiny-man; (Samuel Richard, master). Their
boat was become leaky, that they could not go aboard, if it
had been to save their lives; but the master of the other
2
18
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
vessel understanding how it was with them, very cour-
teously sent his own boat to them, with ten pieces of Guiny-
beef, two ankors of fresh water, and four bushels of Guiny-
corn, whereby they were sustained until they arrived at
Barbadoes; being weak and spent with their hardships,
but within a fortnight they were all recovered, and came
the next summer to New England. This account I re-
ceived from the mate of the vessel, whose name is Joseph
Butcher.
Remarkable, also, is the preservation of which some
belonging to Dublin, in Ireland, had experienced, whom a
New England vessel providentially met, in an open boat,
in the wide sea, and saved them from perishing. Con-
cerning which memorable providence, I have received the
following narrative:-A ship of Dublin, burdened about
seventy tons, Andrew Bennet, master, being bound from
Dublin to Virginia: this vessel having been some weeks
at sea, onward of their voyage, and being in the latitude
of 39, about 150 leagues distant from Cape Cod, in New
England, on April 18, 1681, a day of very stormy weather,
and a great sea, suddenly there sprang a plank in the fore
part of the ship, about six o'clock in the morning; where-
upon the water increased so fast in the ship, that all their
endeavours could not keep her from sinking above half an
hour; so when the ship was just sinking, some of the
company resolved to launch out the boat, which was a
small one: they did accordingly, and the master, the
mate, the boatswain, the cook, two foremast men, and a
boy, kept such hold of it, when a cast of the sea suddenly
helped them off with it, that they got into it. The
heaving of the sea now suddenly thrust them from the
SEA DELIVERANCES.
19
*
ship, in which there were left nineteen souls, viz., sixteen
men and three women, who all perished in the mighty
waters, while they were trying to make rafters by cutting
down the masts, for the preservation of their lives, as
long as might be. The seven in the boat apprehended
themselves to be in a condition little better than that of
them in the ship, having neither sails nor oars, neither
bread nor water, and no instrument of any sort, except a
knife and a piece of deal board, with which they made
sticks, and set them up in the sides of the boat, and
covered them with some Irish cloth of their own garments,
to keep off the spray of the sea, as much as could be by
so poor a matter. In this condition they drave with a
hard wind and high sea all that day and the night follow-
ing. But in the next morning, about six o'clock, they
saw a ketch (the master whereof was Mr. Edmund Hen-
field, of Salem, in New England) under sail, which ketch
coming right with them, took them up and brought them
safe to New England. And it is yet further remarkable,
that when the ship foundered, the ketch which saved these
persons was many leagues to the westward of her, but
was, by a contrary wind, caused to stand back again to
the eastward, where these distressed persons were, as
hath been said, met with and relieved.
Another remarkable sea-deliverance, like unto this last
mentioned, happened this present year; the relation
whereof take as followeth :-A ship called the Swallow,
Thomas Welden, of London, master, on their voyage from
St. Christopher's towards London, did, on March 23 last,
being then about the latitude of 42, meet with a violent
storm. That storm somewhat allayed, the ship lying in
24
20
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
the trough of the sea, her rudder broke away; whereupon
the mariners veered out a cable, and part of a mast to
stoer by; but that not answering their expectation, they
took a hogshead of water, and fastened it to the cable to
steer the ship; that also failing, they laid the ship by, as
the seamen's phrase is. And on March 25 an exceeding
great storm arose, which made the vessel lie down with
her hatches under water, in which condition she continued
about two hours; and having much water in the hold,
they found no other way to make her rise again but
by cutting down her masts; and accordingly her mainmast
and her mizenmast being cut down, the ship righted
again. The storm continuing, on March 28 the ship
made very bad steerage, by reason of the loss of her
rudder and masts. The sea had continual passage over
her, and one sea did then carry away the larboard quarter
of the ship, and brake the side from the deck, so that
there was an open passage for the sea to come in at that
breach; and, notwithstanding their endeavours to stop it
with their bedding, clothes, &c., so much water ran in by
the sides of the ship, that it was ready to sink. Now, all
hopes of saving their lives being gone, the Divine Provi-
dence so ordered, that there appeared a vessel within
sight, which happened to be a French ship, bound from
St. John de Luce to Grand Placentia, in Newfoundland ;
this vessel took in the distressed Englishmen, and carried
them away to Grand Placentia; from whence the master
and sundry of the mariners procured a passage in a ketch
bound for Boston in New England. There did they
arrive, June 21, 1683, declaring how they had seen the
wonders of God in the deep, as hath been expressed.
SEA DELIVERANCES.
21
+
There was another memorable sea-deliverance like unto
these two last. The persons concerned in it being now
gone out of the world, I have not met with any who per-
fectly remember the particular year wherein that remark-
able providence happened; only that it was about twenty-
two years ago, when a ship (William Laiton, master),
bound from Pascataqua, in New England, to Barbadoes,
being 250 leagues off from the coast, sprang a leak.
They endeavoured what they could to clear her with their
pump for fourteen hours. But the vessel filling with
water, they were forced (being eight persons) to betake
themselves to their boat, taking with them a good supply
of bread and a pot of butter; the master declaring that
he was persuaded they should meet with a ship at sea
that would relieve them but they had little water, so
that their allowance was at last a spoonful in a day to
each man.
In this boat did they continue thus distressed
for nineteen days together. After they had been twelve
days from the vessel, they met with a storm which did
very much endanger their lives, yet God preserved them.
At the end of eighteen days a flying-fish fell into their
boat, and having with them a hook and line, they made
use of that fish for bait, whereby they caught two dolphins.
A ship then at sea, whereof Mr. Samuel Scarlet was com-
mander, apprehending a storm to be near, that so they
might fit their rigging, in order to entertain the approach-
ing storm, suffered their vessel to drive right before the
wind, and by that means they happened to meet with this
boat, full of distressed seamen. Captain Scarlet's vessel
was then destitute of provision; only they had on board
water enough and to spare. When the mariners first saw
the boat, they desired the master not to take the men in,
22
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
because they had no bread nor other victuals for them; so
that by receiving eight more into their company, they
should all die with famine. Captain Scarlet who as after
he left using the sea, he gave many demonstrations, both
living and dying, of his designing the good of others, and
not his own particular advantage only, did at this time
manifest the same spirit to be in him ; and therefore, would
by no means hearken to the selfish suggestions of his men,
but replied to them (as yet not knowing who they were)-
"It may be these distressed creatures are our own country-
men, or if not, they are men in misery, and therefore,
whatever come of it, I am resolved to take them in, and
to trust in God, who is able to deliver us all." Nor did
God suffer him to lose anything by this noble resolution.
For as in Captain Scarlet's ship there was water which
the men in the boat wanted, so they in the boat had bread
and the two dolphins lately caught, whereby all the ship's
company were refreshed. And within few days they all
arrived safe in New England.


لك
CHAPTER II.
A FURTHER ACCOUNT OF SOME OTHER REMARKABLE
PRESERVATIONS.
Of a child that had part of her brains struck out, and yet lived and did well.
Remarkable deliverances of some in Windsor. Of several in the late
Indian War. The relation of a captive. Skipper How's memorable
preservation. Several examples somewhat parallel wherein others in
other parts of the world were concerned.
ESIDES those notable Sea-Deliverances, which
have been in the former chapter related, many
other memorable providences and preserva-
tions have happened. A multitude of in-
stances to this purpose are now lost in the grave of obli-
vion, because they were not recorded in the season of them.
But such observables as I have been by good hands
acquainted with, I shall here further relate.
Remarkable was the preservation and restoration which
the gracious providence of God vouchsafed to Abigail
Eliot, the daughter of elder Eliot, of Boston, in New
England; concerning whom, a near and precious relation
of hers informs me, that when she was a child about five
years old, playing with other children under a cart, an
iron hinge, being sharp at the lower end, happened to strike
her head, between the right ear and the crown of her head,
and pierced into the skull and brain. The child making
an outcry, the mother came, and immediately drew out the

24
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
iron, and thereupon some of the brains of her child, which
stuck to the iron, and other bits, were scattered on her
forehead. Able chyrurgeons were sent for-in special
Mr. Oliver and Mr. Prat. The head being uncovered, there
appeared just upon the place where the iron pierced the
skull, a bunch as big as a small egg. A question arose,
whether the skin should not be cut and dilated from the
orifice of the wound to the swelling, and so take it away
This Mr. Prat inclined unto, but Mr. Oliver opposed,
pleading that then the air would get to the brain, and the
child would presently die. Mr. Oliver was desired to
undertake the cure; and thus was his operation -He
gently drove the soft matter of the bunch into the wound,
and pressed so much out as well he could; there came
forth about a spoonful; the matter which came forth was
brains and blood (some curdles of brain were white and
not stained with blood): so did he apply a plaister. The
skull wasted where it was pierced to the bigness of a half-
crown piece of silver or more. The skin was exceeding
tender, so that a silver plate, like the skull, was always
kept in the place to defend it from any touch or injury.
The brains of the child did swell and swage according to
the tides :—when it was spring-tide her brain would heave
up the tender skin, and fill the place sometimes: when it
was neap-tide, they would be sunk and fallen within the
skull. This child lived to be the mother of two children;
and (which is marvellous) she was not by this wound made
defective in her memory or understanding.
In the next place we shall take notice of some remark-
able preservations which sundry in Windsor in New
England have experienced; the persons concerned therein
PRESERVATIONS.
25
being desirous that the Lord's goodness towards them may
be ever had in remembrance: wherefore a faithful hand
has given me the following account :-
Jan. 13, 1670.-Three women, viz., the wives of Lieut
Filer, and of John Drake, and of Nathaniel Lomas, having
crossed Connecticut river upon a necessary and neighbourly
account, and having done the work they went for, were
desirous to return to their own families, the river being at
that time partly shut up with ice, old and new, and partly
open. There being some pains taken aforehand to cut a
way through the ice, the three women above said got into
a canoe, with whom also there was Nathaniel Bissel and
an Indian. There was likewise another canoe with two
men in it, that went before them to help them in case they
should meet with any distress, which indeed quickly came
upon them; for just as they were getting out of the narrow
passage between the ice, being near the middle of the
river, a greater part of the upper ice came down upon
them, and struck the end of their canoe, and broke it to
pieces, so that it quickly sunk under them. The Indian
speedily got upon the ice, but Nathaniel Bissel, and the
above said women, were left floating in the middle of the
river, being cut off from all manner of human help besides
what did arise from themselves and the two men in the
little canoe, which was so small that three persons durst
seldom, if ever, venture in it. They were indeed discerned
from one shore, but the dangerous ice would not admit
from either shore one to come near them. All things thus
circumstanced, the suddenness of the stroke and distress
(which is apt to amaze men, especially when no less than
life is concerned), the extreme coldness of the weather, it
being a sharp season, that persons out of the water were
26
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
in danger of freezing, the unaptness of the persons to help
themselves, being mostly women, one big with child, and
near the time of her travail (who was also carried away
under the ice), the other as unskilled and inactive to do
anything for self-preservation as almost any could be, the
waters deep, that there was no hope of footing, no passage to
either shore, in any eye of reason, neither with their little
canoe, by reason of the ice, nor without it, the ice being
thin and rotten, and full of holes. Now, that all should
be brought off safely without the loss of life, or wrong to
health, was counted in the day of it a Remarkable Provi-
dence. To say how it was done is difficult, yet something
of the manner of the deliverance may be mentioned. The
above said Nathaniel Bissel, perceiving their danger, and
being active in swimming, endeavoured, what might be,
the preservation of himself and some others; he strove to
have swum to the upper ice, but the stream being too
hard, he was forced downwards to the lower ice, where, by
reason of the slipperiness of the ice, and disadvantage of
the stream, he found it difficult getting up; at length, by
the good hand of Providence, being gotten upon the ice,
he saw one of the women swimming down under the ice,
and perceiving a hole, or open place, some few rods below,
there he waited, and took her up as she swam along. The
other two women were in the river, till the two men in the
little canoe came for their relief; at length all of them got
their heads above the water, and had a little time to pause,
though a long and difficult, and dangerous way to any
shore; but by getting their little canoe upon the ice, and
carrying one at a time over hazardous places, they did
(though in a long while) get all safe to the shore from
whence they came.
PRESERVATIONS.
27
Remarkable also was the deliverance which John and
Thomas Bissel, of Windsor aforesaid, did at another time
receive. John Bissel, on a morning, about break of day,
taking nails out of a great barrel, wherein was a consider-
able quantity of gunpowder and bullets, having a candle in
his hand, the powder took fire. Thomas Bissel was then
putting on his clothes, standing by a window, which
though well fastened, was by the force of the powder
carried away at least four rods; the partition-wall from
another room was broken in pieces; the roof of the house
opened and slipt off the plates about five feet down;
also the great girt of the house at one end broke out so
far, that it drew from the summer to the end most of its
tenant. The woman of the house was lying sick, and
another woman under it in bed, yet did the divine Provi-
dence so order things as that no one received any hurt,
excepting John Bissel, who fell through two floors into a
cellar, his shoes being taken from his feet, and found at
twenty feet distance, his hands and his face very much
scorched, without any other wound in his body.
It would fill a volume to give an account of all the
memorable preservations in the time of the late war with
the Indians.
Remarkable was that which happened to Jabez Mus
grove, of Newbery; who, being shot by an Indian, the
bullet entered in at his ear, and went out at his eye, on the
other side of his head, yet the man was preserved from
death, yea, and is still in the land of the living.
Likewise several of those that were taken captive by the
Indians are able to relate affecting stories concerning the
gracious Providence of God, in carrying them through
28
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
many dangers and deaths, and at last setting their feet in
a large place again. A worthy person hath sent me the
account which one lately belonging to Deerfield (his name
is Quintin Stockwell), hath drawn up respecting his own
captivity and redemption, with the more notable occur-
rences of Divine Providence attending him in his distress,
which I shall, therefore, here insert in the words by himself
expressed. He relateth as follows:-
"In the year 1677, September 19, between sunset and
dark, the Indians came upon us, I and another man being
together, we ran away at the outcry the Indians made,
shouting and shooting at some other of the English that
were hard by. We took a swamp that was at hand for our
refuge. The enemy espying us so near them, ran after us,
and shot many guns at us; three guns were discharged
upon me, the enemy being within three rods of me, besides
many other, before that. Being in this swamp that was
miry, I slumpt in, and fell down, whereupon one of the
enemy stepped to me, with his hatchet lifted up to knock
me on the head, supposing that I had been wounded, and
so unfit for any other travel. I, as it happened, had a
pistol by me, which, though uncharged, I presented to the
Indian, who presently stepped back, and told me, if I would
yield I should have no hurt; he said (which was not true)
that they had destroyed all Hatfield, and that the woods
were full of Indians, whereupon I yielded myself, and so
fell into the enemy's hands, and by three of them was led
away unto the place whence first I began to make my flight,
where two other Indians came running to us; and the one
lifting up the butt end of his gun to knock me on the head,
the other with his hand put by the blow, and said I was
PRESERVATIONS.
29
his friend. I was now by my own house, which the
Indians burned the last year, and I was about to build up
again, and there I had some hopes to escape from them;
they had a horse just by, which they bid me take, I did so,
but made no attempt to escape thereby, because the enemy
was near, and the beast was slow and dull; then was I in
hopes they would send me to take my own horses, which
they did, but they were so frightened that I could not
come near to them, and so fell still into the enemy's hands,
who now took me and bound me, and led me away, and
soon was I brought into the company of captives, that
were that day brought away from Hatfield, which was about
a mile off; and here methoughts was matter of joy and
sorrow both, to see the company; some company in this
condition being some refreshing, though little help any
ways. Then were we pinioned and led away in the night
over the mountains, in dark and hideous ways, about four
miles further, before we took up our place for rest, which
was in a dismal place of wood, on the east side of that
mountain. We were kept bound all that night; the
Indians kept waking, and we had little mind to sleep in
this night's travel; the Indians dispersed, and as they went,
made strange noises, as of wolves and owls, and other wild
beasts, to the end that they might not lose one another;
and if followed they might not be discovered by the English.
"About the break of day, we marched again and got
over the great river at Pecomptuck river mouth, and there
rested about two hours. There the Indians marked out
upon trays the number of their captives and slain as their
manner is. Here was I again in great danger; a quarrel
arose about me, whose captive I was, for three took me.
I thought I must be killed to end the controversy; so
30
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
when they put it to me, whose I was, I said three Indians
took me, so they agreed to have all a share in me and I
had now three masters, and he was my chief master who
laid hands on me first, and thus was I fallen into the hands
of the very worst of all the company, as Ashpelon the
Indian captain told me; which captain was all along very
kind to me, and a great comfort to the English. In this
place they gave us some victuals, which they had brought
from the English. This morning also they sent ten men
forth to town to bring away what they could find, some
provision, some corn out of the meadow they brought to
us upon horses which they had there taken. From hence
we went up about the falls, where we crossed that river
again; and whilst I was going, I fell right down lame of
my old wounds that I had in the war, and whilst I was
thinking I should therefore be killed by the Indians, and
what death I should die, my pain was suddenly gone, and
I was much encouraged again. We had about eleven
horses in that company, which the Indians made to carry
burthens, and to carry women. It was afternoon when
we now crossed that river; we travelled up that river till
night, and then took up our lodging in a dismal place, and
were staked down and spread out on our backs; and so
we lay all night, yea so we lay many nights. They told
me their law was, that we should lie so nine nights, and
by that time, it was thought we should be out of our
knowledge. The manner of staking down was thus: our
arms and legs stretched out were staked fast down, and a
cord about our necks, so that we could stir no ways.
The first night of staking down, being much tired, I slept
as comfortably as ever; the next day we went up the
river, and crossed it, and at night lay in Squakheag mea-
PRESERVATIONS.
31
dows; our provision was soon spent; and while we lay
in those meadows the Indians went a hunting, and the
English army came out after us: then the Indians moved
again, dividing themselves and the captives into many
companies, that the English might not follow their tract.
At night having crossed the river, we met again at the
place appointed. The next day we crossed the river again
on Squakheag side, and there we took up our quarters for
a long time; I suppose this might be about thirty miles
above Squakheag, and here were the Indians quite out of
all fear of the English; but in great fear of the Mohawks;
here they built a long wigwam. Here they had a great
dance (as they call it) and concluded to burn three of us,
and had got bark to do it with, and as I understood after-
wards, I was one that was to be burnt, Sergeant Plimpton
another, and Benjamin Wait his wife the third: though I
knew not which was to be burnt, yet I perceived some
were designed thereunto, so much I understood of their
language that night I could not sleep for fear of next
day's work, the Indians being weary with that dance, lay
down to sleep and slept soundly. The English were all
loose, then I went out and brought in wood and mended
the fire, and made a noise on purpose, but none awaked,
I thought if any of the English would wake, we might kill
them all sleeping; I removed out of the way all the guns
and hatchets; but my heart failing me, I put all things
where they were again. The next day when we were to
be burnt, our master and some others spake for us, and
the evil was prevented in this place and hereabouts we
lay three weeks together. Here I had a shirt brought to
me to make, and one Indian said it should be made this
way, a second another way, a third his way; I told them
32
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
;
I would make it that way that my chief master said
whereupon one Indian struck me on the face with his fist ;
I suddenly rose up in anger ready to strike again, upon
this happened a great hubbub, and the Indians and
English came about me; I was fain to humble myself to
my master, so that matter was put up. Before I came to
this place, my three masters were gone a hunting; I was
left with another Indian. All the company being upon a
march, I was left with this Indian, who fell sick, so that I
was fain to carry his gun and hatchet, and had opportunity
and had thought to have despatched him, and run away;
but did not, for that the English captives had promised
the contrary to one another, because if one should run
away, that would provoke the Indians, and endanger the
rest that could not run away. Whilst we were here, Ben-
jamin Stebbins going with some Indians to Wachuset hills,
made his escape from them, and when the news of his
escape came we were all presently called in and hound;
one of the Indians, a captain among them, and always our
great friend, met me coming in, and told me Stebbins was
run away, and the Indians spake of burning us, some of
only burning and biting off our fingers bye and bye. He
said there would be a court, and all would speak their
minds, but he would speak last, and would say, that the
Indian that let Stebbins run away was only in fault, and
so no hurt should be done us, fear not: so it proved
accordingly. Whilst we lingered hereabout, provision
grew scarce, one bear's foot must serve five of us a whole
day; we began to eat horse-flesh, and eat up seven in all;
three were left alive and were not killed. Whilst we had
been here, some of the Indians had been down and fallen
upon Hadley, and were taken by the English, agreed with
PRESERVATIONS.
33
and let go again, and were to meet the English upon such
a plain, there to make further terms. Ashpalon was
much for it, but the Wachuset Sachims, when they came,
were much against it, and were for this: that we should
meet the English indeed, but there fall upon them and
fight them, and take them. Then Ashpalon spake to us
English, not to speak a word more to further that matter,
for mischief would come of it. When those Indians came
from Wachuset, there came with them Squaws, and Chil-
dren about four-score, who reported that the English had
taken Uncas, and all his men, and sent them beyond seas;
they were much enraged at this, and asked us if it were
true; we said no; then was Ashpalon angry, and said, he
would no more believe Englishmen. For they examined
us every one apart; then they dealt worse by us for a
season than before: still provision was scarce.
We came
at length to a place called Squaw-Maug river; there we
hoped for Sammon, but we came too late. This place I
account to be above two hundred miles above Deerfield:
then we parted into two companies; some went one way
and some went another way; and we went over a mighty
mountain; we were eight dayes a going over it, and tra-
velled very hard, and every day we had either snow or
rain: we noted that on this mountain all the water run
northward. Here also we wanted provision; but at length
met again on the other side of the mountain, viz. on the
north side of this mountain, at a river that run into the
lake, and we were then half a dayes journey off the lake;
we stayed here a great while to make canoos to go over
the lake; here I was frozen, and here again we were like
to starve: all the Indians went a hunting, but could get
nothing: divers days they powow'd, but got nothing;
3
34
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
:
then they desired the English to pray, and confessed they
could do nothing; they would have us pray, and see what
the Englishman's God could do. I prayed, so did Ser-
jeant Plimpton, in another place. The Indians reverently
attended, morning and night; next day they got bears;
then they would needs have us desire a blessing, return
thanks at meals after a while they grew weary of it, and
the Sachim did forbid us. When I was frozen they were
very cruel towards me, because I could not do as at other
times. When we came to the lake we were again sadly put
to it for provision; we were fain to eat touchwood fryed in
bears greace; at last we found a company of racoons, and
then we made a feast; and the manner was, that we must
eat all. I perceived there would be too much for one
time, so one Indian that sat next to me bid me slip away
some to him under his coat, and he would hide it for me
till another time. This Indian, as soon as he had got
my meat, stood up and made a speech to the rest, and
discovered me, so that the Indians were very angry, and
cut me another piece, and gave me racoon grease to drink,
which made me sick and vomit. I told them I had
enough, so that ever after that they would give me none,
but still tell me I had racoon enough; so I suffered much,
and being frozen was full of pain, and could sleep but a
little, yet must do my work. When they went upon the
lake, and as they came to the lake, they light of a moose
and killed it, and staid there till they had eaten it all up.
And entering upon the lake, there arose a great storm; we
thought we should all be cast away; but at last we got to
an island, and there they went to Powawing. The Powaw
said that Benjamin Wait and another man was coming,
and that storm was raised to cast them away. This after-
PRESERVATIONS.
35
ward appeared to be true, though then I believed them
not. Upon this island we lay still several dayes, and then
set out again, but a storm took us, so that we lay to and
fro upon certain islands about three weeks; we had no
provision but racoons, so that the Indians themselves
thought they should be starved. They gave me nothing,
so that I was sundry days without any provision. We
went on upon the lake upon that isle, about a dayes jour-
ney: we had a little sled upon which we drew our load.
Before noon I tired, and just then the Indians met with
some Frenchmen: then one of the Indians that took me
came to me and called me all manner of bad names, and
threw me down upon my back. I told him I could not
do any more; then he said he must kill me. I thought
he was about it, for he pulled out his knife and cut out
my pockets, and wrapped them about my face, helped me
up, and took my sled and went away, and gave me a bit
of biscake, as big as a walnut, which he had of the French-
man, and told me he would give me a pipe of tobacco.
When my sled was gone I could run after him, but at
last I could not run, but went a foot-pace; then the
Indians were soon out of sight; I followed as well as I
could; I had many falls upon the ice; at last I was so
spent I had not strength enough to rise again, but I crept
to a tree that lav along, and got upon it, and there I lay.
It was now night, and very sharp weather; I counted no
other but that I must die there. Whilest I was thinking of
death an Indian hallowed, and I answered him; he came to
me and called me bad names, and told me if I could not
go he must knock me on the head; I told him he must
then so do. He saw how I had wallowed in that snow,
but could not rise: then he took his coat and wrapt me in
За
36
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
it, and went back, and sent two Indians with a sled.
One
said he must knock me on the head; the other said no,
they would carry me away and burn me: then they bid me
stir my instep, to see if that were frozen; I did so; when
they saw that they said that was 'wurregen.' There was
a chirurgeon at the French that could cure me. Then
they took me upon the sled and carried me to the fire,
and they then made much of me, pu led off my wet, and
wrapped me in dry clothes, made me a good bed. They
had killed an otter, and gave me some of the broth, and a
bit of the flesh. Here I slept till towards day, and then
was able to get up and put on my clothes. One of the
Indians awaked, and seeing me go, shouted as rejoycing at
it. As soon as it was light, 1 and Samuel Russel went
before on the ice upon a river; they said I must go
where I could on foot, else I should frieze. Samuel
Russel slipt into the river with one foot; the Indians
called him back and dried his stockins, and then sent us
away, and an Indian with us to pilot us, and we went four
or five miles before they overtook us. I was then pretty
well spent; Samuel Russel was (he said) faint, and won-
dred how I could live, for he had (he said) ten meals to
my one.
Then I was laid on the sled, and they ran
away with me on the ice; the rest and Samuel Russel
came softly after. Samuel Russel I never saw more, nor
know what became of him: they got but half way, and we
got through to Shamblee about midnight. Six miles of
Shamblee (a French town) the river was open; and when
I came to travail in that part of the ice I soon tired; and
two Indians run away to town, and only one was left: he
would carry me a few rods, and then I would go as many,
and that trade we drave, and so were long a going six
PRESERVATIONS.
37
miles. This Indian now was kind, and told me that if he
did not carry me I would die, and so I should have done
sure enough; and he said I must tell the English how he
helped me. When we came to the first house there was
no inhabitant: the Indian spent, both discouraged; he
said we must now both die; at last he left me alone, and
got to another house, and thence came some French and
Indians and brought me in: the French were kind, and
put my hands and feet in cold water, and gave me a dram
of brandey, and a little hasty pudding and milk; when I
tasted victuals I was hungry, and could not have forborn
it, but that I could not get it; now and then they would
give me a little as they thought best for me; I lay by the
fire with the Indians that night, but could not sleep for
pain next morning the Indians and French fell out about
me, because the French, as the Indian said, loved the
English better than the Indians. The French presently
turned the Indians out of doors and kept me; they were
very kind and careful, and gave me a little something now
and then; while I was here all the men in that town came
to see me : at this house I was three or four daycs, and then
invited to another, and after that to another; at this place I
was about thirteen dayes, and received much civility from a
young man, a batchelour, who invited me to his house, with
whom I was for the most part; he was so kind as to lodge me
in the bed with himself; he gave me a shirt, and would have
bought me, but could not, for the Indians asked a hundred
pounds for me. We were then to go to a place called
Surril, and that young man would go with me, because
the Indians should not hurt me: this man carried me on
the ice one dayes journey, for I could not now go at all;
then there was so much water on the ice, we could go no
38
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
further: so the Frenchman left me, and provision for me;
here we stayed two nights, and then travailed again, for
then the ice was strong; and in two dayes more I came
to Surril; the first house we came to was late in the night;
here again the people were kind. Next day being in
much pain, I asked the Indians to carry me to the Chirur-
geons, as they had promised, at which they were wroth,
and one of them took up his gun to knock me, but the
Frenchmen would not suffer it, but set upon him, and
kicked him out of doors: then we went away from thence
to a place two or three miles oil, where the Indians had
wigwams; when I came to these wigwams, some of the
Indians knew me and seemed to pity me.
While I was
here, which was three or four dayes, the French came to
see me, and it being Christmas time, they brought cakes
and other provisions with them, and gave to me, so that
I had no want: the Indians tried to cure me, but could
not; then I asked for the chirurgeon, at which one of the
Indians, in anger struck me on the face with his fist; a
Frenchman being by, the Frenchman spare to him-I
knew not what he said-and went his way. By and by
came the captain of the place into the wigwam with about
twelve armed men, and asked where the Indian was that
struck the Englishman, and took him and told him he
should go to the bilboes, and then be hanged: the Indians
were much terrified at this, as appeared by their coun-
tenances and trembling. I would have gone too, but the
Frenchman bid me not fear, the Indians durst not hurt
me. When that Indian was gone, I had two masters still;
I asked them to carry me to that captain, that I might
speak for the Indian; they answered, I was a fool, did I
think the Frenchmen were like to the English, to say one
PRESERVATIONS.
39
thing and do another? they were men of their words.
But
I prevailed with them to help me thither, and I spake to
the captain by an interpreter, and told him I desired him
to set the Indian free, and told him what he had done for
me; he told me he was a rogue and should be hanged;
then I spake more privately, alleging this reason, because
all the English captives were not come in, if he were
hanged it might fare the worse with them; then the
captain said that was to be considered: then he set him
at liberty, upon this condition, that he should never strike
me more, and every day bring me to his house to eat
victuals. I perceived that the common people did not
like what the Indians had done and did to the English.
When the Indian was set free, he came to me, and took
me about the middle, and said I was his brother, I had
saved his life once, and he had saved mine (he said) thrice.
Then he called for brandy, and made me drink, and had
me away to the wigwams again; when I came there, the
Indians came to me one by one, to shake hands with me,
saying Wurregen Netop,' and were very kind, thinking
no other but that I had saved the Indians life. The next
day he carried me to that captains house, and set me
down; they gave me my victuals and wine, and being left
there a while by the Indians, I shewed the captain my
fingers, which when he and his wife saw, he and his wife
run away from the sight, and bid me lap it up again, and
sent for the chirurgeon, who, when he came, said he could
cure me, and took it in hand, and dressed it. The Indians
towards night came for me; I told them I could not go
with them; they were displeased, called me rogue, and
went away. That night I was full of pain; the French
did fear that I would die; five men did watch with me,
40
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES
and strove to keep me chearly, for I was sometimes ready
to faint; often times they gave me a little brandy. The
next day the chirurgeon came again, and dressed me, and
so he did all the while I was among the French. I came
in at Christmass, and went thence May 2d. Being thus in
the captain's house, I was kept there till Ben Waite came,
and my Indian master being in want of money, pawned
me to the captain for 14 beavers, or the worth of them,
at such a day; if he did not pay, he must lose his pawn,
or else sell me for twenty-one beavers; but he could not
get beaver, and so I was sold." But by being thus
sold, he was in Gods good time set at liberty, and returned
to his friends in New England again.
Thus far is this poor captive's relation concerning the
changes of 'rovidence which passed over him.
There is one remarkable passage more affirmed by him :
for he saith, in their travails they came to a place where
was a great wigwam (i.e. Indian house); at both ends was
an image; here the Indians in the war time were wont
to powaw (i.e. invocate the devil), and so did they come
down to Hatfield, one of the images told them they should
destroy a town; the other said no, half a town, This god
(said that Indian) speaks true; the other was not good, he
told them lies. No doubt but others are capable of
declaring many passages of Divine Providence no less
worthy to be recorded than these last recited; but inas-
much as they have not been brought to my hands, I
proceed to another relation.
Very memorable was the Providence of God towards
Mr. Ephraim How, of New-Haven, in New England, who
was for a whole twelvemoneth given up by his friends as
PRESERVATIONS.
41
a dead man; but God preserved him alive in a desolate
island where he had suffered shipwrack, and at last
returned him home to his family.
The history of this providence might have been men-
tioned amongst "Sea Deliverances," yet considering it was
not only so, I shall here record what himself (being a
godly man) did relate of the Lords marvelous dispensa-
tions towards him, that so others might be encouraged to
put their trust in God, in the times of their greatest straits
and difficulties.
On the 25th of August, in the year 1676, the said
Skipper How, with his two eldest sons, set sail from New-
Haven for Boston, in a small ketch, burden 17 tun, or
thereabout. After the dispatch of their business there,
they set sail from thence for New-Haven again, on the
10th of September following; but contrary winds forced
them back to Boston, where the said How was taken ill
with a violent flux, which distemper continued near a
moneth, many being at that time sick of the same disease,
which proved mortal to some. The merciful providence
of God having spared his life, and restored him to some
measure of health, he again set sail from Boston, October 10.
By a fair wind they went forward so as to n ake Cape Cod ;
but suddenly the weather became very tempestuous, so as
that they could not seize the Cape, but were forced off to
sea, where they were endangered in a small vessel by very
fearful storms and outrageous winds and seas. Also, his
eldest son fell sick and died in about eleven days after
they set out to sea. He was no sooner dead but his other
son fell sick and died too. This was a bitter cup to the
good father. It is noted in 1 Chron. vii, 22, “that when
the sons of Ephraim were dead, Ephraim their father
42
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
mourned many days, and his brethren came to comfort
him." This Ephraim when his sons were dead his friends
on shore knew it not, nor could they come to comfort him;
but when his friends and relations could not, the Lord
himself did, for they died after so sweet, gracious, and
comfortable a manner, as that their father professed he had
joy in parting with them. Yet now their outward distress
and danger was become greater, since the skipper's two
sons were the only help he had in working the vessel.
Not long after, another of the company, viz. Caleb Jones
(son to Mr. William Jones, one of the worthy magistrates
in New-llaven), fell sick and died also, leaving the world
with comfortable manifestations of true repentance towards
God, and faith in Jesus Christ. Thus the one-half of
their company was taken away, none remaining but the
skipper himself, one Mr. Augur, and a boy. He himself
was still sickly, and in a very weak estate, yet was fain
to stand at the helm thirty-six hours and twenty-four
hours at a time in the meantime the boisterous sea
overwhelming the vessel, so as that if he had not been
lasht fast he had certainly been washed overboard.
this extremity he was at a loss in his own thoughts,
whether they should persist in striving for the New Eng-
land shore, or bear away for the southern islands. He
proposed that question to Mr. Augur; they resolved that
they would first seek to God by prayer about it, and then
put this difficult case to an issue, by casting a lot. So
they did, and the lot fell on New England. By that time
a moneth was expired, they lost the rudder of their vessel, so
that now they had nothing but God alone to rely upon.
In this deplorable state were they for a fortnight. The
skipper (though infirm, as has been expressed), yet for six
In
:
1
PRESERVATIONS.
43
weeks together was hardly ever dry; nor had they the
benefit of warm food for more than thrice or thereabouts.
At the end of six weeks, in the morning betimes, the vessel
was driven on the tailings of a ledge of rocks, where the
sea broke violently; looking out they espied a dismal
rocky island to the leeward, upon which, if the l'rovidence
of God had not by the breakers given them timely warning,
they had been dashed in pieces. And this extremity was
the Lords opportunity to appear for their deliverance;
they immediately let go an anchor, and get out the boat;
and God made the sea calm. The boat proved leaky;
and being in the midst of fears and amazements they took
little out of the vessel. After they came ashore, they found
themselves in a rocky desolate island (near Cape Sables),
where was neither man nor beast to be seen, so that now
they were in extream danger of being starved to death.
But a storm arose which beat violently upon the vessel at
anchor, so as that it was staved in pieces, and a cask of
powder was brought ashore (receiving no damage by its
being washed in the water), also a barrel of wine, and half
a barrel of molosses, together with many things useful for
a tent to preserve them from cold. This notwithstanding,
new and great distresses attended them; for though they
had powder and shot, there were seldom any fowls to be
seen in that dismal and desolate place, excepting a few
crows, ravens, and gulls; these were so few as that for the
most part the skipper shot at one at a time. Many times
half of one of these fowls, with the liquor, made a ineal for
three. Once they lived five dayes without any sustenance,
at which time they did not feel themselves pincht with
hunger as at other times, the Lord in mercy taking away
their appetites when their food did utterly fail them. After
i
44
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES
they had been about twelve weeks in this miserable island,
Mr. How's dear friend and consort, Mr. Augur, died, so
that he had no living creature but the lad before men-
tioned to converse with; and on April 2, 1677, that lad
died also, so that the master was now left alone upon the
island, and continued so to be above a quarter of a year,
not having any living soul to converse with. In this time
he saw several fishing vessels sailing by, and some came
nearer the island than that which at last took him in; but
though he used what means he could that they might be
acquainted with his distress, none came to him, being
afraid; for they supposed him to be one of those Indians
who were then in hostility against the English. The good
man, whilest he was in his desolate estate, kept many dayes
of fasting and prayer, wherein he did confess and bewail
his sins, the least of which deserved greater evils than any
in this world ever were or can be subject unto; and begged
of God that he would find out a way for his deliverance.
At last it came into his mind that he ought very solemnly
to praise God (as well as pray unto him) for the great
mercies and signal preservations which he had thus far
experienced. Accordingly he set apart a day for that end,
spending the time in giving thanks to God for all the
mercies of his life, so far as he could call them to mind,
and in special, for those Divine favours which had been
mingled with his afflictions; humbly blessing God for his
wonderful goodness in preserving him alive by a miracle
of mercy. Immediately after this, a vessel, belonging to
Salem in New England, providentially passing by that
island, sent their boat on shore, and took in Skipper How,
who arrived at Salem, July 18, 1677, and was at last
returned to his family in New-Haven.
PRESERVATIONS.
45
Upon this occasion it may not be amiss to commemorate
a providence not altogether unlike unto the but now related
preservation of Skipper How. The story which I intend
is mentioned by Mandelslo in his Travails, page 280, and
more fully by Mr. Clark in his Examples, vol. ii, page 618,
Mr. Burton in his Prodigies of Mercies, page 209. Yet
inasmuch as but few in this countrey have the authors men-
tioned, I shall here insert what has been by them already
published. The story is in brief as followeth :—
"In the year 1616, a Fleming, whose name was Pickman,
coming from Norway in a vessel loaden with boards, was
overtaken by a calm, during which the current carried him
upon a rock or little island towards the extremities of
Scotland. To avoid a wreck he commanded some of his
men to go into the shallop, and to tow the ship; they
having done so, would needs go up into a certain rock to
look for birds eggs; but as soon as they were got up into
it, they at some distance perceived a man, whence they
imagined that there were others lurking thereabouts, and
that this man had made his escape thither from some
pyrates, who, if not prevented, might surprise their ship:
and therefore they made all the haste they could to their
shallop, and so returned to their ship; but the calm con-
tinuing, and the current of the sea still driving them upon
the island, they were forced to get into the long-boat, and
to tow her off again. The man whom they had seen
before was in the meantime come to the brink of the
island, and made signs with his hands lifted up, and some-
times falling on his knees, and joyning his hands together,
begging and crying to them for relief. At first they made
some difficulty to get to him, but at last, being overcome
by his lamentable signs, they went nearer the island, where
46
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES
they saw something that was more like a ghost than a
living person; a body stark naked, black and hairy, a
meagre and deformed countenance, with hollow and dis-
torted eyes, which raised such compassion in them, that
they essayed to take him into the boat; but the rock was
so steepy thereabouts, that it was impossible for them to
land; whereupon they went about the island, and came at
last to a flat shore, where they took the man aboard. They
found nothing at all in the island, neither grass nor tree,
nor ought else from which a man could procure any
subsistence, nor any shelter, but the ruins of a boat, where-
with he had made a kind of a hutt. under which he might
lie down and shelter himself against the injuries of wind
and weather. No sooner were they gotten to the ship,
but there arose a wind that drave them off from the
island observing this providence they were the more
inquisitive to know of this man, what he was, and by what
means he came unto that uninhabitable place? Hereunto
the man answered:
"I am an Englishman, that about a year ago, was to
pass in the ordinary passage-boat from England to Dublin
in Ireland; but by the way we were taken by a French
pirate, who being immediately forced by a tempest, which
presently arose, to let our boat go; we were three of us in
it, left to the mercy of the wind and waves, which carried
us between Ireland and Scotland into the main sea: in the
meantime we had neither food nor drink, but only some
sugar in the boat; upon this we lived, and drank our own
urine, till our bodies were so dried up, that we could make
no more; whereupon one of our company, being quite
spent, died, whom we heaved overboard; and awhile after
PRESERVATIONS.
47
a second was grown so feeble, that he had laid himself
along in the boat. ready to give up the ghost: but in this
extremity it pleased God that I kenned this island afar off,
and thereupon encouraged the dying man to rouse up him-
self with hopes of life; and accordingly, upon this good
news, he raised himself up. and by and by our boat was
cast upon this island, and split against a rock. Now we
were in a more wretched condition than if we had been
swallowed up by the sea, for then we had been delivered
out of the extremities we were now in for want of meat
and drink; yet the Lord was pleased to make some pro-
vision for us: for on the island we took some sca-mews,
which we did eat raw: we found also in the holes of the
rocks, upon the sea-side, some eggs; and thus had we
through God's good Providence wherewithal to subsist, as
much as would keep us from staring: but what we
thought most unsupportable, was thirst, in regard that the
place afforded no fresh water but what fell from the
clouds, and was left in certain pits, which time had made
in the rock. Neither could we have this at all seasons by
reason that the rock being small, and lying low, in stormy
weather the waves dashed over it, and filled the pits with
salt-water. When they came first upon the island, about
the midst of it they found two long stones pitched in the
ground, and the third laid upon them, like a table, which
they judged to have been so placed by some fishermen to
dry their fish upon, and under this they lay in the nights,
till with some boards of their boat, they made a kind of an
hutt to be a shelter for them. In this condition they lived
together for the space of about six weeks, comforting one
another, and finding some ease in their common calamity,
till at last, one of them being left alone, the burden
48
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES
became almost insupportable: for one day, awaking in the
morning, he missed his fellow, and getting up, he went
calling and seeking all the island about for him; but when
he could by no means find him, he fell into such despair
that he often resolved to have cast himself down into the
sea, and so to put a final period to that affliction, whereof
he had endured but the one-half whilst he had a friend
that divided it with him. What became of his comrade
he could not guess, whether despair forced him to that
extremity, or whether getting up in the night, not fully
awake, he fell from the rock, as he was looking for birds
eggs; for he had discovered no distraction in him, neither
could imagine that he could on a sudden fall into that
despair, against which he had so fortified himself by
frequent and fervent prayer. And his loss did so affect
the survivor, that he often took his leer, with a purpose
to have leaped from the rocks into the sea; yet still his
conscience stopped him, suggesting to him, that if he did
it, he would be utterly damned for his self-murther.
“Another affliction also befel him, which was this: his
only knife, wherewith he cut up the sea-dogs and sea-
mews, having a bloody cloth about it, was carried away (as
he thought) by some fowl of prey; so that not being able
to kill any more, he was reduced to this extremity, with
much difliculty to get out of the boards of his hutt a great
nail, which he made shift so to sharpen upon the stones,
that it served him instead of a knife. When winter came
on, he endured the greatest misery imaginable; for many
times the rock and his hutt were so covered with snow,
that it was not possible for him to go abroad to provide
his food, which extremity put him upon this invention :---
He put out a little stick at the crevice of his hutt, and
PRESERVATIONS.
49.
baiting it with a little sea-dogs fat, by that means he got
some sea-mews, which he took with his hand from under
the snow, and so kept himself from starving. In this sad
and solitary condition he lived for about eleven months,.
expecting therein to end his dayes, when Gods gracious
providence sent this ship thither which delivered him out
of the greatest misery that ever man was in. The master
of the ship, commiserating his deplorable condition, treated
him so well, that within a few dayes he was quite another
creature; and afterwards he set him a shore at Derry, in
Ireland; and sometimes after he saw him at Dublin,
where such as heard what had happened unto him, gave.
him money wherewithal to return into his native countrey
of England."
Thus far is that relation.
I have seen a manuscript, wherein many memorable
passages of Divine Providence are recorded, and this,
which I shall now mention, amongst others.
About the year 1638, a ship fell foul upon the rocks and
sands called the Rancadories, sixty leagues distant from
the Isle of Providence. Ten of the floating passengers
got to a spot of land, where having breathed awhile, and
expecting to perish by famine, eight of them chose rather
to commit themselves to the mercy of the waters; two
only stood upon the spot of land, one whereof soon died,
and was in the sands buried by his now desolate com-
panion. This solitary person in the midst of the roaring
waters was encompassed with the goodness of Divine Pro-
vidence. Within three dayes God was pleased to send
this single person (who now alone was lord and subject in
this his little commonwealth) good store of fowl, and to
4
50
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
render them so tame, that the forlorn man could pick and
chuse where he list. Fish also were now and then cast
up within his reach, and somewhat that served for fuel,
enkindled by flint, to dress them. Thus lived that insu-
lary anchorite for about two years, till at last, having
espied a Dutch vessel, he held a rag of his shirt upon the
top of a stick towards them, which being come within
view of, they used means to fetch him off the said spot of
sand, and brought him to the Isle of Providence. The
man having in so long a time conversed only with Heaven,
lookt at first very strangely, and was not able at first
conference promptly to speak and answer.


CHAPTER III.
CONCERNING REMARKABLES ABOUT THUNDER AND
LIGHTNING.
One at Salisbury in New England struck dead thereby. Several at Marsh-
field. One at North-Hampton. The captain of the castle in Boston.
Some remarkables about lightning in Rocksborough, Wenham, Marble-
head, Cambridge; and in several vessels at sea. Some late parallel
instances. Of several in the last century. Scripture examples of men
slain by lightning.
HERE are who affirm, that although terrible
lightnings with thunders have ever been fre-
quent in this land, yet none were hurt thereby
(neither man nor beast) for many years after
the English did first settle in these American desarts, but
that of later years fatal and fearful slaughters have in
that way been made amongst us, is most certain; and
there are many who have in this respect been as brands
plucked out of the burning, when the Lord hath over-
thrown others as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
Such solemn works of Providence ought not to be for-
gotten. I shall now, therefore, proceed in giving an
account of remarkables respecting thunder and lightning,
so far as I have received credible information concerning
them; the particulars whereof are these which follow :—
In July, 1654, a man whose name was Partridge, es-
teemed a very godly person, at Salisbury in New England,

4a
52
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
was killed with thunder and lightning, his house being
set on fire thereby, and himself with others endeavouring
the quenching of it, by a second crack of thunder with
lightning (he being at the door of his house), was struck
dead, and never spake more. There were ten other
persons also that were struck and lay for dead at the
present, but they all revived, excepting Partridge. Some
that viewed him report that there were holes (like such
as were made with shot) found in his clothes and skin
One side of his shirt and body was scorched, and not the
other. His house, though (as was said) set on fire by
the lightning in divers places, was not burnt down, but
preserved by an abundance of rain falling upon it.
July 31, 1658, there hapned a storm of thunder and
lightning with rain, in the town of Marshfield, in Plymouth
colony in New England. Mr. Nathanael Thomas, John
Philips, and another belonging to that town, being in the
field, as they perceived the storm a coming, betook them-
selves to the next house for shelter. John Philips sat
down near the chimney, his face towards the inner door.
A black cloud flying very low, out of it there came a great
ball of fire, with a terrible crack of thunder; the fire-ball
fell down just before the said Philips; he seemed to give a
start on his seat, and so fell backward, being struck dead,
not the least motion of life appearing in him afterwards.
Captain Thomas, who sat directly opposite to John Philips,
about six feet distance from him, and a young child that
was then within three feet of him, through the providence
of God, received no hurt; yet many of the bricks in the
chimney were beaten down, the principal rafters split, the
battens next the chimney in the chamber were broken, one
LIGHTNING.
53
of the main posts of the house into which the summer was
framed rent into shivers, and a great part of it was carried
several rod from the house; the door before Philips, where
the fire came down was broken.
On the 28th of April, A.D. 1664, a company of the
neighbours being met together at the house of Henry
Condliff, in North-Hampton in New England, to spend a
few hours in Christian conferences and in prayer, there
hapned a storm of thunder and rain; and as the good
man of the house was at prayer, there came a ball of
lightning in at the roof of the house, which set the thatch
on fire, grated on the timber, pierced through the cham-
ber-floor, no breach being made on the boards, only one of
the jouyces somewhat rased. Matthew Cole, who was son-
in-law to the said Condliff, was struck stone dead as he
was leaning over a table, and joyning with the rest in
prayer. He did not stir nor groan after he was smitten,
but continued standing as before, bearing upon the table.
There was no visible impression on his body or clothes,
only the sole of one of his shoes was rent from the upper
leather. There were about twelve persons in the room;
none else received any harm, only one woman (who is still
living) was struck upon the head, which occasioned some
deafness ever since. The fire on the house was quenched
by the seasonable help of neighbours.
July 15, 1665, there were terrible cracks of thunder : an
house in Boston was struck by it, and the dishes therein
melted as they stood on the shelves; but no other hurt
done in the town, only Captain Davenport, a worthy man,
and one that had in the Pequot war ventured his life, and
54
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
did great service for the countrey, then residing in the
castle, where he commanded, having that day wrought him-
self weary, and thinking to refresh himself with sleep, was
killed with lightning as he lay upon his bed asleep. Several
of the soldiers in the castle were struck at the same time,
but God spared their lives. It has been an old opinion,
mentioned by Plutarch (Sympos. lib. 4, q. 2), that men
asleep are never smitten with lightning; to confirm which
it has been alledged, that one lying asleep, the lightning
melted the money in his purse, without doing him any
further harm; and that a cradle, wherein a child lay
sleeping, was broken with the lightning, and the child not
hurt; and that the arrows of King Mithridates, being
near his bed, were burnt with lightning, and yet himself
being asleep received no hurt. But as much of all this
may be affirmed of persons awake; and this sad example
(triste jaces lucis evitandumque bilental) of Captain Daven-
port, whom the lightning found and left asleep, does con-
fute the vulgar error mentioned. And no doubt but that
many the like instances to this have been known in the
world, the records whereof we have not. But I proceed.
June 23, 1666. In Marshfield, another dismal storm
of rain with thunder and lightning hapned. There were
then in the house of John Philips (he was father of that
John Philips who was slain by lightning in the year
1658) fourteen persons; the woman of the house calling
earnestly to shut the door, that was no sooner done, but
an astonishing thunder-clap fell upon the house, rent the
chimney, and split the door. All in the house were
struck. One of them (who is still living) saith, that when
he came to himself, he saw the house full of smoke, and
LIGHTNING.
55
perceived a grievous smell of brimstone, and saw the fire
lie scattered, though whether that fire came from heaven
or was violently hurled out of the hearth, he can give no
account. At first he thought all the people present,
except himself, had been killed; but it pleased God to
revive most of them. Only three of them were mortally
wounded with Heaven's arrows, viz., the wife of John
Philips, and another of his sons, a young man about
twenty years old, and William Shertly, who had a child
in his arms, that received no hurt by the lightning when
himself was slain. This Shertly was at that time a
sojourner in John Philips his house. The wife of this
Shertly was with child and near her full time, and struck
down for dead at present, but God recovered her, so that
she received no hurt, neither by fright nor stroke. Two
little children sitting upon the edge of a table, had their
lives preserved, though a dog, which lay behind them
under the table, was killed.
In the same year, in the latter end of May, Samuel
Ruggles, of Rocksborough in New England, going with a
loaden cart, was struck with lightning. He did not hear
the thunder-clap, but was by the force of the lightning,
e're he was aware, carried over his cattle about ten foot
distance from them. Attempting to rise up, he found that
he was not able to stand upon his right leg, for his right
foot was become limber, and would bend any way, feeling
as if it had no bone in it; nevertheless, he made a shift
with the use of one leg to get to his cattle (being an horse
and two oxen), which were all killed by the lightning.
He endeavoured to take off the yoak from the neck of one
of the oxen, but then he perceived that his thumb and two
56
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
fingers in one hand were stupified that he could not stir
them; they looked like cold clay, the blood clear gone out
of that part of his hand; but by rubbing his wounded leg
and hand, blood and life came into them again. As he
came home, pulling off his stocking, he found that on the
inside of his right leg (which smarted much) the hair was
quite burnt off, and it looked red; just over his ankle his
stocking was singed on the inside, but not on the outside,
and there were near upon twenty marks, about as big as
pins heads, which the lightning had left thereon; likewise
the shoe on his left foot was by the lightning struck off
his foot, and carried above two rods from him. On the
upper leather, at the heel of the shoe, there were five holes
burnt through it, bigger than those which are made with
duck shot. As for the beasts that were slain, the hair
upon their skins was singed, so that one might perceive
that the lightning had run winding and turning strangely
upon their bodies, leaving little marks no bigger than
corns of gun-powder behind it. There was in the cart a
chest, which the lightning pierced through, as also through
a quire of paper and twelve napkins, melting some pewter
dishes that were under them.
At another time in Rocksborough, a thunder storm
hapning, broke into the house of Thomas Bishop, striking
off some clapboards, splitting two studs of the end spar,
and running down by each side of the window, where
stood a bed with three children in it. Over the head of
the bed were three guns and a sword, which were so
melted with the lightning that they began to run. It
made a hole through the floor, and coming into a lower
room, it beat down the shutter of the window, and
LIGHTNING.
57
running on a shelf of pewter, it melted several dishes
there; and descending lower, it melted a brass morter,
and a brass kettle. The children in the bed were won
derfully preserved; for a lath at the corner of it was
burnt, and splinters flew about their clothes and faces,
and there was not an hands breadth between them and
the fire, yet received they no hurt.
On the 18th of May (being the Lords day) A.D. 1673,
the people at Wenham (their worthy pastor, Mr. Antipas
Newman, being lately dead) prevailed with the Reverend
Mr. Higginson of Salem to spend that Sabbath amongst
them. The afternoon sermon being ended, he, with several
of the town, went to Mr. Newman his house. Whilst
they were in discourse there about the word and works of
God, a thunder-storm arose. After a while, a smart clap
of thunder broke upon the house, and especially into the
room where they were sitting and discoursing together; it
did for the present deafen them all, filling the room with
smoke, and a strong smell as of brimstone. With the
thunder-clap came in a ball of fire as big as the bullet of
a great gun, which suddenly went up the chimney, as
also the smoke did. This ball of fire was seen at the feet
of Richard Goldsmith, who sat on a leather chair next
the chimney, at which instant he fell off the chair on the
ground. As soon as the smoke was gone, some in the
room endeavoured to hold him up, but found him dead;
also the dog that lay under the chair was found stone
dead, but not the least hurt done to the chair. All that
could be perceived by the man, was, that the hair of his
head, near one of his ears, was a little singed. There were
seven or eight in that room, and more in the next; yet
58
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
(through the merciful providence of God) none else had
the least harm. This Richard Goldsmith, who was thus
slain, was a shoemaker by trade, being reputed a good
man for the main; but had blemished his Christian pro-
fession by frequent breaking of his promise; it being too
common with him (as with too many professors amongst
us), to be free and forward in engaging, but backward in
performing; yet this must further be added, that half a
year before his death, God gave him a deep sense of his
evils, that he made it his business, not only that his peace
might be made with God, but with men also, unto whom
he had given just offence. He went up and down
bewailing his great sin in promise-breaking; and was
become a very conscientious and lively Christian, pro-
moting holy and edifying discourses, as he had occasion.
At that very time when he was struck dead, he was
speaking of some passages in the sermon he had newly
heard, and his last words were, Blessed be the Lord.
In the same year, on the 21st of June, being Saturday,
in the afternoon, another thunder-storm arose, during
which storm Josialı Walton, the youngest son of Mr.
William Walton, late minister of Marble-head, was in a
ketch coming in from sea, and being before the harbours
mouth, the wind suddenly shifted to the northward;
a violent gust of wind coming down on the vessel, the
seamen concluded to hand their sails; Josiah Walton got
upon the main yard to expedite the matter, and foot down
the sail, when there hapned a terrible flash of lightning,
which breaking forth out of the cloud, struck down three.
men who were on the deck, without doing them any hurt.
But Josiah Walton being (as was said) on the main-yard,
LIGHTNING.
59
the lightning shattered his thigh-bone all in pieces, and
did split and shiver the main-mast of the vessel, and
scorcht the rigging. Josiah Walton falling down upon the
deck, his leg was broken short off. His brother being on
the deck, did (with others) take him up, and found him
alive, but sorely scorched and wounded. They brought
him on shore to his mothers house. At first he was very
sensible of his case, and took leave of his friends, giving
himself to serious preparation for another world. His
relations used all means possible for his recovery, though
he himself told them he was a dead man, and the use of
means would but put him to more misery. His bones
were so shattered, that it was not possible for the art of
man to reduce them; also, the violent heat of the weather
occasioned a gangrene. In this misery he continued until
the next Wednesday morning, and then departed this life.
He was an hopeful young man.
In the year 1678, on the 29th of June, at Cambridge
in New-England, a thunder-clap with lightning broke into
the next house to the colledge. It tore away and shattered
into pieces a considerable quantity of the tyle on the roof.
In one room there then hapned to be the wife of John
Benjamin, daughter to Thomas Swetman, the owner of
the house, who then had an infant about two moneths
old in her arms; also another woman. They were all of
them struck; the child being by the force of the lightning
carried out of the mothers arms, and thrown upon the
floor some distance from her. The mother was at first
thought to be dead, but God restored her, though she lost
the use of her limbs for some considerable time. Her feet
were singed with the lightning, and yet no sign thereof
60
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
appearing on her shoes. Also the child and the other
woman recovered. In the next room were seven or eight
persons who received no hurt. It was above a quarter of
an hour before they could help the persons thus smitten,
for the room was so full of smoke (smelling like brimstone)
that they could not see them. Some swine being near the
door as the lightning fell, were thrown into the house,
and seemed dead awhile, but afterwards came to life again.
A cat was killed therewith. A pewter candlestick stand
ing upon a joynt-stool, some part of it was melted and
carried away before the lightning, and stuck in the cham-
ber-floor over head, like swan shot, and yet the candlestick
itself was not so much as shaken off from the stool
whereon it stood.
June 12, 1680. There was an amazing thunder-storm
at Hampton in New England. The lightning fell upon
the house of Mr. Joseph Smith, strangely shattering it in
divers places. His wife (the grand-daughter of that emi-
nent man of God, Mr. Cotton, who was the famous teacher
of the church of Christ, first in Old and then in New
Boston) lay as dead for the present, being struck down
with the lightning near the chimney; yet God mercifully
spared and restored her; but the said Smith his mother
(a gracious woman) was struck dead, and never recovered
again.
Besides all these which have been mentioned, one or
two in Connecticut colony, and four persons dwelling in
the northern parts of this countrey, were smitten with the
fire of God, about sixteen years ago; the circumstances of
which providences (though very remarkable) I have not as
LIGHTNING
61
yet received from those that were acquainted therewith
and therefore cannot here publish them. Also, some re-
markables about thunder hapned the last year.
A reverend friend in a neighbour colony, in a letter
bearing August 3, 1682, writeth thus:-
"We have had of late great storms of rain and wind,
and some of thunder and lightning, whereby execution
has been done, though with sparing mercy to men. Mr.
Jones his house in New-Haven was broken into by the
lightning, and strange work made in one room especially,
in which one of his children had been but a little before.
This was done June 8th, 1682. A little after which, at
Norwalk, there were nine working oxen smitten dead at
once, within a small compass of ground. The next
moneth, at Greenwich, there were seven swine and a dog
killed with the lightning, very near a dwelling-house,
where a family of children (their parents not at home
when lightning hapned) were much frighted, but received
no other hurt. What are these but warning pieces,
shewing that mens lives may go next?" Thus he.
I proceed now to give an account of some late remark-
ables about thunder and lightning, wherein several vessels
at sea were concerned.
July 17, 1677. A vessel, whereof Mr. Thomas Berry
was master, set sail from Boston in New England, bound
for the island of Madeira. About 3 h. P.M., being half-
way between Cape Cod and Brewsters Islands, they were
becalmed; and they perceived a thunder-shower arising in
the north-north-west. The master ordered all their sails
except their two courses) to be furled. When the shower
62
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
drew near to them, they had only the foresail abroad; all
the men were busie in lashing fast the long-boat; the
master was walking upon the deck, and as he came near
the main-mast, he beheld something very black fly before
him, about the bigness of a small mast, at the larboard
side; and immediately he heard a dreadful and amazing
noise, not like a single canon, but as if great armies of
men had been firing one against another; presently upon
which the master was struck clear round, and fell down
for dead upon the deck, continuing so for about seven
minutes; but then he revived, having his hands much
burnt with the lightning. The ship seemed to be on fire;
and a very great smoke, having a sulphurous smell, came
from between the decks, so that no man was able to stay
there for more than half an hour after this surprising ac-
cident hapned. The main-mast was split from the top-
gallant-mast head to the lower deck. The partners of the
pump were struck up at the star-board side; and one end
of two cabbins staved down betwixt decks. Two holes
were made in one of the pumps, about the bigness of two
musquet bullets. They were forced to return to Boston
again, in order to the fitting of the vessel with a new
mast. Through the mercy of the Most High, no person
in the vessel received any hurt, besides what hath been
expressed. Yet it is remarkable, that the same day, about
the same time, two men in or near Wenham were killed
with lightning, as they sat under a tree in the woods.
On June the 6th, A.D. 1682, a ship called the Jamaica
Merchant, Captain Joseph Wild commander, being then
in the Gulph of Florida, lat. 27 gr., about 1 h. P.M. was
surprized with an amazing thunder-shower. The lightning
LIGHTNING
63
split the main-mast, and knocked down one of the
seamen, and set the ship on fire between decks in several
places. They used utmost endeavour to extinguish the
fire, but could not do it. Seeing they were unable to
overcome those flames, they betook themselves to their
boat. The fire was so furious between the cabbin and the
deck in the steeridge, that they could not go to the relief
of each other, insomuch that a man and his wife were
parted. The man leaped overboard into the sea, and so
swam to the boat; his wife and a child were taken out of
a gallery window into the boat. Three men more were
saved by leaping out of the cabbin window. There were
aboard this vessel which Heaven thus set on fire, thirty-
four persons; yet all escaped with their lives for the
gracious providence of God so ordered, as that Captain
John Bennet was then in company, who received these
distressed and astonished creatures into his ship: so did
they behold the vessel burning, until about 8 h. P.M.,
when that which remained sunk to the bottom of the sea.
The master with several of the seamen were, by Captain
Bennet, brought safe to New England, where they de-
clared how wonderfully they had been delivered from death,
which God both by fire and water had threatned them with.
March 16, 1682-3. A ship, whereof Robert Luist is
master, being then at sea (bound for New England), in
lat. 27 gr., about 2 h. A.M., it began to thunder and
lighten. They beheld three corpusants (as mariners call
them) on the yards. The thunder grew fiercer and thicker
than before. Suddenly their vessel was filled with smoke
and the smell of brimstone, that the poor men were ter-
rified with the apprehension of their ships being on fire.
64
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES
There came down from the clouds a stream or flame of fire,
as big as the ships mast, which fell on the middle of the
deck, where the mate was standing, but then was thrown
flat upon his back, with three men more that were but a
little distance from him. They that were yet untouched,
thought not only that their fellow mariners had been
struck dead, but their deck broken in pieces by that
blow, whose sound seemed to them to exceed the report
of many great guns fired off at once. Some that were
less dangerously hurt, made an out-cry that their legs
were scalded, but the mate lay speechless and senseless.
When he began to come to himself, he made sad com-
plaints of a burden lying upon his back. When day came,
they perceived their main-top-mast was split, and the
top-sail burnt. The lightning seemed like small coals of
fire blown overboard.
:
There is one remarkable more about thunder and light-
ning, which I am lately informed of by persons concerned
therein some circumstances in the relation being as won-
derful as any of the preceding particulars. Thus it was:
On July 24, in the year 1681, the ship called Albemarl
(whereof Mr. Edward Ladd was then master), being an
hundred leagues from Cape Cod, in lat. 38, about 3h. P.M.,
met with a thunder-storm. The lightning burnt the main-
top-sail, split the main-cap in pieces, rent the mast all
along. There was in special one dreadful clap of thunder,
the report bigger than of a great gun, at which all the
ships company were amazed; then did there fall some-
thing from the clouds upon the stern of the boat, which
broke into many small parts, split one of the pumps, the
other pump much hurt also. It was a bituminous matter,
LIGHTNING.
65
smelling much like fired gunpowder. It continued burning.
in the stern of the boat; they did with sticks dissipate it,
and poured much water on it, and yet they were not able
by all that they could do to extinguish it, until such
time as all the matter was consumed. But the strangest
thing of all is yet to be mentioned. When night came,
observing the stars, they perceived that their compasses.
were changed. As for the compass in the biddikil, the
north point was turned clear south. There were two other
compasses unhung in the locker in the cabin: in one of
which the north point stood south, like that in the bid-
dikil; as for the other, the north point stood west, so that
they sailed by a needle whose polarity was quite changed.
The seamen were at first puzzled how to work their vessel
right, considering that the south point of their compass
was now become north; but, after a little use, it was easy
to them. Thus did they sail a thousand leagues. As for
the compass, wherein the lightning had made the needle
to point westward, since it was brought to New-England,
the glass being broke, it has, by means of the air coming
to it, wholly lost its vertue. One of those compasses, which
had quite changed the polarity from north to south, is
still extant in Boston, and at present in my custody. The
north point of the needle doth remain fixed to this day as
it did immediately after the lightning caused an alteration ;
the natural reason of which may be enquired into in the
next chapter. But before I pass to that, it may be, it will
be grateful to the reader for me here to commemorate
some parellel instances, which have lately hapned in other
parts of the world, unto which I proceed, contenting my-
self with one or two examples, reserving others for the
5
66
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
subsequent chapter, where we shall have further occasion
to take notice of them.
The Authors of Ephemeridum Medico-Physicarum Ger-
manicarum have informed the world, that on August 14,
1669, it thundred and lightned as if heaven and earth
would come together. And at the house of a gentleman,
who lived near Bergen, the fiery lightning flashed through
four inner rooms at once; entering into a beer cellar,
with its force it threw down the earthen vessels, with the
windows and doors where it came; but the tin and iron
vessels were partly melted, and partly burnt, with black
spots remaining on them. Where it entred the cellar, the
barrels were removed out of their right places; where it
went out, it left the taps shaking. In one room, the bind
ing was taken off from the back of a Bible, and the margin
was accurately cut by the lightning without hurting the
letters, as if it had been done by the hands of some artist,
beginning at the Revelation, and (which is wonderful)
ending with the twelfth chapter of 1 Epistle to the
Corinthians, which chapter fell in course to be expounded
in public the next Lords day. Six women sitting in the
same chimney, filled with a sulphurous and choaking mist,
that one could scarce breathe, not far from the bed of a
woman that was then lying-in, were struck down, the
hangings of the room burnt, and the mother of the woman
in child-bed lay for dead at present; but, after a while,
the other recovering their sences, examined what hurt was
done to the woman thought to be dead: her kerchief was
burnt, as if it had been done with gunpowder; she had
about her a silver chain, which was melted and broke into
LIGHTNING.
67
five parts; her under-garments were not so much as
singed; but just under her paps she was very much
burnt. After she came to herself she was very sensible
of pain in the place where the lightning had caused that
wound. To lenifie which, womens milk was made use of;
but blisters arising, the dolour was increased, until a
skilful physician prescribed this unguent:-R. Mucil, sem.
cydoniorum c. aq. malv. half an ounce. Succ. Plantag.
rec. an ounce and half. Lytharg. aur. subt. pert. half
a drachm, m. ad. fict. Whereby the inflamation was
allayed.
By the same authors, it is also related, that in June,
A.D. 1671, an house was struck with lightning in four
places; in some places the timber was split, and in other
places had holes made in it, as if bored through with an
awger, but no impression of fire were any where to be
seen. A girl, fifteen years old, sitting in the chimney,
was struck down, and lay for dead the space of half an
hour; and it is probable, that she had never recovered,
had not an able physician been sent for, who viewing her,
perceived that the clothes about her breast were made to
look blewish by the lightning: it had also caused her paps
to look fiery and blackish, as if they had been scorched
with gunpowder. Under her breast the lightning had left
creases across her body, of a brownish colour: also, some
creases made by the lightning, as broad as ones finger,
run along her left leg reaching to her foot. The physician
caused two spoonfuls of apoplectick water to be poured
down her throat, upon which she instantly revived, com-
plaining of a great heat in her jaws, and much pain in the
places hurt by the lightning. Half a drachm of Pulvis
Τα
68
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
Bezoarticus Anglicus, in the water of sweet chervil was
given to her, which caused a plentiful sweat, whereby the
pain in her jaws was diminished. Being still feaverish,
an emulsion, made with poppy seed, millet, carduus
benedictus, &c. was made use of, upon which the patient
had ease and recovered. It appears by this, as well as
other instances, that great care should be had of those that
are thunder-struck, that they be not given up for quite
dead, before all means be used in order to their being
revived. Paulus Zacchias, in Questionibus Medicis, giveth
rules whereby it may be known whether persons smitten
with lightning be dead past all recovery or no. And the
history put forth by Jacobus Javellus, in an epistle
emitted with his Medicina Compendium, describes the cure
of persons struck with lightning. I have not myself seen
those books, but whoso shall see cause to obtain and
consult them, will I suppose find therein things worth
their reading and consideration. Something to this pur-
pose I find in the Scholion, on the Germ. Ephem. for the
year 1671, obs. 37, p. 69. The reader that is desirous to
see more remarkable instances about thunder and light-
ning, wherein persons living in former age were concerned,
if he please to look into Zuinger his Theatrum vit. Human.
vol. ii, lib. 2, p. 322, and lib. 7, p. 475, 545, and vol. iii.
lib. 1, p. 621, and vol. v, lib. 4, p. 1371, he will find
many notable and memorable passages which that indus-
trious author hath collected. Though none more awful
(to my remembrance) than that which hapned A.D. 1546,
when Meckelen (a principal city in Brabant) was set on
fire, and suffered a fearful conflagration by lightning; so
it was, that at the very time when this thunder-storm
hapned, an inn-keeper (whose name was Croes) had in his
LIGHTNING.
69
house, some guests, who were playing at cards. The inn-
keeper going into his wine-cellar to fetch drink for his
merry guests, at that moment the furious tempest plucked
up the house and carried it a good way off. Every one
of the men that were playing at cards were found dead
with their cards in their hands, only the inn-keeper him-
self, being in the wine-cellar (which was arched) escaped
with his life.
This brings to mind a strange passage related by
Cardan (De Variet, lib. 8, c. 43), who saith, that eight
men, sitting down together under an oak, as they were at
supper, a flash of lightning smote and slew them all; and
they were found in the very posture that the lightning
surprized them in: one with the meat in his mouth,
another seemed to be drinking, another with a cup in his
hand, which he intended to bring to his mouth, &c.
They looked like images made black with the lightning.
As for Scripture examples of men slain by lightning, it
is the judgement of the judicious and learned Zuinger, that
the Sodomites, and those 250 that being with Corah in his
conspiracy, presumed to offer incense (Numb. xvi, 35),
and Nadab and Abihu, and the two semicenturions, with
their souldiers, who came to apprehend the prophet Elijah,
were all killed by lightning from heaven.

CHAPTER IV.
SOME PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS.
Concerning Antipathies and Sympathies. Of the loadstone. Of the nature
and wonderful effects of lightning. That thunder-storms are often caused
by Satan, and sometimes by good angels. Thunder is the voice of God
and, therefore, to be dreaded. All places in the habitable world are
subject to it, more or less. No amulets can preserve men from being
hurt thereby. The miserable estate of wicked men upon this account,
and the happiness of the righteous, who may be above all disquieting
fears with respect unto such terrible accidents.
AVING thus far related many Remarkable
Providences which have hapned in these
goings down of the sun, and some of the
particulars (especially in the last chapter)
being tragical stories, the reader must give me leave upon
this occasion, a little to divert and recreate my mind with
some philosophical meditations, and to conclude with a
theological improvement thereof. There are wonders in
the works of Creation as well as Providence, the reason
whereof the most knowing amongst mortals are not able
to comprehend. "Dost thou know the ballancings of the
clouds, the wondrous works of Him who is perfect in
knowledge?”
I have not yet seen any who give a satisfactory reason
of those strange fountains in New Spain, which ebb and
flow with the sea, though far from it, and which fall

PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS.
71
in rainy weather, and rise in dry; or concerning that
pit near St. Bartholmew's, into which if one cast a stone,
though never so small, it makes a noise as great and
terrible as a clap of thunder. It is no difficult thing to
produce a world of instances, concerning which, the usual
answer is, an occult quality is the cause of this strange
operation, which is only a fig-leaf whereby our common.
philosophers seek to hide their own ignorance. Nor may
we (with Erastus) deny that there are marvelous sym-
pathies and antipathies in the natures of things. We
know that the horse does abominate the camel; the mighty
elephant is afraid of a mouse; and they say that the lion,
who scorneth to turn his back upon the stoutest animal,
will tremble at the crowing of a cock. Some men also
have strange antipathies in their natures against that sort
of food which others love and live upon. I have read of
one that could not endure to eat either bread or flesh; of
another that fell into a swoonding fit at the smell of a
rose; others would do the like at the smell of vineger, or
at the sight of an eel or a frog. There was a man that if
he did hear the sound of a bell, he would immediately die
away; another if he did happen to hear any one sweeping
a room, an inexpressible horror would seize upon him;
another if he heard one whetting a knife, his gumins
would fall a bleeding; another was not able to behold a
knife that had a sharp point without being in a strange
agony. Quercetus speaketh of one that died as he was
sitting at the table, only because an apple was brought
into his sight. There are some who, if a cat accidentally
come into the room, though they neither sec it, nor are told
of it, will presently he in a sweat, and ready to die away.
There was lately one living in Stow-Market, that when ever
72
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
it thundred, would fall into a violent vomiting, and so
continue until the thunder-storm was over. A woman had
such an antipathy against cheese that if she did but eat a
piece of bread, cut with a knife, which a little before had
cut cheese, it would cause a deliquium; yet the same
woman when she was with child delighted in no meat so
much as in cheese. There was lately (I know not but that
he may be living still) a man, that if pork, or any thing
made of swines flesh, were brought into the room, he
would fall into a convulsive Sardonian laughter; nor can
he for his heart leave as long as that object is before him,
so that, if it should not be removed, he would certainly
laugh himself to death. It is evident that the peculiar
antipathies of some persons are caused by the imaginations
of their parents.
There was one that would fall into a
syncope if either a calves head or a cabbage were brought
near him. There were navi materni upon the hypocondria
of this person; on his right side there was the form of a
calves head, on his left side a cabbage imprinted there by
the imagination of his longing mother. Most wonderful is
that which Libavius and others report, concerning a man
that would be surprised with a lipothymy at the sight of
his own son-nay, upon his approaching near unto him,
though he saw him not; for which some assigned this
reason, that the mother when she was with child, used to
feed upon such meats as were abominable to the father
(concerning the rationality of this conjecture see Sir
Kenelm Digby's Discourse of Bodies, p. 409, 410); but
others said that the midwife who brought him into the
world was a witch.
Nor are the sympathies in nature less wonderful than
the antipathies. There is a mutual friendship between the
PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS.
73
olive-tree and the myrtle. There is a certain stone called
pantarbe, which draws gold unto it; so does the adamas
hairs and twigs. The sympathy between the load-stone
and iron, which do mutually attract each other, is admi-.
rable: there is no philosopher but speaketh of this; some
have published whole treatises (both profitable and plea-
sant) upon this argument-in special, Gilbert, Ward,
Cabeus, Kepler, and of late Kircherus.
I know many fabulous things have been related con-
cerning the load-stone by inexperienced philosophers, and
so believed by many others, e.g. that onions, or garlick,
or ointments, will cause it to lose its vertue. Johnston
(and from him Dr. Browne in his Vulgar Errors) hath
truly asserted the contrary. Every one knoweth that
the head of a needle touched therewith will continue
pointing towards the north pole; so that the magnet
leaveth an impression of its own nature and vertue upon
the needle, causing it to stand pointed as the magnet
itself doth. The loadstone it self is the hardest iron; and
it is a thing known, that such mines are naturally so
(notwithstanding the report of one who saith, that lately
in Devonshire, loadstones were found otherwise) posited in
the earth. Just under the Line the needle lieth parallel
with the horizon; but sailing north or south it begins to
incline and increase according as it approacheth to either
pole, and would at last endeavour to erect itself; whence
some ascribe these strange effects to the north star, which
they suppose to be very magnetical. There is reason to
believe that the earth is the great magnet. Hence (as
Mr. Seller observes), when a bar of iron has stood long
in a window, that end of it which is next to the earth
will have the same vertue which the loadstone it self has.
-+
74
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES
Some place the first meridian at the Azores, because there
the needle varies not; but the like is to be said of some
other parts of the world; yea, under the very same meri-
dian, in divers latitudes, there is a great variation as to
the pointing of the needle. It is affirmed that between
the shore of Ireland, France, Spain, Guiny, and the
Azores, the north point varies towards the east, as some
part of the Azores it deflecteth not. On the other side of
the Azores, and this side of the æquator, the north point
of the needle wheeleth to the west; so that in the lat. 36,
near the shore, the variation is about 11 gr., but on the
other side of the æquator, it is quite otherwise, for in
Brasilia the south point varies 12 gr, unto the west, but
elongating from the coast of Brasilia toward the shore of
Africa it varies eastward, and arriving at the Cape De las
Aguillas, it rests in the meridian and looketh neither way.
Dr. Browne, in his Pseudodoxia Epidemica, p. 63, does ra-
tionally suppose that the cause of this variation may be the
inequality of the earth, variously disposed and indifferently
mixed with the sea. The needle driveth that way where
the greater and most powerful part of the earth is placed;
for whereas on this side the isles of Azores the needle
varies eastward, it may be occasioned by that vast tract,
viz. Europe, Asia, and Africa, seated towards the east, and
disposing the needle that way; sailing further it veers its
lilly to the west, and regards that quarter wherein the
land is nearer or greater; and in the same latitude, as it
approacheth the shore, augmenteth its variation; hence, at
Rome, there is a less variation (viz. but five degrees) than
at London, for on the west side of Rome are seated the
great continents of France, Spain, Germany; but unto
England there is almost no earth west, but the whole
PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS.
75
extent of Europe and Asia lies eastward, and therefore at
London the variation is 11 degrees. Thus also, by reason
of the great continent of Brasilia, the needle deflects
towards the land 12 degrees: but at the straits of
Magellan, where the land is narrowed, and the sea on the
other side, it varies but 5 or 6; so because the Cape of
De las Aguillas hath sea on both sides near it, and other
land remote, and as it were æquidistant from it, the needle
conforms to the meridian. In certain creeks and vallies it
proveth irregular, the reason whereof may be some vigo-
rous part of the earth not far distant. Thus Dr. Browne,
whose arguings seem rational. Some have truly observed
of crocus martis or steel corroded with vineger, sulphur, or
otherwise, and after reverberated by fire, that the loadstone
will not at all attract it, nor will it adhere, but lye therein
like sand. It is likewise certain, that the fire will cause
the loadstone to lose its vertue, inasmuch as its bituminous
spirits are thereby evaporated. Porta (lib. 7, cap. 7)
saith that he did, to his great admiration, see a sulphu-
rous flame break out of the loadstone, which being dissi-
pated, the stone lost its attractive vertue. Moreover, the
loadstone, by being put into the fire, may be caused quite
to change its polarity. The truly noble and honourable
Robert Boyle, Esq., many of whose excellent observations
and experiments have been advantagious, not only to the
English nation but to the learned world, in his book of the
Usefulness of Natural Philosophy, p. 15, hath these words:
"Taking an oblong loadstone, and heating it red hot,
I found the attractive faculty, in not many minutes, either
altogether abolisht, or, at least, so impaired and weakened,
that I was scarce, if at all, able to discern it. But this
hath been observed, though not so faithfully related, by
76
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
more than one; wherefore I shall add,—That by refrige-
rating this red hot loadstone, either north or south, I
found that I could give its extreams a polarity (if I may
so speak), which they would readily display upon an ex-
cited needle freely placed in æquilibrium; and not only
so, but I could by refrigerating the same end, sometimes
north and sometimes south, in a very short time change
the poles of the loadstone at pleasure, making that which
was a quarter of an hour before the north pole become the
south; and, on the contrary, the formerly southern pole
become the northern. And this change was wrought on
the loadstone, not only by cooling it directly north and
south, but by cooling it perpendicularly; that end of it
which was contiguous to the ground growing the north-
ern pole, and so (according to the laws magnetical) draw-
ing to it the south end, and that which was remotest
from the contrary one; as if, indeed, the terrestrial globe
were, as some magnetic philosophers have supposed it,
but a great magnet, since its effluviums are able, in some
cases, to impart a magnetic faculty to the loadstone it
self." Thus far Mr. Boyle.
Also Dr. Browne shews, that if we erect a red-hot wire
until it cool, then hang it up with wax and untwisted
silk where the lower end and that which cooled next the
earth does rest, that is the northern point. And if a wire
be heated only at one end, according as the end is cooled
upwards or downwards, it respectively acquires a verticity.
He also observes, if a load-stone be made red hot in the
fire, it amits the magnetical vigor it had before, and
acquireth another from the earth, in its refrigeration, for
that part which cooleth next the earth will acquire the
respect of the north; the experiment whereof he made
PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS.
77
in a loadstone of parallelogram, or long square figure,
wherein only inverting the extreames as it came out of
the fire, he altered the poles or faces thereof at pleasure.
Unto some such reason as this, must the wonderful change
occasioned by the lightning in the compasses of Mr. Lad's
vessel be ascribed; probably the heat of the lightning
caused the needle to lose its verture, and the compass in
the bidikle might stand pointed to the south, and that
unhung in the locker to the west, when they grew cold
again, and accordingly continue pointing for ever after.
.He thunndreth marveils ירעם נפלאות
There is also that which is very mysterious and beyond
humane capacity to comprehend, in thunder and lightning.
The thunder of his power, who can understand? Also,
can any understand the spreadings of the clouds, or the
noise of His Tabernacle? Hence Elihu said (some in-
terpreters think there was a thunder-storm at the very
instant when those words were spoken) in Job, xxxvii, 5,
It is indeed
manifest that these wonderful meteors are generated out of
a nitrous and sulphurous matter. Hence it is commonly
out of dark and thick clouds that hail and coals of fire
break forth, Psal. xviii, 11, 12. The scent which the
lightning useth to leave behind it, in places where it falls,
is a sufficient evidence of its being of a sulphurous nature
Nay, the persons (as well as places) smitten therewith
have sometimes smelt strong of brimstone. Two years
ago there was a ship riding at anchor in a place in France
and a furious tempest suddenly arising, the main-mast
was split in pieces with a clap of thunder; the pendant
on the top of the main-top-mast was burnt to ashes,
twelve men were beat upon the deck, five of which lay
1
78
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
for dead a considerable time, no pulse or breath being
perceived, their eyes and teeth immovable, yet had they
no visible wound, only an intolerable smell of brimstone;
about half an hour after, by rubbing and forceing open
their mouths, and pouring down some cordials, they
recovered. At the same time six others were miserably
burnt, their flesh being scorched, yet their garments not
so much as singed; their skin much discoloured. See
Mr. Burton's Miracles of Nature, p. 181.
Likewise, August 23, 1682. A man walking in the
field near Darking in England was struck with a clap of
thunder. One who was near him, ran to take him up,
but found him dead, and his body exceeding hot, and
withal smelling so strong of sulphur that he was forced
to let him ly a considerable time ere he could be removed.
It is reported, that sometimes thunder and lightning has
been generated out of the sulphurous and bituminous.
matter which the fiery mountain Ætna hath cast forth.
We know that when there is a mixture of nitre, sulphur,
and unslaked lime, water will cause fire to break out.
And when unto nitre brimstone is added, a report is
caused thereby. And unquestionably, nitre is a special
ingredient in the matter of thunder and lightning; this
we may gather from the descension of the flame, which
descends not only obliquely but perpendicularly, and
that argues it does so not from any external force, but
naturally. Mr. William Clark, in his Natural History of
Nitre, observes that if the quantity of an ounce be put in
a fire-shovel, and a live coal put upon it, the fire-shovel
in the bottom will be red hot, and burn through whatever
is under it; which demonstrates that this sort of fire does
PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS.
79
naturally burn downwards, when as all other fires do
naturally ascend. For this cause Stella cadens is ration-
ally concluded to be a nitrous substance; the like is to be
affirmed of the lightning. Hence also is its terrible and
irresistable force. The nitre in gunpowder is, as the afore-
said author expresseth it, Anima Pyrii Pulveris, sulphur
without saltpeter has no powerful expulsion with it.
The discharging great pieces of ordnance is fitly called
Artificial Thundring and Lightning, since thereby men
do in a moment blow up houses, beat down castles, batter
mountains in pieces. So that there is nothing in nature
does so admirably and artificially resemble the thunder
and lightning, both in respect of the report, and the
terrible and sudden and amazing execution done thereby
Flammas Jovis & sonitus imitatur Olympi: Hence as
those that are shot with a bullet do not hear the gun,
being struck before the report cometh to their ears, so
is it usually with them that are thunder-struck, the light-
ning is upon them before the noise is heard. Men com-
monly tremble at the dreadful crack, when, as if they hear
any thing, the danger useth to be past as to that particular
thunder-clap; though another may come and kill them
before they hear it. The nitre in the lightning may
likewise be esteemed the natural cause of its being of so
penetrating and burning a nature. For there is not the
like fiery substance in the world again as nitre is. Many
have been of the opinion that there is a bolt of stone
descending with the thunder; but that is a vulgar error,
the fulmeen or thunder-bolt is the same with the light-
ning, being a nitro-sulphurious spirit. It must needs be
a more subtile and spiritual body than any stone is of,
that shall penetrate so as these meteors do. It is true that
80
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
our translation reads the words in Psal. lxxviii, 41. He
gave their flocks to hot thunder-bolts: but the original
word translated thunder-bolts, signifieth burning
coals; so that lightning is thereby intended. Avicenna
doth indeed say, that he saw a thunder-bolt which fell at
Corduba in Spain, and that it had a sulphurous smell,
and was like ammoniac. It is possible that not only
sulphurous and bituminous but stony substances may be
generated in the clouds with the lightning. George
Agricola writeth that near Lurgea, a mass of iron being
fifty pound in weight, fell from the clouds, which some
attempted to make swords of, but the fire could not melt
it, nor hammers bring it into form.
In the year 1492. At Ensishemium, a stone of three
hundred pound weight fell from the clouds, which is kept
as a monument in the Temple there. And in 1581, a
stone came out of the clouds in Thuringia, which was so
hot that it could not be touched, with which one might
strike fire as with a flint. There
There is now to be seen at
Dresden a stone which descended out of a cloud, and is
reserved amongst the Admiranda belonging to the Elector
of Saxony: some lately living were present at the fall of
that stone. Again, An. 1618, in Bohemia, a consider-
able quantity of brass mettal fell from the clouds. No
longer since than May 28, 1677, at a village near Hana
in Germany, there was a tempest of lightning, and a great
multitude of stones of a green and partly cærulean colour
fell therewith, and a considerable mass of mineral matter,
in taste like vitriol, being pondrous and friable, having
also metallick sparks like gold intermixed. That which
is by some called the rain-stone or thunder-bolt, was by
PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS.
81
the antients termed Ceraunia, because of the smell like
that of an horn when put into the fire, which doth attend
it. Learned Gesner (who, in respect of his vast knowledge
in the works of God, may be called the Solomon of the
former age) saith, that a gentleman gave him one of those
stones, supposing it to be a thuuder-bolt, and that it was
five digits in length, and three in breath. This sort of
stone is usually in form like unto an iron wedge, and has
an hole quite through it. Joh. de Laet, in his treatise
de Gemmis, lib. 2, cap. 24, relates that he saw another
of those stones. Bootius (de Gemmis, lib. 2, cap. 261)
reports that many persons worthy of credit, affirmed that
when houses or trees had been broken with the thunder,
they did by digging find such stones in the places where
the stroke was given. Nevertheless, that fulminous stones
or thunderbolts do always descend out of the clouds, when
such breache are made by the lightning, is (as I said) a
vulgar error.
The effects produced by the lightning are exceeding
marvelous: sometimes gold, silver, brass, iron, has been
melted thereby when the things wherein they have been
kept, received no hurt; yea, when the wax on the bags
which contained them has not been so much as melted.
-Liquors have been thereby exhausted out of vessels, when
the vessels themselves remained untouched; and (which
is more wonderful) when the cask has been broken by the
lightning, the wine has remained as it were included in a
skin, without being spilt; the reason whereof Sennertus
supposeth to be, in that the heat of the lightning did
condense the exterior parts of the wine.
It is also a very
strange thing, which histories report concerning Marcia
(a Roman Princess), that the child in her body was smitten
6
82
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
and killed with lightning, and yet the mother received no
hurt in her own body. It is hard to give a clear and
satisfactory reason why if a piece of iron be laid upon the
cask it prevents the thunder from marring the wine con-
tained therein, and also keeps milk from turning. The
Virtuosi of France, in their Philosophical Conferences
(vol. ii, p. 427), suppose a sympathy between iron and
the gross vapors of thunder and lightning. They say
that which is commonly called the thunder-bolt does
sometimes resemble steel, as it were to shew the corre-
spondence that there is between iron and thunder: so
that the air being impregnate by those noisome vapours
which are of the same nature with iron, meeting with
some piece of it laid on a vessel, is joyned to the iron by
sympathy, the iron by its attractive vertue receives them,
and by its retentive, retains them, and by that means
prevents the effects. This conjecture is ingenious. Nor
is it easie to give a solid reason why the lightning should
hurt one creature rather than another. Naturalists ob-
serve that it is so. Feles canes et capras magis illorum
obnoxious ictibus observatio sedula dedit, saith Johnston.
Bartholinus conjectures the reason to be the halitus in the
bodies of those creatures which are a fit nutriment for the
fulminious spirits to prey upon. When fire is set to a
train of gunpowder, it will run accordingly strait or
crooked, upwards or downwards, as the matter it feeds.
upon is disposed: so proportionably here: but this is a
subject for ingenious minds to enquire into. It is, more-
over, difficult to determine how men are killed therewith,
when no visible impression is made upon their bodies.
Some think it is by a meer instantaneous suffocation of
their animal spirits. That poysonful vapours do some-
PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS.
83
times attend the lightning is manifest. Seneca saith, that
wine which has been congealed with the lightning, after
it is dissolved, and in appearance returned to its pristine
state, it causeth the persons that shall drink of it, either
to die or become mad. Naturalists observe that veno-
mous creatures being struck with lightning lose their
poyson; the reason of which may be, not only the heat
but the venome of those vapours attracting the poyson to
themselves. And that vapors will kill in a moment is
past doubt.
In the Philosophical Transactions for the
year 1665 (p. 44), it is related that seven or eight
persons going down stairs into a coal-pit, they fell down
dead as if they had been shot: there being one of them
whose wife was informed that her husband was stifled,
she went near to him without any inconvenience; but
when she went a little further, the vapors caused her
instantly to fall down dead. And it is famously known,
concerning the Lake Avernus, in Campania, that if birds
attempt to fly over it, the deadly vapors thereof kill
them in a moment. But the lightning doth more than
meerly suffocate with mortiferous vapors. It sometimes
penetrates the brain, and shrivels the heart and liver,
when nothing does appear outwardly. And it does, as
Dr. Goodwin, in his lately published judicious discourse
about the punishment of sinners in the other world (p. 44)
aptly expresseth, lick up the vital and animal spirits that
run in the body, when yet the body itself remains unburnt.
Those spirits are the vinculum, the tye of union between
the soul and body, which the lightning may consume
without so much as singing the body or cloaths there.
Nevertheless, upon some it leaveth direful marks, and
breaketh their very bones in pieces, and sometimes tears
βα
84
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES
away the flesh from the bones. There are some remark-
able instances confirming this, published in the Philoso-
phical Transactions. Dr. Wallis, in a letter written at
Oxford, May 12, 1666, giving an account of a very sad
accident which had then newly hapned there, he saith,
"That two scholars of Wadham Colledge, being alone in
a boat (without a waterman) having newly thrust off from
shore at Medley, to come homewards, standing near the
head of the boat, were presently, with a stroke of thunder
or lightning, both struck off out of the boat into the
water: the one of them stark dead, in whom though
presently taken out of the water (having been by relation
scarce a minute in it), there was not discerned any ap-
pearance of life, sense, or motion; the other was stuck
fast in the mud (with his feet downwards, and his upper
parts above water) like a post, not able to help himself
out; but besides a present astonying or numness, had no
other hurt; but was for the present so disturbed in his
senses that he knew not how he came out of the boat,
nor could remember either thunder or lightning that did
effect it and was very feeble and faint upon it, which,
though presently put into a warm bed, he had not
thoroughly recovered by the next night; and whither
since he have or no I know not. Others in another
boat, about ten or twenty yards from these (as by their
description I estimate), felt a disturbance and shaking in
their boat, and one of them had his chair struck from
under him, and thrown upon him, but had no hurt.
These immediately made up to the others, and (some
leaping into the water to them) presently drew them into
the boat or on shore; yet none of them saw these two
fall into the water (not looking that way) but heard one
:
PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS.
85
of them cry for help presently upon the stroke, and smelt
a very strong stinking smell in the air; which, when I
asked him that told it me, what kind of stink, he said,
like such a smell as is perceived upon the striking of
flints together. He that was dead (when by putting into
a warm bed, and rubbing, and putting strong waters
into his mouth, &c., no life could be brought into him)
was the next morning brought to town; where, among
multitudes of others who came to see, Dr. Willis, Dr.
Mallington, Dr. Lower, and myself, with some others,
went to view the corps, where we found no wound at all
in the skin; the face and neck swart and black, but not
more than might be ordinary, by the setling of the blood;
on the right side of the neck was a little blackish spott
about an inch long, and about a quarter of an inch broad
at the broadest, and was as if it had been seared with a
hot iron; and as I remember, one somewhat bigger on
the left side of the neck below the ear. Streight down
the breast, but towards the left side of it, was a large
place, about three quarters of a foot in length, and about
two inches in breadth-in some places more, in some less,
which was burnt and hard, like leather burnt with the
fire, of a deep blackish red colour, not much unlike the
scorched skin of a rosted pig; and on the forepart of the
left shoulder such another spot about as big as a shilling;
but that in the neck was blacker and seemed more seared.
From the top of the right shoulder, sloping downwards
towards that place in his breast, was a narrow line of the
like scorched skin, as if somewhat had come in there at
the neck, and had run down to the breast, and there
spread broader.
"The buttons of his doublet were most of them off, which
86
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
some thought might have been torn off with the blast get-
ting in at the neck, and then bursting its way out; for
which the greatest presumption was (to me), that besides
four or five buttons wanting towards the bottom of the
broast, there was about half a dozen together clear off from
the bottom of the collar downwards, and I do not remem-
ber that the rest of the buttons did seem to be near worn
out, but almost new. The collar of his doublet just over
the fore-part of the right shoulder was quite broken asun-
der, but with a blunt tool; only the inward linen or fustian
lining of it was whole, by which, and by the view of the
ragg'd edges, it seemed manifest to mo that it was from
a stroke inward (from without), not outwards from within.
"His hat was strangely torn, not just on the crown, but
on the side of the hat, and on the brim. On the side
of it was a great hole, more than to put in ones fist
through it some part of it being quite struck away, and
from thence divers gashes every way, as if torn or cut
with a dull tool; and some of them of a good length,
almost quite to the edges of the brim. And besides
these one or two gashes more, which did not communicate
with that hole in the side. This also was judged to be
by a stroke inwards; not so much from the view of the
edges of those gashes (from which there was scarce any
judgment to be made either way), but because the lining
was not torn, only ript from the edge of the hat (where it
was sown on) on that side where the hole was made.
But his hat not being found upon his head, but at some
distance from him, it did not appear against what part of
his head that hole was made.
"Another sad disaster hapned Jan. 24th, 1665-6, when
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87
one Mr. Brooks of Hampshire, going from Winchester
towards his house near Andover, in very bad weather,
was himself slain by lightning, and the horse he rode on
under him; for about a mile from Winchester he was
found with his face beaten into the ground, one leg in the
stirrup, the other in the horses main; his cloathes all
burnt off his back, not a piece as big as an handkerchief left
intire, and his hair and all his body singed. With the
force that struck him down, his nose was beaten into his
face, and his chin into his breast, where was a wound cut
almost as low as to his navil; and his clothes being as
aforesaid torn, the pieces were so scattered and consumed,
that not enough to fill the crown of a hat could be found.
His gloves were whole, but his hands in them singed to
the bone. The hip-bone and shoulder of his horse burnt
and bruised, and his saddle torn in little pieces."
Very remarkable also was that which hapned forty-five
years ago at another place in England, viz., Withycomb
in Devonshire, where, on October 21, A.D. 1638, being
Sabbath day, whilest the people were attending the pub-
lick worship of God, a black cloud coming over the church,
there was suddenly an amazing clap of thunder, and with
it a ball of fire came in at the window, whereby the house
was very much damnified, and the people many of them
struck down. Some of the seats in the body of the
church were turned upside down, yet they that sat in
them received no hurt. A gentleman of note there (one
Mr. Hill), sitting in his seat by the chancil, had his head
suddenly smitten against the wall, by which blow he died
that night. Another had his head cloven, his skull rent
in three pieces, and his brains thrown upon the ground
88
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
X
whole. The hair of his head, through the violence of the
blow, stuck fast to the pillar that was near him. A
woman, attempting to run out of the church, had her
clothes set on fire, and her flesh on her back torn almost
to the very bone. See Mr. Clarks Examples, vol. i, chap.
104, p. 501.
what strange things
The Holy Scriptures
In the sacred story
It is not heresie to believe that Satan has sometimes a
great operation in causing thunder-storms. I know this
is vehemently denied by some: the late witch-advocates
call it blasphemy; and an old council did anathematize
the men that are thus perswaded; but, by their favour,
an orthodox and rational man may be of the opinion, that
when the devil has before him the vapors and materials out
of which the thunder and lightning are generated, his art
is such as that he can bring them into form. If chymists
can make their Aurum fulminans,
may this infernal chymist effect?
intimate as much as this cometh to.
concerning Job, we find that Satan did raise a great wind,
which blew down the house where Job's children were
feasting. And it is said, chap. i, ver. 16, that the fire of
God fell from heaven, and burnt up the sheep and the
servants. This DX, fire of God, was no doubt
thunder aud lightning, and such as was extraordinary, and
is therefore expressed with the name of God, as is usual
amongst the Hebrews. Satan had a deep policy in going
that way to work, thereby hoping to make Job believe
God was his enemy. Mr. Caryl (according to his wonted
manner) does both wittily and judiciously paraphrase upon
the place. "The fire of God (saith he) here, is conceived
to have been some terrible flash of lightning; and it is
the more probable, because it is said to fall down from
PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS.
89
Heaven, that is, out of the air. There Satan can do
mighty things, command much of the magazine of Heaven,
where that dreadful artillery which makes men tremble,
those fiery meteors, thunder and lightning, are stored and
lodged. Satan, let loose by God, can do wonders in the
air: he can raise storms, he can discharge the great
ordnance of Heaven, thunder and lightning; and, by his
art, can make them more terrible and dreadful than they
are in their own nature." Satan is said to be "the Prince
of the Power of the Air," Eph. ii, 2. And we read of the
working of Satan with all power and signs, and lying
words, 2 Thess. ii, 9. It is, moreover, predicted in the
Revelation, that Antichrist should cause fire to come down
from heaven, Rev. xiii, 13. Accordingly, we read in
history, that some of the Popes have, by their skill in the
black art, caused balls of fire to be seen in the air. So
then it is not beyond Satans power to effect such things,
if the great God give him leave, without whose leave he
cannot blow a feather, much less raise a thunder-storm.
And, as the Scriptures intimate Satan's power in the air
to be great, so histories do abundantly confirm it by
remarkable instances. One of the scholars of Empedocles
has testified that he saw his master raising winds and
laying them again; and there were once many witnesses of
it, whence they called Empedocles wλvσáveμav. Clemens
Alexandrinus mentions this as unquestionably true. Our
great Rainold (de libris Apocryphis, lect. 202) saith, that
we may from Job conclude it was not impossible for Em-
pedocles, by the devils aid, to do as has been reported of
him. Dio relates, that when the Roman army, in the
dayes of the Emperour Claudius, pursuing the Africans,
was in extream danger of perishing by drought, a magician
90
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
undertook to procure water for them; and presently, upon
his incantations, an astonishing shower fell. Jovianus.
Pontanus reports, that when King Ferdinand besieged the
city Suessa, all the waters in the cisterns being dried up,
the citizens had like to have lost their lives by the prevailing
drought. The Popish priests undertook, by conjuration,
to obtain water. The magical ceremonies by them observed
were most horrid and ridiculous: for they took an asse,
and put the sacrament of the eucharist into his mouth,
sang funeral verses over him, and then buried him alive
before the church doors. As soon as these rites, so
pleasing to the devil, were finished, the heavens began to
look black, and the sea to be agitated with winds, and
anon it rained and lightned after a most horrendous manner.
Smetius, in his Miscellanies, lib. 5, relates, that a girl,
foolishly imitating the ceremonies of her nurse, whom she
had sometimes seen raising tempests, immediately a pro-
digious storm of thunder and lightning hapned, so as that
a village near Lipsia was thereby set on fire. This relation
is mentioned by Sennertus as a thing really true. At
some places in Denmark, it is a common and a wicked
practice to buy winds, when they are going to sea. If
Satan has so far the power of the air as to cause winds,
he may cause storms also. Livy reports, concerning
Romulus, that he was by a tempest of thunder and light-
ning transported no man knew whither, being after that
never heard of. Meurerus (in Comment. Meteorolog.)
speaketh of a man, that going between Lipsia, and Torga,
was suddenly carried out of sight by a thunder-storm, and
never seen more. And the truth of our assertion seems
to be confirmed by one of those sad effects of lightning men-
tioned in the preceding chapter; for I am informed, that
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91
when Matthew Cole was killed with the lightning at
North-Hampton, the dæmons which disturbed his sister,
Ann Cole (forty miles distant), in Hartford, spoke of it,
intimating their concurrence in that terrible accident.
The Jewish rabbins affirm, that all great and suddain
destructions are from Satan, the angel of death. That he
has frequently an hand therein is past doubt: and if the
fallen angels are able (when God shall grant them a com-
mission) to cause fearful and fatal thunders, it is much
more true concerning the good and holy angels. 2 Kings
i, 14, 15. When the law was given at Mount Sinai,
there were amazing thundrings and lightnings, wherein
the great God saw meet to make use of the ministry of
holy angels (Acts vii, 53; Gal. iii, 19; Heb. ii, 2). Some
think that Sodom was destroyed by extraordinary lightning.
Its certain that holy angels had an hand in effecting that
desolation, Gen. xix, 13. We know that one night the
angel of the Lord smote in the camp of the Assyrians
185,000. It is not improbable but that those Assyrians
were killed with lightning; for it was with respect to that
tremendous providence that those words were uttered
"Who amongst us shall dwell with the devouring fire?"
Isa. xxxiii, 14. Ecclesiastical history informs us, that the
Jews, being encouraged by the apostate Julian, were
resolved to re-build their temple, but lightning from
heaven consumed not only their work, but all their tools
and instruments wherewith that cursed enterprize was to
have been carried on, so was their design utterly frustrate.
Why might not holy angels have an hand in that light-
ning? There occurs to my mind a remarkable passage,
mentioned by Dr. Beard, in his chapter about the protec-
tion of holy angels over them that fear God (p. 443). He
92
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES
メ
​saith, that a certain man, travelling between two woods in
a great tempest of thunder and lightning, rode under an
oak to shelter himself; but his horse would by no means
stay under that oak, but, whither his master would or no,
went from that tree, and stayed very quietly under another
tree not far off. He had not been there many minutes
before the first oak was torn all to fitters with a fearful
clap of thunder and lightning. Surely there was the
invisible guardianship of an holy angel in that providence.
But though it be true, that both natural causes and
angels do many times concurre when thunder and lightning,
with the awful effects thereof, happen, nevertheless, the
supream cause must not be disacknowledged: the Eternal
Himself has a mighty hand of providence in such works.
He thundreth with the voice of His excellency. Among
the Greeks thunder was stiled own Acos, and the Scrip-
ture calls it "The Voice of the Lord." "The God of
glory thundreth.” "The voice of the Lord is very pow-
erful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty; the voice
of the Lord breaketh the cedars; the voice of the Lord
divideth the flames of fires." Lightnings are also said to
be "the arrows of God," Psalm xviii, 14; upon which
account the children of men ought to dread the hand of
the Highest therein. And the more, for that all places in
the habitable world are exposed unto dangers and destruc-
tion by the artillery of Heaven: though some parts of the
earth are naturally subject thereunto more than others.
Acosta saith, that it seldom thunders about Brazil; but
such lightnings are frequent there as make the night
appear brighter than the noon-day. Travellers report,
that there are some snowy mountains in Africa, on which
the cracks of thunder are so loud and vehement as that
PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS.
93
In some parts of
they are heard fifty miles off at sea.
Tartaria it will both snow and thunder at the same time.
In the northern climates there use to be vehement thunders,
and men are often struck dead thereby. In the province
of Terravara in Spain grows the wood for the cross,
to which superstitious Papists attribute a power to preserve
men from thunder. So did the Gentiles of old vainly
think to secure themselves from Heavens gun-shot, by
carrying those things about them which they suppose
would be as amulets to defend them from all harm. The
tents of the old emperors were made of seal-leather, because
they imagined that the sea-calf could not be thunder-
struck. Tyberius wore a crown of laurel upon his head,
for that the philosophers told him the lightning could not
hurt the bay-tree. Rodiginus confirms the like concerning
the fig-tree. But others declare they have seen the laurel
smitten and withered with lightning; therefore, the Conim-
bricensian philosophers acknowledge this immunity to be
fictitious. The like vanity is in their opinion who suppose
that the stone by philosophers called brontias, i.e., the
thunder-bolt, will secure them from harm by lightning.
To conclude, most miserable is the state of all Christless
sinners, who know not but that every thunder-storm
which comes may send them to hell in a moment.
Hi sunt qui trepidant et ad omnia fulgura pallent,
Cum tonat, exanimes primo quoque murmure cœli.
The Psalmist alludes to a thunder storm, when he
saith, “The Lord will rain upon the wicked snares" (the
lightning cometh suddenly, and taketh men as birds, in
a snare before they think of it), "fire and brimstone, and
a tempest of horrors." Psalm xi, 6. The atheism of
94
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
""
Epicurus of old (and of some in these dayes), who taught,
that inasmuch as thunder proceeds from natural causes,
it is a childish thing for men to have an awe upon their
hearts when they hear that voice. I say such atheism is
folly and wickedness; for the great God "maketh the
way for the lightning of thunder; nor does it ever miss
or mistake its way, but alwayes lights where God has
appointed it. Job xxviii, 26. He directs the lightning
under the whole heaven, and unto the ends of the earth :
after it a voice roareth, that they may do whatsoever he
commanded them upon the face of the world in the earth.
Job xxxvii, 3, 12. Yea, and good men should from this
consideration be incited to endeavour that their garments
be kept from defilement, and that they be alwayes walking
with God, since they know not but that death may come
upon them by such a way and by such means as this. As
to outward evils, there is one event to the righteous and
to the wicked; to him that sacrificeth and to him that
sacrificeth not; as is the good so is the sinner. The
examples mentioned in the preceding chapter do confirm
it, since divers of those whom the thunder killed were
good men. And they that are in Christ, and who make
it their design to live unto God, need not be dismayed at
the most terrifying thunder-claps, no more than a child
should be afraid when he hears the voice of his loving
father. Notable is that passage, related by Mr. Ambrose,
in his Treatise of Angels (p. 265, and by Mr. Clark,
vol. i, p. 512). A prophane man, who was also a perse-
cutor of Mr. Bolton, riding abroad, it thundred very dread-
fully, at the which the man greatly trembled; his wife,
who was eminent for godliness, being with him, asked why
he was so much afraid? To whom he replied: Are not
PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS.
95
you afraid to hear these dreadful thunder claps? No (saith
she), not at all, for I know it is the voice of my Heavenly
Father: and should a child be afraid to hear his fathers
voice? At the which the man was amazed, concluding with
himself, these Puritans have a divine principle in them,
which the world seeth not, that they should have peace and
serenity in their souls when others are filled with dismal
fears and horrors. He thereupon went to Mr. Bolton,
bewailing the wrong he had done him, begging his pardon
and prayers, and that he would tell him what he must do
that so his soul might be saved: and he became a very
godly man ever after. This was an happy thunder-storm.


CHAPTER V.
CONCERNING THINGS PRETERNATURAL WHICH HAVE
HAPNED IN NEW ENGLAND.
A remarkable relation about Ann Cole, of Hartford. Concerning several
witches in that colony. Of the possessed maid at Groton. An account
of the house in Newberry lately troubled with a dæmon. A parallel
story of an house at Tedworth, in England. Concerning another in
Hartford, And of one in Portsmouth, in New-England, lately dis-
quieted by evil spirits. The relation of a woman at Barwick, in New-
England, molested with apparitions, and sometimes tormented by
invisible agents.
NASMUCH as things which are preternatural,
and not accomplished without diabolical
operation, do more rarely happen, it is pity
but that they should be observed. Several
accidents of that kind have hapned in New-England,
which I shall here faithfully relate, so far as I have been
able to come unto the knowledge of them.

Very remarkable was that Providence wherein Ann Cole
of Hartford in New-England was concerned. She was,
and is accounted, a person of real piety and integrity;
nevertheless, in the year 1662, then living in her fathers.
house (who has likewise been esteemed a godly man), she
was taken with very strange fits, wherein her tongue was
improved by a dæmon to express things which she herself
knew nothing of; sometimes the discourse would hold for
THINGS PRETERNATURAL.
97
a considerable time; the general purpose of which was,
that such and such persons (who were named in the dis-
course which passed from her) were consulting how they
might carry on mischievous designs against her and several
others, mentioning sundry wayes they should take for
that end, particularly that they would afflict her body,.
spoil her name, &c. The general answer made amongst
the dæmons was, "She runs to the rock." This having.
continued some hours, the dæmons said, "Let us confound
her language, that she may tell no more tales." She
uttered matters unintelligible. And then the discourse-
passed into a Dutch tone (a Dutch family then lived in
the town), and therein an account was given of some
afflictions that had befallen divers; amongst others, what.
had befallen a woman that lived next neighbour to the.
Dutch family, whose arms had been strangely pinched in
the night, declaring by whom and for what cause that
course had been taken with her. The Reverend Mr. Stone
(then teacher of the church in Hartford) being by, when
the discourse hapned, declared that he thought it im-
possible for one not familiarly acquainted with the Dutch
(which Ann Cole had not in the least been) should so
exactly imitate the Dutch tone in the pronunciation of
English. Several worthy persons (viz., Mr. John Whiting
Mr. Samuel Hooker, and Mr. Joseph Haines) wrote the
intelligible sayings expressed by Ann Cole, whilest she
was thus amazingly handled. The event was, that one of
the persons (whose name was Greensmith, being a lewd
and ignorant woman, and then in prison on suspicion for
witchcraft) mentioned in the discourse as active in the
mischief done and designed, was by the magistrate sent
for; Mr. Whiting and Mr. Haines read what they had
7
98
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES
f
written, and the woman being astonished thereat, confessed
those things to be true, and that she and other persons
named in this preternatural discourse, had had familiarity
with the devil. Being asked whether she had made an
express covenant with him, she answered, she had not,
only as she promised to go with him when he called,
which accordingly she had sundry times done, and that
the devil told her that at Christmass they would have a
merry meeting, and then the covenant between them
should be subscribed. The next day she was more par-
ticularly enquired of concerning her guilt respecting the
crime she was accused with. She then acknowledged, that
though when Mr. Haines began to read what he had taken
down in writing, her rage was such that she could have
torn him in pieces, and was as resolved as might be to
deny her guilt (as she had done before), yet after he had
read awhile, she was (to use her own expression) as if her
flesh had been pulled from her bones, and so could not
deny any longer: she likewise declared, that the devil first
appeared to her in the form of a deer or fawn, skipping
about her, wherewith she was not much affrighted, and
that by degrees he became very familiar, and at last would
talk with her; moreover she said that the devil had fre-
quently the carnal knowledge of her body; and that the
witches had meetings at a place not far from her house;
and that some appeared in one shape, and others in
another; and one came flying amongst them in the shape
of a crow. Upon this confession, with other concurrent
evidence, the woman was executed; so likewise was her
husband, though he did not acknowledge himself guilty.
Other person accused in the discourse made their escape.
Thus doth the devil use to serve his clients. After the
THINGS PRETERNATURAL.
99
suspected witches were either executed or fled, Ann Cole
was restored to health, and has continued well for many
years, approving herself a serious Christian.
There were some that had a mind to try whether the
stories of witches not being able to sink under water were
true; and accordingly a man and woman, mentioned in
Ann Cole's Dutch-toned discourse, had their hands and
feet tyed, and so were cast into the water, and they both
apparently swam after the manner of a buoy, part under,
part above the water. A by-stander, imagining that any
person bound in that posture would be so borne up, offered
himself for trial; but being in the like matter gently laid
on the water, he immediately sunk right down. This
was no legal evidence against the suspected persons, nor
were they proceeded against on any such account; how-
ever, doubting that an halter would choak them, though
the waters would not, they very fairly took their flight,
not having been seen in that part of the world since.
Whether this experiment were lawful, or rather super-
stitious and magical, we shall (ovv few) enquire afterwards.
Another thing which caused a noise in the countrey,
and wherein Satan had undoubtedly a great influence,
was that which hapned at Groton. There was a maid
in that town (one Elizabeth Knap) who in the moneth
of October, anno 1671, was taken after a very strange
manner, sometimes weeping, sometimes laughing, some-
times roaring hideously, with violent motions and agita-
tions of her body, crying out "Money, money,” etc. In
November following, her tongue for many hours together
was draw like a semicircle up to the roof of her mouth,
not to be removed, though some tried with their fingers
7a
100
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
to do it. Six men were scarce able to hold her in some
of her fits, but she would skip about the house yelling
and looking with a most frightful aspect. December 17 :
Her tongue was drawn out of her mouth to an extraor-
dinary length; and now a dæmon began manifestly to
speak in her. Many words were uttered wherein are
labial letters, without any motion of her lips, which was
a clear demonstration that the voice was not her own.
Sometimes words were spoken seeming to proceed out
of her throat, when her mouth was shut sometimes
with her mouth wide open, without the use of any of the
organs of speech. The things then uttered by the devil
were chiefly railings and revilings of Mr. Willard (who
was at that time a worthy and faithful pastor to the
church in Groton). Also the dæmon belched forth most
horrid and nefandous blasphemies, exalting himself above
the Most High. After this she was taken speechless for
some time. One thing more is worthy of remark con-
cerning this miserable creature. She cried out in some
of her fits, that a woman (one of her neighbours) appeared
to her, and was the cause of her affliction. The person
thus accused was a very sincere, holy woman, who did
hereupon, with the advice of friends, visit the poor wretch;
and though she was in one of her fits, having her eyes
shut, when the innocent person impeached by her came
in, yet could she (so powerful were Satans operations upon
her) declare who was there, and could tell the touch of
that woman from any ones else. But the gracious party,
thus accused and abused by a malicious devil, prayed
earnestly with and for the possessed creature; after which
she confessed that Satan had deluded her, making her
believe evil of her good neighbour without any cause.
THINGS PRETERNATURAL.
101
Nor did she after that complain of any apparition or
disturbance from such an one. Yea, she said, that the
devil had himself, in the likeness and shape of divers,
tormented her, and then told her it was not he but they
that did it.
As there have been several persons vexed with evil
spirits, so divers houses have been wofully haunted by
them. In the year 1679, the house of William Morse,
in Newberry in New-England, was strangely disquieted
by a dæmon. After those troubles began, he did, by the
advice of friends, write down the particulars of those
unusual accidents. And the account which he giveth
thereof is as followeth :-
On December 3, in the night time, he and his wife
heard a noise upon the roof of their house, as if sticks and
stones had been thrown against it with great violence;
whereupon he rose out of his bed, but could see nothing.
Locking the doors fast, he returned to bed again. About
midnight they heard an hog making a great noise in the
house, so that the man rose again, and found a great hog
in the house; the door being shut, but upon the opening
of the door it ran out.
On December 8, in the morning, there were five great
stones and bricks by an invisible hand thrown in at the
west end of the house while the mans wife was making
the bed; the bedstead was lifted up from the floor, and
the bedstaff flung out of the window, and a cat was hurled
at her; a long staff danced up and down the chimney;
a burnt brick, and a piece of a weather-board, were thrown
in at the window. The man at his going to bed, put out
his lamp, but in the morning found that the saveall of it.
102
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
was taken away, and yet it was unaccountably brought
into its former place. On the same day the long staff,
but now spoken of, was hang'd up by a line, and swung
to and fro; the man's wife laid it in the fire, but she
could not hold it there, inasmuch as it would forcibly fly
out; yet after much ado, with joynt strength they made
it to burn. A shingle flew from the window, though no
body near it; many sticks came in at the same place, only
one of these was so scragged that it could enter the hole
but a little way, whereupon the man pusht it out; a great
rail likewise was thrust in at the window, so as to break
the glass.
At another time an iron crook that was hanged on a
nail, violently flew up and down; also a chair flew about,
and at last lighted on the table where victuals stood ready
for them to eat, and was likely to spoil all, only by a
nimble catching they saved some of their meal with the
loss of the rest and the overturning of their table.
People were sometimes barricado'd out of doors, when
as yet there was nobody to do it; and a chest was re-
moved from place to place, no hand touching it. Their
keys being tied together, one was taken from the rest, and
the remaining two would fly about making a loud noise
by knocking against each other. But the greatest part
of this devils feats were his mischievous ones, wherein
indeed he was sometimes antick enough too, and therein
the chief sufferers were, the man and his wife, and his
grand-son. The man especially had his share in these
diabolical molestations. For one while they could not
eat their suppers quietly, but had the ashes on the hearth
before their eyes thrown into their victuals, yea, and
upon their heads and clothes, insomuch that they were
THINGS PRETERNATURAL.
103
forced up into their chamber, and yet they had no rest
there; for one of the man's shoes being left below, it was
filled with ashes and coals, and thrown up after them.
Their light was beaten out, and, they being laid in their
bed with their little boy between them, a great stone
(from the floor of the loft) weighing above three pounds
was thrown upon the man's stomach, and he turning it.
down upon the floor, it was once more thrown upon him.
A box and a board were likewise thrown upon them all;
and a bag of hops was taken out of their chest, therewith
they were beaten, till some of the hops were scattered on
the floor, where the bag was then laid and left.
In another evening, when they sat by the fire, the ashes
were so whirled at them, that they could neither eat their
meat nor endure the house. A peel struck the man in
the face. An apron hanging by the fire was flung upon
it, and singed before they could snatch it off. The man
being at prayer with his family, a beesom gave him a
blow on his head behind, and fell down before his face.
On another day, when they were winnowing of barley,
some hard dirt was thrown in, hitting the man on the
head, and both the man and his wife on the back; and
when they had made themselves clean, they essayed to fill
their half-bushel; but the foul corn was in spite of them
often cast in amongst the clean, and the man, being divers
times thus abused, was forced to give over what he was
about.
On January 23 (in particular), the man had an iron pin
twice thrown at him, and his inkhorn was taken away from
him while he was writing; and when by all his seeking it.
he could not find it, at last he saw it drop out of the air,
down by the fire. A piece of leather was twice thrown
104
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
at him; and a shoe was laid upon his shoulder, which he
catching at, was suddenly rapt from him. An handful of
ashes was thrown at his face, and upon his clothes; and
the shoe was then clapt upon his head, and upon it he
clapt his hand, holding it so fast, that somewhat unseen
pulled him with it backward on the floor.
On the next day at night, as they were going to bed, a
lost ladder was thrown against the door, and their light
put out; and when the man was a bed, he was beaten
with an heavy pair of leather breeches, and pull'd by the
hair of his head and beard, pinched and scratched, and his
bed-board was taken away from him. Yet more in the·
next night, when the man was likewise a bed, his bed-
board did rise out of its place, notwithstanding his putting
forth all his strength to keep it in; one of his awls was
brought out of the next room into his bed, and did prick
him; the clothes wherewith he hoped to save his head
from blows, were violently pluckt from thence. Within a
night or two after, the man and his wife received both of
them a blow upon their heads, but it was so dark that
they could not see the stone which gave it. The man had
his cap pulled off from his head while he sat by the fire.
The night following they went to bed undressed,
because of their late disturbances, and the man, wife, boy,
presently felt themselves pricked, and upon search, found
in the bed a bodkin, a knitting-needle, and two sticks
picked at both ends; he received also a great blow, as on
his thigh, so on his face, which fetched blood; and while
he was writing, a candlestick was twice thrown at him
and a great piece of bark fiercely smote him; and a pail
of water turned up without hands.
On the 28th of the mentioned moneth, frozen clods of
;
THINGS PRETERNATURAL.
105
cow-dung were divers times thrown at the man out of the
house in which they were. His wife went to milk the
cow, and received a blow on her head; and sitting down
at her milking work, had cow-dung divers times thrown
into her pail. The man tried to save the milk, by holding
a piggin side-wayes under the cowes belly; but the dung
would in for all, and the milk was only made fit for hogs.
On that night, ashes were thrown into the porridge which
they had made ready for their supper, so as that they
could not eat it; ashes were likewise often thrown into
the man's eyes as he sat by the fire; and an iron hammer
flying at him, gave him a great blow on his back. The
man's wife going into the cellar for beer, a great iron peel
flew and fell after her through the trap-door of the cellar;
and going afterwards on the same errand to the same
place, the door shut down upon her, and the table came
and lay upon the door, and the man was forced to remove
it e'er his wife could be released from where she was. On
the following day, while he was writing, a dish went out
of its place, leapt into the pale, and cast water upon the
man, his paper, his table, and disappointed his procedure
in what he was about; his cap jumpt off from his head,
and on again, and the pot-lid leapt off from the pot into
the kettle on the fire.
February 2. While he and his boy were eating of
cheese, the pieces which he cut were wrested from them,
but they were afterwards found upon the table, under an
apron and a pair of breeches; and also from the fire arose
little sticks and ashes, which flying upon the man and his
boy, brought them into an uncomfortable pickle. But as
for the boy, which the last passage spoke of, there remains
much to be said concerning him and a principal sufferer in
106
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
these afflictions: for on the 18th of December, he sitting by
his grandfather, was hurried into great motions, and the
man thereupon took him, and made him stand between his
legs; but the chair danced up and down, and had like to
have cast both man and boy into the fire; and the child
was afterwards flung about in such a manner, as that they
feared that his brains would have been beaten out; and in
the evening he was tossed as afore, and the man tried the
project of holding him, but ineffectually. The lad was
soon put to bed, and they presently heard an huge noise,
and demanded what was the matter? and he answered,
that his bedstead leaped up and down; and they (i.e. the
man and his wife) went up, and at first found all quiet,
but before they had been there long, they saw the board
by his bed trembling by him, and the bed-clothes flying
off him; the latter they laid on immediately, but they
were no sooner on than off; so they took him out of his
bed for quietness.
December 29. The boy was violently thrown to and
fro, only they carried him to the house of a doctor in the
town, and there he was free from disturbances; but
returning home at night, his former trouble began, and
the man taking him by the hand, they were both of them
almost tript into the fire. They put him to bed and he
was attended with the same iterated loss of his clothes,
shaking off his bed-board, and noises that he had in his
last conflict; they took him up, designing to sit by the
fire, but the doors clattered, and the chair was thrown at
him; wherefore they carried him to the doctors house, and
so for that night all was well. The next morning he came
home quiet; but as they were doing somewhat, he cried
out that he was prickt on the back; they looked, and
THINGS PRETERNATURAL.
107
found a three-tin'd fork sticking strangely there; which
being carried to the doctors house, not only the doctor
himself said that it was his, but also the doctors servant
affirmed it was seen at home after the boy was gone. The
boys vexations continuing, they left him at the doctors,
where he remained well till awhile after, and then he com-
plained he was pricked; they looked and found an iron.
spindle sticking below his back: he complained he was
pricked still; they looked, and found there a long iron, a
bowl of a spoon, and a piece of a pansheard. They lay
down by him on the bed, with the light burning, but he
was twice thrown from them, and the second time thrown
quite under the bed. In the morning the bed was tossed
about, with such a creaking noise as was heard to the
neighbours. In the afternoon their knives were, one after
another, brought, and putinto his back, but pulled out by the
spectators; only one knife, which was missing, seemed
to the standers by to come out of his mouth. He was
bidden to read; his book was taken and thrown about
several times, at last hitting the boys grandmother on the
head. Another time he was thrust out of his chair, and
rolled up and down, with outcries that all things were on
fire; yea, he was three times very dangerously thrown into
the fire, and preserved by his friends with much ado. The
boy also made, for a long time together, a noise like a dog,
and like an hen with her chickens, and could not speak
rationally.
Particularly, on December 26, he barked like a dog,
and clock't like an hen; and after long distraining to
speak, said, "There's Powel, I am pinched." His tongue
likewise hung out of his mouth, so that it could by no
means be forced in till his fit was over, and then he said
108
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES
'twas forced out by Powel. He and the house also after
this had rest till the 9th of January; at which time the
child, because of his intolerable ravings, lying between the
man and his wife, was pulled out of bed, and knockt vehe-
mently against the bedstead boards, in a manner very
perillous and amazing. In the day-time he was carried
away beyond all possibility of their finding him. His
grandmother at last saw him creeping on one side, and
drag'd him in, where he lay miserable lame; but recovering
his speech, he said, that he was carried above the doctors
house, and that Powel carried him and that the said
Powel had him into the barn, throwing him against the
cart-wheel there, and then thrusting him out at an hole;
and accordingly they found some of the remainders of the
threshed barley, which was on the barn-floor, hanging to
his clothes.
At another time he fell into a swoon; they forced some-
what refreshing into his mouth, and it was turned out as
fast as they put it in; e'er long he came to himself, and
expressed some willingness to eat, but the meat would
forcibly fly out of his mouth; and when he was able to
speak, he said Powel would not let him eat. Having
found the boy to be best at a neighbours house, the man
carried him to his daughters, three miles from his own.
The boy was growing antick as he was on the journey, but
before the end of it he made a grievous hollowing; and
when he lighted, he threw a great stone at a maid in the
house, and fell on eating of ashes. Being at home after-
wards, they had rest awhile: but on the 19th of January,
in the morning he swooned, and coming to himself, he
roared terribly, and did eat ashes, sticks, rug-yarn. The
morning following, there was such a racket with the boy
..
THINGS PRETERNATURAL.
109
that the man and his wife took him to bed to them: a bed-
staff was thereupon thrown at them, and a chamber-pot
with its contents was thrown upon them, and they were
severely pinched. The man being about to rise, his clothes
were divers times pulled from them, himself thrust out of his
bed, and his pillow thrown after him. The lad also would
have his clothes plucked off from him in these winter
nights, and was wofully dogg'd with such fruits of devilish
spite, till it pleased God to shorten the chain of the wicked
dæmon.
All this while the devil did not use to appear in any
visible shape, only they would think they had hold of the
hand that sometimes scratched them; but it would give
them the slip. And once the man was discernably beaten
by a fist, and an hand got hold of his wrist, which he saw
but could not catch; and the likeness of a blackmore
child did appear from under the rugg and blanket, where
the man lay, and it would rise up, fall down, nod, and slip
under the clothes, when they endeavoured to clasp it,
never speaking anything.
Neither were there many words spoken by Satan all this
time; only once, having put out their light, they heard a
scraping on the boards, and then a piping and drumming
on them, which was followed with a voice, singing,
"Revenge! Revenge! Sweet is revenge!"
And they
being well terrified with it, called upon God: the issue of
which was, that suddenly, with a mournful note, there
were six times over uttered such expressions as,
"Alas!
me knock no more! me knock no more!" and now all
ceased.
The man does, moreover, affirm that a seaman (being
a mate of a ship) coming often to visit him told him, that
110
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
&
they wronged his wife who suspected her to be guilty of
witchcraft; and that the boy (his grandchild) was the
cause of this trouble; and that if he would let him have
the boy one day, he would warrant him his house should
be no more troubled as it had been. To which motion he
consented. The mate came the next day betimes, and the
boy was with him until night; since which time his house,
he saith, has not been molested with evil spirits.
Thus far is the relation concerning the dæmon at
William Morse his house in Newberry. The true reason of
these strange disturbances is as yet not certainly known:
some (as has been hinted) did suspect Morse's wife to be
guilty of witchcraft.
One of the neighbours took apples, which were brought
out of that house, and put them into the fire; upon which,
they say, their houses were much disturbed. Another of
the neighbours caused an horse-shoe to be nailed before
the doors; and as long as it remained so, they could not
perswade the suspected person to go into the house; but
when the horse-shoe was gone, she presently visited them.
I shall not here inlarge upon the vanity and superstition
of those experiments, reserving that for another place; all
that I shall say at present is, that the dæmons, whom the
blind Gentiles of old worshipped, told their servants, that
such things as these would very much affect them; yea,
and that certain characters, signs, and charms, would
render their power ineffectual; and accordingly they
would become subject, when their own directions were
obeyed. It is sport to the devils when they see silly men
thus deluded and made fools of by them. Others were
apt to think that a seaman, by some suspected to be a
conjuror, set the devil on work thus to disquiet Morse's
THINGS PRETERNATURAL.
111
family; or, it may be, some other thing, as yet kept hid
in the secrets of Providence, might be the true original of
all this trouble.
A disturbance not much unlike to this hapned above
twenty years ago, at an house in Tedworth, in the county
of Wilts, in England, which was by wise men judged to
proceed from conjuration.
"Mr. Mompesson of Tedworth being in March, 1661,
at Ludgershall, and hearing a drum beat there, he de-
manded of the bailiff of the town what it meant; who
told him, they had for some dayes been troubled with an
idle drummer, pretending authority and a pass under the
hands of some gentlemen. Mr. Mompesson reading his
pass, and knowing the hands of those gentlemen whose
names were pretended to be subscribed, discovered the
cheat, and commanded the vagrant to put off his drum,
and ordered a constable to secure him; but not long after
he got clear of the constable. In April following, Mr.
Mompesson's house was much disturbed with knockings
and with drummings; for an hour together a dæmon
would beat Round-heads and Cuckolds, the tattoo and
several other points of war, as well as any drummer.
November 5, the dæmon made a great noise in the house,
and caused some boards therein to move to and fro in the
day time, when there was an whole room full of people
present. At his departure, he left behind him a sul-
phurous smell, which was very offensive. The next
night, chairs walked up and down the room; the childrens
shoes were hurled over their heads. The minister of the
town being there, a bedstaff was thrown at him, and hit
him on the leg, but without the least hurt. In the latter
On
112
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
end of December, 1662, they heard a noise like the
jingling of money, the occasion of which was thought to
be, some words spoken the night before by one in the
family, who said that fairies used to leave money behind
them, and they wished it might be so now. In January,
lights were seen in the house, which seemed blue and
glimmering, and caused a great stiffness in the eyes of
them that saw them. One in the room (by what authority
I cannot tell) said 'Satan, if the drummer set thee a
work, give three knocks and no more;' which was done
accordingly. Once, when it was very sharp severe wea-
ther, the room was suddenly filled with a noisome smell,
and was very hot, though without fire. This dæmon
would play some nasty and many ludicrous foolish tricks.
It would empty chamber-pots into the beds; and fill
porringers with ashes. Sometimes it would not suffer
any light to be in the room, but would carry them away
up the chimney. Mr. Mompesson coming one morning
into his stable, found his horse on the ground, having
one of his hinder legs in his mouth, and so fastened there
that it was difficult for several men with a leaver to get
it out. A smith, lodging in the house, heard a noise in
the room as if one had been shoeing an horse, and some-
what come as it were with a pincers snipping at the
smith's nose, most part of the night. The drummer was
under vehement suspicion for a conjuror. He was con-
demned to transportation. All the time of his restraint
and absence, the house was quiet."-See Mr. Glanvil's
Collection of Modern Relations, p. 71, &c.
But I proceed to give an account of some other things
lately hapning in New-England, which were undoubtedly
THINGS PRETERNATURAL.
113
præternatural, and not without diabolical operation. The
last year did afford several instances, not unlike unto
those which have been mentioned. For then Nicholas
Desborough, of Hartford in New-England, was strangely
molested by stones, pieces of earth, cobs of Indian corn,
&c., falling upon and about him, which sometimes came in
through the door, sometimes through the window, some--
times down the chimney; at other times they seemed to
fall from the floor of the chamber, which yet was very
close; sometimes he met with them in his shop, the yard
the barn, and in the field at work. In the house, such
things hapned frequently, not only in the night but in the
day time, if the man himself was at home, but never when.
his wife was at home alone. There was no great violence
in the motion, though several persons of the family, and
others also, were struck with the things that were thrown
by an invisible hand, yet they were not hurt thereby.
Only the man himself had once his arm somewhat pained.
by a blow given him; and at another time, blood was
drawn from one of his legs by a scratch given it. This
molestation began soon after a controversie arose between
Desborough and another person, about a chest of clothes
which the other said that Desborough did unrighteously
retain and so it continued for some moneths (though
with several intermissions), in the latter end of the last
year, when also the man's barn was burned with the corn
in it; but by what means it came to pass is not known.
Not long after, some to whom the matter was referred,
ordered Desborough to restore the clothes to the person
who complained of wrong; since which he hath not been
troubled as before. Some of the stones hurled were of
considerable bigness; one of them weighed four pounds,
8
114
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
but generally the stones were not great, but very small
ones. One time a piece of clay came down the chimney,
falling on the table which stood at some distance from the
chimney. The people of the house threw it on the hearth,
where it lay a considerable time: they went to their
supper, the piece of clay was lifted up by an invisible hand,
and fell upon the table; taking it up they found it hot,
having lain so long before the fire, as to cause it to be hot.
Another providence, no less remarkable than this last
mentioned, hapned at Portsmouth in New-England, about
the same time: concerning which I have received the
following account from a worthy hand.
"On June 11, 1682, being the Lords Day, at night
showers of stones were thrown both against the sides and
roof of the house of George Walton: some of the people
went abroad, found the gate at some distance from the
house wrung off the hinges, and stones came thick about
them, sometimes falling down by them, sometimes
touching them without any hurt done to them; though
they seemed to come with great force, yet did no more but
softly touch them; stones flying about the room, the doors
being shut; the glass windows shattered to pieces by
stones that seemed to come not from without but within,
the lead of the glass casements, window-bars, &c. being
driven forcibly outwards, and so standing bent. While
the secretary was walking in the room, a great hammer
came brushing along against the chamber floor that was
over his head and fell down by him. A candlestick
beaten off the table. They took up nine of the stones and
marked them, and laid them on the table, some of them
being as hot as if they came out of the fire; but some of
THINGS PRETERNATURAL.
115
those mark't stones were found flying about again. In
this manner, about four hours space that night. The se-
cretary then went to bed, but a stone came and broke up
his chamber-door; being put to (not lockt), a brick was
sent upon the like errand. The abovesaid stone the secre-
tary lockt up in his chamber, but it was fetched out, and
carried with great noise into the next chamber.
The spit
was carried up chimney, and came down with the point
forward, and stuck in the back-log, and being removed
by one of the company to one side of the chimney, was by
an unseen hand thrown out at window. This trade was
driven on the next day, and so from day to day; now
and then there would be some intermission, and then to it
again. The stones were most frequent where the master
of the house was, whether in the field or barn, &c. A
black cat was seen once while the stones came, and was
shot at, but she was too nimble for them. Some of the
family say, that they once saw the appearance of an hand
put forth at the hall window, throwing stones towards
the entry, though there was no body in the hall the while:
sometimes a dismal hollow whistling would be heard;
sometimes the noise of the trotting of an horse, and
snorting, but nothing seen. The man went up the great
bay in his boat to a farm he had there, and while haling
wood or timber to the boat, he was disturbed by the
stones as before at home. He carried a stirrup-iron from
the house down to the boat, and there left it; but while
he was going up to the house, the iron came jingling after
him through the woods, and returned to the house, and so
again, and at last went away, and was heard of no more.
Their anchor leaped overboard several times as they were
going home, and stopt the boat. A cheese hath been
8a
116
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
taken out of the press and crumbled all over the floor. A
piece of iron with which they weighed up the cheese-press,
stuck into the wall, and a kittle hung up thereon. Several
cocks of English hay, mowed near the house, were taken
and hung upon trees; and some made into small whisps,
and put all up and down the kitchen, cum multis aliis,
&c. After this manner have they been treated ever since
at times; it were endless to particularize. Of late, they
thought the bitterness of death had been past, being quiet
for sundry dayes and nights: but last week were some
returnings again; and this week (Aug. 2, 1682) as bad
or worse than ever. The man is sorely hurt with some
of the stones that came on him, and like to feel the effects
of them for many dayes." Thus far is that relation.
I am moreover informed, that the dæmon was quiet all
the last winter, but in the spring he began to play some
ludicrous tricks, carrying away some axes that were locked
up safe. This last summer he has not made such dis-
turbances as formerly; but of this no more at present.
There have been strange and true reports concerning
a woman now living near the Salmon Falls in Barwick
(formerly called Kittery), unto whom evil spirits have
sometimes visibly appeared; and she has sometimes been
sorely tormented by invisible hands: concerning all which
an intelligent person has sent me the following narrative.
A brief Narrative of sundry Apparitions of Satan unto,
and Assaults at sundry times and places upon, the
person of Mary, the wife of Antonio Hortado, dwelling
near the Salmon Falls. Taken from her own mouth,
Aug. 13, 1683.
"In June, 1682 (the day forgotten), at evening, the
THINGS PRETERNATURAL.
117
said Mary heard a voice at the door of her dwelling,
saying, "What do you here?" About an hour after,
standing at the door of her house, she had a blow on her
eye that settled her head near to the door-post; and two
or three dayes after, a stone, as she judged about half a
pound or a pound weight, was thrown along the house
within into the chimney, and going to take it up it was
gone; all the family was in the house, and no hand
appearing which might be instrumental in throwing the
stone. About two hours after, a frying-pan then hanging
in the chimney was heard to ring so loud, that not only
those in the house heard it, but others also that lived on
the other side of the river near an hundred rods distant or
more. Whereupon the said Mary and her husband going
in a cannoo over the river, they saw like the head of a
man new-shorn, and the tail of a white cat, about two or
three foot distance from each other, swimming over before
the cannoo, but no body appeared to joyn head and tail
together; and they returning over the river in less than an
hours time, the said apparition followed their cannoo back
again, but disappeared at landing. A day or two after,
the said Mary was stricken on her head (as she judged)
with a stone, which caused a swelling and much soreness
on her head, being then in the yard by her house; and she
presently entring into her house, was bitten on both arms.
black and blue, and one of her breasts scratched; the
impressions of the teeth being like mans teeth were plainly
seen by many. Whereupon deserting their house to
sojourn at a neighbours on the other side of the river,
there appeared to said Mary in the house of her sojourning,
a woman clothed with a green safeguard, a short blue
cloak, and a white cap, making a profer to strike her with
118
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
a fire-brand, but struck her not. The day following, the
same shape appeared to her, but now arrayed with a grey
gown, white apron, and white head-clothes, in appearance
laughing several times, but no voice heard. Since when,
said Mary has been freed from those Satanical molestations.
"But the said Antonio being returned in March last
with his family, to dwell again in his own house, and on
his entrance there, hearing the noise of a man walking in
his chamber, and seeing the boards buckle under his feet
as he walked, though no man to be seen in the chamber
(for they went on purpose to look), he returned with his
family to dwell on the other side of the river; yet planting
his ground, though he forsook his house, he hath had five
rods of good.log-fence thrown down at once; the feeting
of neat cattle plainly to be seen almost between every row
of corn in the field, yet no cattle seen there, nor any
damage done to his corn, not so much as any of the leaves
of the corn cropt." Thus far is that narrative.
I am further informed, that some (who should have
been wiser) advised the poor woman to stick the house
round with bayes, as an effectual preservative against the
power of evil spirits. This counsel was followed; and as
long as the bayes continued green, she had quiet; but
when they began to wither, they were all by an unseen
hand carried away, and the woman again tormented.
It is observable, that at the same time three houses in
three several towns should be molested by dæmons, as
has now been related.

N
٤١٤
CHAPTER VI.
THAT THERE ARE DEMONS AND POSSESSED PERSONS.
Signs of such. Some mad men are really possessed, notwithstanding many
fabulous stories about witchcrafts. That there are witches proved by
three arguments. That houses are sometimes troubled by evil spirits.
Witchcraft often the cause of it. Sometimes by the devil without
witchcraft. Ordered by Providence as punishment for sin. The dis-
turbance in Waltons house further considered, with a parallel story
That the things related in the preceding chapter wore undoubtedly præ
ternatural and diabolical.

causes.
HE Sadduces of these dayes being like unto
Avicenna, and Averroes, and other atheistical
philosophers in former times, say that there
are no spirits, and that all stories concerning
them are either fabulous or to be ascribed unto natural
Amongst many others, the learned Voetius (in
Disp. de operationibus Dæmonum) has sufficiently refuted.
them. And as the experience of other ages and places.
of the world, so the things which Divine Providence hath
permitted and ordered to come to pass amongst ourselves,
if the Scriptures were silent, make it manifest beyond all x
contradiction, that there are devils infesting this lower
world. Most true it is, that Satan and all his wicked
angels are limited by the providence of God, so as that
they cannot hurt any man or creature, much less any
120
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
servant of his, without a commission from him, whose
kingdom is over all. It is a memorable passage, which
Chytræus relateth concerning Luther, that when he was
sought after by his popish and implacable enemies (being
then hid by the Duke of Saxony), they consulted with
magicians that so they might find where Luther ab-
sconded, but the wizzards confessed they could not dis-
cover him. Undoubtedly the devils knew where Luther
hid himself; only God would not suffer them to reveal
it. Nevertheless the Lord doth, for wise and holy ends,
sometimes lengthen the chain which the infernal lions
are bound fast in. And as there are many tremendous
instances confirming the truth hereof, so that of Satan's
taking bodily possession of men is none of the least.
Sometimes indeed it is very hard to discern between
natural diseases and satanical possessions; so as that
persons really possessed have been thought to be only
molested with some natural disease, without any special
finger of the evil spirit therein. Fernelius (de Abditis
Rerum Causis, lib. 2, cap. 16) speaketh of a certain
young gentleman that was taken with strange convulsions,
which did surprize him at least ten times in a day. In his
fits he had the use of his speech and reason free; other-
wise his disease would have been judged no other than
an ordinary epilepsy. Much means was used by skilful
physitians for his relief, but without success for three
moneths together; when all on a sudden, a dæmon began
to speak out of the miserable patient; and that with not
only Latin but Greek sentences, which the afflicted party
himself had no knowledge of; and the dæmon discovered
many secrets both of the physitians and of other persons
that attended, deriding them for their vain attempts to
DÆMONS AND POSSESSED PERSONS. 121
cure a man whom he had the possession of. There are
sundry authors (in special Balduinus in his cases of con-
science, and Darrel in his history of the Seven Possessed
Persons in Lancashire) who have endeavoured to describe
and characterise possessed persons. And such particulars
as these following are by them mentioned as signs of
possession.
1. If the party concerned shall reveal secret things,
either past or future, which without supernatural assis-
tance could not be known, it argueth possession.
2. If he does speak with strange languages, or discover
skill in arts and sciences never learned by him.
3. If he can bear burthens, and do things which are
beyond humane strength.
4. Uttering words without making use of the organs
of speech, when persons shall be heard speaking, and yet
neither their lips nor tongues have any motion, 'tis a sign
that an evil spirit speaketh in them.
5. When the body is become inflexible.
6. When the belly is on a sudden puft up, and in-
stantly flat again.
These are thought to be certain arguments of an ener-
gumenical person. Some other signs are mentioned by
Thyræus (De Obsessis, part 2, cap. 25, 26).
There are who conceive (and that as they suppose upon
scripture grounds) that men may possibly be dæmoniacal,
when none of those mentioned particulars can be affirmed
of them. The excellently learned and judicious Mr. Mede
is of opinion, that the dæmoniacks whom we read so
frequently of in the New Testament, were the same with
epilepticks, lunaticks, and mad men. The Turks at this
day have their mad men in great veneration, supposing
122
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
them to be acted by a spirit; but they (in that being
themselves mad) take it to be a good when as 'tis an evil
spirit that does operate in such persons. And that the
Jews of old did look upon maniacks to be possessed with
an evil spirit, is evident from that expression of theirs,
John x, 20: "He hath a devil and is mad." Moreover,
we read of one, Mat. xvii, 15, that was lunatick, and did
oft fall into the fire, and oft into the water. Now that
this lunatick person was a dæmoniack is clear from v. 18,
where it is said that Jesus rebuked the devil, and he
departed out of him. And of the same person 'tis said,
in Luke ix, 39: "A spirit taketh him and teareth him.”
So Beza and Heinsius, in Mat. viii, 16; and xvii, 15. It
has been commonly said that in Christs time more persons
were possessed with evil spirits than ever was known
before or since; but if that were so, the Jews, and pro-
bably some historians, would have noted it as a thing
strange and extraordinary; whenas we read of no such
observation to be made on those times. And saith
Mr. Mede (in his Discourse on John x, 20): "If those
possessed persons were not such as we now adayes con-
ceive to be no other than mad men, the world must be
supposed to be well rid of devils, which for my part I
believe it is not." There is in special, a sort of melan-
choly madness, which is called lycanthropia or lupina
insania, h. e., when men imagine themselves to be turned
into wolves or other beasts. Hippocrates relates con-
cerning the daughters of king Prætus, that they thought
themselves kine. Wierus (de Præstigiis Dæmonum, 1. iii.
c. 21) speaketh of one in Padua, that would not believe to
the contrary but that he was a wolf; and of a Spaniard,
who thought himself a bear. Euwichius (and from him
DEMONS AND POSSESSED PERSONS. 123
Horstius) writeth of a man that was found in a barn
under the hay, howling and saying he was a wolf. The
foolish rusticks, who surprized him, began to flay him,
that so they might see if he had not hair growing on the
inside of his skin. Forestus has many instances to this
purpose. Heurnius saith, that it is a disease frequent in
Bohemia and Hungaria. No doubt but this disease gave
occasion to Pliny's assertion, that some men in his time
were turned into wolves, and from wolves into men again.
Hence was Ovid's fable of Lycaon, and the tale of
Pausanias being ten years a wolf, and then a man again.
He that would see more instances, may read Austin, de
Civ. Dei. 1. xviii, c. 5; Burton of Melancholly, page 9.
They that are subject unto this malady, for the most part
lye hid all the day, and go abroad in the night, barking
and howling at graves and in desarts. We may suppose
that Nebuchadnezzar was troubled with this disease. And
that such persons are molested with a dæmon is evident
from Luke viii, 27, with Mark v, 3, 4. The possessed
person there spoken of was Lycanthropos.
There are that acknowledge the existence of spirits, and
that the bodies of men are sometimes really possessed
thereby, who, nevertheless, will not believe there are any
such woful creatures in rerum naturâ as witches, or per-
sons confederate with the devil. I have read of a famous
wizard, whose name was William de Lure, that after he
had laboured much in opposing their opinion, who think
that there are men on earth joyned in an explicit con-
federacy with the fiends of hell, was himself convicted
and condemned for that crime which he designed to make
the world believe that no man was or could be guilty of.
X
124
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
so.
I shall not suspect all those as guilty of witchcraft, nor
yet of heresie, who call the received opinion about witches
into question. There are four or five English writers, viz.
Mr. Scot, Ady, and of late, Wagstaff and Webster, and
another anonymous author, who do, with great vehemence,
affirm, that never any did maintain that familiarity with.
the evil spirits which is commonly believed. Wierus
(otherwise a judicious author) conceiveth that all those
things supposed to be done by witches are done by the
evil spirits themselves, without any confederates. But he
is sufficiently refuted by Bindsfieldius, Bodinus, Sennertus,
and others. True it is, that many things have been looked
upon as proceeding from witchcraft when it has not been
The sympathies and antipathies of nature have some-
times been esteemed the effects of witchcraft. A sympa-
thetical powder, made without any magical ceremonies,
has done strange things, so as that the artist which used
it has upon that account been suspected of witchcraft. A
man may casily, by such natural magick as is described
by Porta, and by Weckerus, De Secretis, make the ignorant
believe he is a wizard. It is also true, that the world is
full of fabulous stories concerning some kind of familiari-
ties with the devil, and things done by his help, which
are beyond the powers of creatures to accomplish. What
fables are there concerning incubi and succuba, and of men
begotten by dæmons! No doubt but the devil may de-
delude the fancy, that one of his vassals shall think (as the
witch at Hartford did) that he has carnal and cursed com-
munion with them beyond what is real. Nor is it impos-
sible for him to assume a dead body, or to form a lifeless
one out of the elements, and therewith to make his witches
become guilty of sodomy. Austin saith, they are impudent
DEMONS AND POSSESSED PERSONS. 125
who deny this. But to imagine that spirits shall really
generate bodies is irrational. I am not ignorant that
there have been men in the world (more than one or two)
pretended to be thus begotten and born. Thus doth Nide-
rius affirm concerning all the old inhabitants of the isle of
Cyprus. The like has been reported concerning Arcturus,
and concerning our British Merlin. Yea, the Gentiles
believed that Homer, Æneas, Hercules, and others, were
begotten by dæmons, whom, thereupon, they esteemed as
semidei. And Olympias, the mother of Alexander the
Great, supposed herself to be with child by Jupiter
Hammon. When her husband, King Philip of Macedon,
was absent from her, Nectanebus (an Egyptian prince,
and a great magician) sent her word that Jupiter would
embrace her, and that he would come to her such a night
in the form of a dragon; at the time appointed, Necta-
nebus himself, by his magical impostures, made Olympias
believe that a dragon was in the room, and so did himself
do that which the deluded queen thought Jupiter had done.
I doubt not but that Merlin and others, imagined to come
into the world not in the usual way, were the sons of
dæmons, just as Alexander was. It has been a received
maxim, that though the devil may by his art produce
insects and vermin (to the generation whereof a seminal
vertue is not alwayes necessary), yet he cannot bring forth
a perfect animal. How then is it consistent with reason,
that he should produce a real man, who is of all animals
the most perfect and noble? It is also extreamly fabulous
that witches can transform themselves or others into
another sort of creatures, e. g. into horses, wolves, cats,
miee, &c. Carminibus Circe socios mutavit Ulyssis. A
blind heathenish phansie: and yet stories of this nature
...
126
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES
have been generally believed; and I have not without
wonderment seen grave authors relating them, as if the
things had been really so. But it is beyond the power of
all the devils in hell to cause such a transformation: they
can no more do it than they can be the authors of a true
miracle. (See Horstius, Inst. Med. disp. 3, exercit. 9,
quest 9.) Though I deny not but that the devil may so
impose upon the imagination of witches, as to make them
believe that they are transmuted into beasts. Sennertus
(in Pract. Med. 1. vi, part 9, cap. 5) reports that a noble
person, and one worthy of credit, gave him an account of
a strange passage to this purpose, which himself was par-
ticularly acquainted with. The story is this:-
A certain woman being in prison on suspicion for
witchcraft, pretending to be able to turn herself into a
wolf, the magistrate before whom she was brought, pro-
mised her, that she should not be put to death, in case
she would then in his presence so transform herself; which
she readily consented unto. Accordingly she anointed.
her head, neck, and arm-pits; immediately upon which
she fell into a most profound sleep for three hours; after
which she suddenly rose up, declaring that she had been
turned into a wolf, and been at a place some miles distant,
and there killed first a sheep and then a cow. The
magistrate presently sent to the place, and found that
first a sheep, and then a cow, had there been killed.
Wierus and Baptista Porta have divers stories to the
same purpose. It is then evident, that the devil himself
did that mischief; and in the meantime the witches, who
were cast into so profound a sleep by him as they could
not by any noises or blows be awakened, had their phansies
DEMONS AND POSSESSED PERSONS. 127
imposed upon by dreams and delusions according to the
pleasure of their master Satan. It must, moreover, be
sadly confessed, that many innocent persons have been
put to death under the notion of witchcraft, whereby
much innocent blood hath been shed; especiallly it hath
been so in Popish times and places. Superstitious and
magical wayes of trying witches have been a bloody
cause of those murders. Sometimes persons have been
tried for witchcraft by hot, sometimes by cold water (of
which more in the eighth chapter of this Essay), some-
times by pricking them, sometimes by sticking awls under
their seats, sometimes by their ability, or otherwise, to
repeat the Lords Prayer.
An Irish witch, which was tried at Youghall, Sept. 11,
1661, being by the court put upon repeating the fifth
petition, alwayes left out the words, "Forgive us our
trespasses." Another witch, tried at Taunton, 1663,
could not repeat the last petition; but though she was
directed to say it after one that repeated it distinctly,
would say,
"Lead us into temptation," and could never
repeat it right, though she tried to do it half a score
times. But Judge Archer did wisely admonish the jury,
that they were not in the least measure to guide their
verdict by that, since it was no legal evidence.
The author of the advertisement to Mr. Glanvil's
Relations (p. 171) saith, that his curiosity led him to
examine certain witnesses at the castle in Cambridge
and that the most notorious witch of them all pleaded
that she was no witch because she was able to say the
Lords Prayer and the Creed; and though she was out in
repeating the Creed, she said the Lords Prayer right.
128
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES
But from such considerations as those which have been
mentioned, Wierus and some others, not atheists, but
persons of worth, have, εξ αμετρίας ανθολκής, run into an
extream on the other hand, so as to question whether
there were any persons really confederate with the infernal
spirits. Nevertheless, that there have been such the fol-
fowing arguments do manifest.
1. The argument by many insisted on from the Scrip-
tures is irrefragable: therein witchcrafts are forbidden.
And we often read in the Scripture of metaphorical
bewitchings, Nahum iii, 4; Gal. iii, 1; which similitudes
are undoubtedly taken from things that have a real exis-
tence in rerum naturâ. Yea, the Scripture makes par-
ticular mention of many that used those cursed arts and
familiarities with the devil, e. g. Jannes, and Jambres,
Balaam, Manasseh, Simon, Elymas. Nor is the relation
which the Scripture giveth of the Witch of Endor, and
the reasons from thence deduced to prove the being of
witches, sufficiently confuted by any of our late witch-
advocates. Though (as one speaketh) some men, to elude
the argument from that instance, "play more hocos-pocus
tricks in the explication of that passage than the witch
herself did in raising deceased Samuel." It is a poor
evasion in those who think to escape the dint of this
argument, by pretending that the witches and familiar
spirits spoken of in the Scripture were only juglers, or
men that by legerdemain would do strange feats of acti-
vity. The divine law requires that such witches should
be cut off by the sword of justice; which may not be
affirmed of everyone that shall, without any confederacy
with the devil, play tricks of legerdemain.
2. Experience has too often made it manifest that there
DÆMONS AND POSSESSED PERSONS. 129
are such in the world as hold a correspondence with hell.
There have bin known wizards; yea, such as have taught
others what ceremonies they are to use in maintaining
communion with devils. Trithemius his book de Septem
Intelligentiis, and Cornelius Agrippa's books of occult.
philosophy, wherein too much of these nefandous abomi-
nations is described, are frequently in the hands of men.
Several other books there are extant which do professedly
teach the way of familiarity with dæmons; the titles
whereof, as also the names of the authors that have pub-
lished them, I designedly forbear to mention, lest haply
any one into whose hands this discourse may come, should
out of wicked curiosity seek after them to the ruine of his
soul. There are famous histories of several who had their
paredri or familiar spirits, some in one likeness, some in
another, constantly attending them: thus had Apollonius
Thyanæus of old; and of later times, Mich. Scot and
Josephus Niger. Likewise Cardanus (de Subtilitule, lib.
xix, p. 963) writeth, that his own father had such a fami-
liar for thirty years together. So had Christopher Waga-
neer a familiar in the form of an ape for seven years
attending him; so had Tolpardus, which two were at last
carried away body and soul by the devil, unto whose
service they had devoted their lives. There is also a true
(as well as a romantick) story of Faustus. The excellent
Camerarius, in his Hora Subseciva, cent. i. cap. 70, relateth
strange things of him, which he received from those who-
knew Faustus, and were eye-witnesses of his magical and
diabolical impostures. He also had a familiar devil, in✈
form of a monk, accompanying of him for the space of
twenty-four years. Hausdorfius and Lonicer ad 2 præc
p. 167, speak of Faustus. Melancthon declares that hes
9.
30
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
knew the man; so that Naudeus is to be convinced of
vanity, in denying that ever there was such a person in the
world. In a word, it is a thing known, that there have
been men who would discourse in languages and reason
notably about sciences which they never learned; who
have revealed secrets, discovered hidden treasures, told
whither stolen goods have been conveyed, and by whom;
and that have caused bruit creatures, nay statues or
images, to speak and give rational answers. The Jews
teraphims oftentimes did so. Vide R. Sol. Jarchi in Hos.
iii, 4; Selden de Diis Syriis. part i, cap. 2; Thom. contra
Gentes, lib. iii, cap. 104. Such things as these cannot be
done by the help of meer natural causes. It must needs
be, then, that the practisers of them are in confederacy
with Satan.
3. There have been many in the world who have, upon
conviction, confessed themselves guilty of familiarity with
the devil. A multitude of instances this way are men-
tioned by Bodinus, Codronchus, Delrio, Jacquerius, Remi-
gius, and others. Some in this countrey have affirmed
that they knew a man in another part of the world, above
fifty years ago, who having an ambitious desire to be
thought a wise man, whilest he was tormented with the
itch of his wicked ambition, the devil came to him with
promises that he should quickly be in great reputation for
his wisdom, in case he would make a covenant with him;
the conditions whereof were, that when men came to him
for his counsel, he should labour to perswade them that
there is no God, nor devil, nor heaven, nor hell; and that
such a term of years being expired, the devil should have
his soul. The articles were consented to the man con-
tinuing after this to be of a very civil conversation, doing
DÆMONS AND POSSESSED PERSONS. 131
hurt to none, but good to many; and by degrees began
to have a name to be a person of extraordinary sagacity,
and was sought unto far and near for counsel, his words
being esteemed oracles by the vulgar. And he did accord-
ing to his covenant upon all occasions secretly disseminate
principles of atheism, not being suspected for a wizard.
But a few weeks before the time indented with the devil
was fulfilled, inexpressible horror of conscience surprized
him, so that he revealed the secret transactions which had
passed betwixt himself and the devil. He would some-
times, with hideous roarings, tell those that came to visit
him that now he knew there was a God, and a devil, and
an heaven, and an hell. So did he die a miserable spec-
tacle of the righteous and fearful judgement of God. And
every age does produce new examples of those that have
by their own confession made the like cursed covenants
with the prince of darkness.
In the year 1664, several who were indicted at the
assizes held at Taunton in Somersetshire, confessed that
they had made an explicit league with the devil; and that
he did baptise pictures of wax with oyl, giving them the
names of those persons they did intend mischief unto.
Anno 1678, one John Stuart, and his sister, Annibal
Stuart, at the assizes held at Paysley in Scotland, con-
fessed that they had been in confederacy with the devil;
and that they had made an image of wax, calling it by
the name of Sir George Maxwel, sticking pins in the sides
and on the breast of it. Such an image, with pins in it,
was really found in the witches houses; and upon the
removal of it, the pins being taken out, Sir George had
immediate ease, and recovered his health.
9a
132
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
There is lately published (by Dr. Horneck) the History
of the Witches in Sweden; by whose means that kingdom
was fearfully plagued. Upon examination, they confessed
their crime, and were executed in the year 1670.
And no longer since than the last year, viz. on Aug
25, 1682, three women, who were executed at Exon in
Devonshire, all of them confessed that they had had con
verses and familiarities with the devil.
But the instance of the witch executed in Hartford,
here in New England (of which the preceding chapter
giveth an account), considering the circumstances of that
confession, is as convictive a proof as most single exam-
ples that I have met with. It is a vain thing for the
patrons of witches to think that they can sham off thi
argument, by suggesting that these confessions did proceed
from the deluded imaginations of mad and melancholly
persons. Some of them were as free from distemperature
in their brains as their neighbours. That divers executed
for witches have acknowledged things against themselves
which were never so, I neither doubt or deny; and that
a deluded phansie may cause persons verily to think they
have seen and done these things which never had any
existence except in their own imaginations, is indisputable.
I fully concur with a passage which I find in worthy
Dr. Owen's late excellent discourse about the work of the
Spirit in prayer (p. 202), where he has these words :-
"We find by experience that some have had their imagi-
nations so fixed on things evil and noxious by satanical
delusions, that they have confessed against themselves
things and crimes that have rendred them obnoxious to
capital punishment, whereof they were never really and
actually guilty." This, notwithstanding that persons,
DEMONS AND POSSESSED PERSONS. 133
whose judgement and reason have been free from disturb-
ance by any disease, should not only voluntarily acknow-
ledge their being in cursed familiarities with Satan, but
mention the particular circumstances of those transactions,
and give ocular demonstratiou of the truth of what they
say, by discovering the stigmata made upon their bodies
by the devils hand; and that, when more than one or two
have been examined apart, they should agree in the cir-
cumstances of their relations; and yet that all this should
be the meer effect of melancholly or phrensie, cannot,
without offering violence to reason and common sense, be
imagined. And as there are witches, so, many times, they
are the causes of those strange disturbances which are in
houses haunted by evil spirits, such as those mentioned in
the former chapter. Instances concerning this may be
seen in Mr. Glanvil's Collections, together with the con-
tinuation thereof, published the last year by the learned
Dr. Henry More. Sometimes Providence permits the
devil himself (without the use of instruments) to molest
the houses of some, as a punishment for sin committed,
most commonly either for the sin of murder: Plutarch
writes, that the house of Pausanias was haunted by an evil
spirit after he had murdered his wife; many like instances
have been reported and recorded by credible authors;
or else for the sin of theft. As for Walton, the Quaker
of Portsmouth, whose house has been so strangely troubled,
he suspects that one of his neighbours has caused it by
witchcraft; she (being a widow-woman) chargeth him with
injustice in detaining some land from her. It is none of
my work to reflect upon the man, nor will I do it; only,
if there be any late or old guilt upon his conscience, it
concerns him by confession and repentance to give glory to
134
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
that God who is able in strange wayes to discover the
sins of men.
I shall here take occasion to commemorate an alike
notable scene of Providence, which was taken notice of
in another part of the world, at Brightling in Sussex, in
England. The minister in that town (viz. Mr. Joseph
Bennet) has given a faithful account of that strange
Providence, which is published by Mr. Clark in his
Examples, vol. ii, p. 593, &c. I shall relate it in his
words: thus he writeth concerning it :
:
"Anno Christi, 1659. There was at Brightling an
amazing Providence, containing many strange passages;
a wonderful hand of God, by what instrument or instru-
ments soever which was, a fire strangely kindled, which
burnt down a mans house, and afterwards kindled in
another to which the mans goods were carried, and to
which himself, and his wife, and his servant girl, were
removed; and several things were thrown by an invisible
hand, powerfully convincing, and thereby discovering the
hypocrisie and theft of the man, and for a warning to
others to take heed of the like.
"November 7, in the evening, the fire first kindled in
this man's milk-house; and November 9, there was dust
thrown upon this man and his wife, as they lay in bed
together, and there was knocking several times; and the
same morning divers things were thrown about, and the
fire again kindled in the milk-house, which was yet put out
by the woman herself; then it kindled in the eves of the
house, in the thatch, which was put out by a man which
was their next neighbour. That night, as the man had a
pot of beer in his hand, a stone feel into the pot; then
did he set down the pot upon the table. When some men
DEMONS AND POSSESSED PERSONS. 135
came to be with them that night, they were speaking how
convenient it would be to have a tub filled with water, to
stand ready, in case they should have occasion to use it;
and as they were going out of the door to prepare it, the
fire again kindled in the milk-house, and suddenly the
whole house was on fire, but most of the goods and hous-
hold-stuff were carried out and preserved. The fire was
a strange fire, very white, and not singing their hands
when they pulled the things out of it.
"The next day the houshold-stuff was carried to ano-
ther house, wherein was a family: but those were to be
in one end of the house, and the other in the other end.
But before the man and his wife went to bed there was
dust thrown upon them, which so troubled them that the
man, having another man with them, and a candle and
lanthorn in his hand, came up to me (saith my author),
who was in bed and asleep; but when I was awakened, I
heard him say, "The hand of God still pursues me;' and
so he intreated me to go down with him; and accordingly
I and my brother went down, where we found them in
the house, greatly troubled by reason of things that were
thrown about, and some things were thrown presently
after we came in. Hereupon we went to prayer; and as
I was kneeling down, dust was thrown upon me; but
afterwards all was quiet, so long as we were at prayer.
When we arose from prayer, I applied myself to the
reading of a portion of Scripture, which was Psal. xci,
the man standing by me, and holding the candle; but pre-
sently something did beat out the light; whereupon the
man said that somebody else must hold it. Presently a
knife was thrown at me, which fell behind me; my brother
said he saw it come; then a chopping-knife was thrown
136
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES
•
(I think at the man's wife); whereupon the man said,
'Things are thrown at others for my sake.' At length he
fell upon his knees, and confessed that he had been a
hipocrite and a pilfering fellow, and that he had robbed his
master, &c.; and he was willing to separate the things
which he had taken wrongfully from the rest, which he
did accordingly: laying forth several things which he said
were none of his, naming the persons from whom he had
taken them; and as a great chest was carrying forth,
trenchers, platters, and other things, were thrown about in
so dreadful a manner, that one not much noted for reli-
gion said, 'Pray you, let us go to prayer;' and indeed that
was our only refuge, so to go to God. And so we spent
our time as well as we could, in prayer, reading some
portions of Scripture, and singing of psalms: and though
divers things were thrown, as a dish several times; so
that once I had a smart blow on the cheek with a dish;
and the man that lived in the house had his boots thrown
at him, and a chopping-knife twice, crabs out of a tub
standing in the midst of the room, a fire brand, though
without fire, and an hammer thrown twice, and a Bible;
the man's wife who lived in the house usually took up the
things thus thrown; yet still in time of prayer all was
quiet. In the morning, after I had prayed (before which
prayer I was hit with a dish), my brother and I came
away; and as we were coming near home, we turned aside
to speak with a friend; but before we got home, we heard
that the house was on fire: hereupon they sent for me
again; and in the mean time they carried out their goods,
pulled off the thatch, and quenched the fire; yet (as I
heard) it kindled again and again, till all the man's goods
were carried out: and when these people whose house was
DEMONS AND POSSESSED PERSONS. 137
burnt down to the ground, together with all their goods
were removed into the field, all was quiet in this second
house; but some things were thrown in the field; and in
the afternoon, when another minister and I went to them,
some assured us that some things had been thrown. This
was November 11. The night following, some noise was
heard among the houshold-stuff, as was testified to me.
"Thus these poor creatures were distressed. Their
house was burned down; that to which they were re-
moved several times fired, so that neither they nor their
goods might stay any longer there, nor durst any other
receive them but they, with their goods, were forced to
lie in the open field for divers dayes and nights together;
being made a sad spectacle to all sorts of people, that came
far and near to see and hear of the business. Hereupon I
sent to some neighbouring ministers, to joyn with us in
keeping a fast on November 15; and four spent the time
in prayer and preaching. The sermons were upon these
texts: Job xi, 13, 'If thou prepare thine heart, and
stretch out thine hands towards him; if iniquity be in
thine hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell
in thy tabernacles. For then shalt thou lift up thy face
without spot; yea, thou shalt be stedfast, and shalt not be
afraid,' &c. Amos iii, 6, 'Shall a trumpet be blown in
the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil
in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?' Luke xiii, 2, 3,
&c., 'Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above
all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? I
tell you nay: But except ye repent, ye shall all likewise
perish or those eighteen,' &c. Isai. xxxiii, 14, 15, 16,
'The sinners in Sion are afraid, fearfulness hath surprized
the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with devour-
138
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
ing fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting
burnings? He that walketh righteously and speaketh
uprightly: he that despiseth the gain of oppression, that
shaketh his hand from holding bribes, that stoppeth his
ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from
seeing of evil: He shall dwell on high. His place of
desire shall be the munitions of rocks: Bread shall be
given him, his water shall be sure.'
"The distressed persons attended diligently, and a great
congregation was assembled. These providential dispen-
sations were not ordinary; yet there was a seeming blur
cast, though not on the whole, yet upon some part of it;
for their servant girl was at last found throwing some
things and she afterwards confessed that an old woman
came to her, November 7, a little before these things come
to pass, and told her that her master and dame were
bewitched, and that they should hear a great fluttering
about their house for the space of two dayes; she said also
that the old woman told her that she must hurl things at
her master and dame, and withal bad her not to tell, for
if she did the devil would have her and she confessed that
she hurled the firebrand, an hammer, and an iron tack;
and said that she did it because the old woman bad her,
and said to her, that if she hurled things about the house
it would be the better. But besides the throwing of the
things about, there were other passages of Providence
very observable and remarkable. One house was at
several times strangely fired, and, notwithstanding the
warning they had, at last quite burned down : and another
house to whom they removed, greatly molested, and at
length fired. Besides the efficacy of prayer is most
observable, for the encouragement of the duty, and God's
:
DEMONS AND POSSESSED PERSONS. 139
omniscient and omnipotent providence wonderfully mag-
nified, thus to discover the hypocrisie and theft of the
man, and yet withal graciously and mercifully delivering
them. For though they were not wholly delivered when
the fast was first appointed, yet after the fast they were
fully freed, and not at all any more troubled in that
manner." Thus far is Mr. Bennets relation.
That the things which have been related in the chapter
immediately preceding came not to pass without the
operation of dæmons, is so manifest as that I shall not
spend many words concerning it: though whether the
afflicted persons were only possessed, or bewitched, or
both, may be disputed. As for the maid at Groton, she
was then thought to be under bodily possession: her
uttering many things (some of which were diabolical
railings) without using the organs of speech, and being
able sometimes to act above humane strength, argued
an extraordinary and satanical operation. Concerning
the woman in Berwick: evil spirits, without being set
on work by instruments, have sometimes caused the like
molestation; but commonly such things are occasioned by
witchcraft. Dr. Balthasar Han (who was chief physitian
to the Prince Elector of Saxony) relates concerning one
of his patients, that in November 1634, she was, to the
amazement of all spectators, pricked and miserably beaten
by an invisible hand, so as that her body from head to foot
was wounded as if she had been whipped with thorns.
Sometimes a perfect sign of the cross was imprinted on
her skin; sometimes the usual configurations whereby
astronomers denote the cælestial bodies, such as h 4
and their conjunctions, and oppositions by d ; and the
140
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
Ex-
characters used by chymists, AO &c. (in which sciences,
though that be not usual for those of her sex, she was
versed.) These characters would remain for several weeks
after the invisible hand had violently impressed them on
her body; also a needle was thrust into her foot, which
caused it to bleed. Once she took the needle and put it
into the fire; and then an old woman, to whom she had
given some of her wearing linnen, appeared to her with
a staff in her hand, striking her with a cruel blow, and
saying, "Give me my needle." At last the miserable
patient, by constant attendance to prayer and other reli-
gious exercises, was delivered from her affliction. Many
instances of an alike nature to this, are to be seen in the
writings of those that treat upon subjects of this kind.
Sometimes (as Voetius and others observe) bodily pos-
sessions by evil spirits are an effect of witchcraft.
amples confirming this are mentioned by Hierom, in the
Life of Hilarion; Theodoret, in his History of the Fathers;
and by Anastasius. And there are more instances in
Sprenger, and in Tyræus de Dæmoniacis. It may be
Ann Cole of Hartford might be subject to both of these
miseries at the same time. Though she be (and then was)
esteemed a truly pious Christian, such amazing afflictions.
may befall the righteous as well as the wicked in this
world. The holy body of Job, that so his patience might
be tried, was sorely handled by Satan. We read in the
gospel of a daughter of Abraham whom Satan had bound
for eighteen years, Luke xiii, 16. Mary Magdalen and
several others, who had been molested and possessed by
evil spirits, yet belonged to God, and are now in heaven.
So might Ann Cole be a true Christian, and yet be for
a time under Satan's power as hath been related. And
DEMONS AND POSSESSED PERSONS. 141
that her malady was not meer natural disease, is past all
doubt, inasmuch as in those strange paroxysmies where-
with she was at times surprized, the tone of her discourse
would sometimes be after a language unknown to her.
Lemnius indeed supposeth that melancholly humors may
cause persons not only to divine, but to speak with strange
tongues; and Forestus (lib. x, observat. 19) does not
contradict his opinion. But the unreasonableness of that
phansie has been sufficiently evinced by sundry learned
men. Vide Johnston Thaumatograph, sect. x, chap. 7,
art. 1; La Torr, Disp. 27. How shall that be in the
mouth which never was in the mind; and how should
that be in the mind which never came there through the
outward senses? This cannot be without some super-
natural influence; as when things destitute of reason
have given rational answers unto what hath been demanded
of them, it must needs have proceeded from the operation
of a supernatural agent. It is reported that one of the
Popes, in way of pleasancy, saying to a parrat, “What
art thou thinking of?" the parrat immediately replied, “I
have considered the dayes of old, the years of ancient
times;" at the which consternation fell upon the Pope and
others that heard the words, concluding that the devil
spake in the parrat, abusing Scripture expressions; where-
upon they caused it to be killed. De La Cerda speaketh
of a crow that did discourse rationally; undoubtedly
it was acted by a caco-dæmon. Some write of Achilles
his horse, and that Simon Magus had a dog that would
discourse with him; yea, it is storied concerning the
river Causus, and the keel of ship Argus, and of many
statues, that they have been heard speaking. The image
of Memnon in Ægypt, as the rising sun shined upon its
142
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
mouth, began to speak. The image of Juno Moneta,
being asked if she would be removed to Rome: replied
that she would. The image of Fortune being set up, said,
"Rite me consacrastis." (Valer. Maxim, lib. i, cap. ult.)
A gymnosophist in Ethiopia caused an elm, with a low
and soft voice to salute Apollonius. Such things must
needs be the operation of caco-dæmons. The like is to be
concluded when any shall utter themselves in languages
which they never learned. It is not they but a spirit
which speaketh in them. The noble man whom Fernelius
writeth of, was first known to be possessed by a dæmon,
inasmuch as many sentences uttered by him were Greek,
in which language the diseased person had no knowledge.
A maid in Frankford was concluded to be possessed, is
that when in her fits, she could speak the High Dutch
language perfectly, though she never learned it. Manlius
writeth of a possessed woman, who used to speak Latin
and Greek, to the admiration of all that heard it.
I remember an honourable gentleman told me, that
when he was at Somers in France a woman there was
possessed with a devil. Many learned divines, both
Protestants and Papists, discoursing with her, she would
readily answer them, not only in the French tongue, but
in Latin, Greek, or Hebrew. But when one Mr. Duncan
after he had discoursed and received answer in more
learned languages, spake to her in the British tongue,
the dæmon made no reply; which occasioned great won-
derment, and too much sporting about a sad and serious
matter.

CHAPTER VII.
CONCERNING APPARITIONS.
They are not so frequent in places where the Gospel prevaileth as in the
dark corners of the earth. That good angels do sometimes visibly
appear. Confirmed by several histories. That caco-dæmons oftentimes
pretend to be good angels. That Satan may appear in the likeness of
holy men, proved by notable instances. Concerning the appearance of
persons deceased. The procuring cause thereof is usually some sin
committed. Some iate remarkable examples. Of mens covenanting
to appear after their death. It is an heavy judgement when places are
infested with such doleful spectres.

S yet no place nor any person in New England
(excepting the instances before mentioned)
have been troubled with aparitions. Some
indeed have given out, that I know not
what spectres were seen by them; but upon enquiry I
cannot find that there was any thing therein more than
phansie and frightful apprehensions, without sufficient
ground. Nevertheless, that spirits have sometimes really
(as well as imaginarily) appeared to mortals in the world,
is amongst sober men beyond controversie; and that
such things were of old taken notice of, we may rationally
conclude from that scripture, Luke xxiv, 37, where it is
said, that the disciples "were terrified and affrighted, and
supposed that they had seen a spirit." It is observable.
144
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
that such frightful spectres do most frequently shew
themselves in places where the light of the Gospel hath
not prevailed. Some hath propounded it as a question
worthy the inquiring into: What should be the reason
that dæmons did ordinarily infest the Gentiles of old, as
also the East and West Indians of later times, and that
popish countries are still commonly and grievously mo-
lested by them; but in England and Scotland, and in the
United Provinces, and in all lands where the Reformed
religion hath taken place, such things are more rare?
Popish authors do acknowledge that as to matter of fact
it is really thus; and the reason which some of them
assign for it is, that the devils are so sure of their interest
in heretical nations, as that they pass over them, and
come and molest Papists, whom they are most afraid of
losing. But they should rather have attributed it to the
light of the Gospel, and the power of Christ going along
therewith. Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and others, observe
that upon the first promulgation of the Gospel, those
diabolical oracles, whereby Satan had miserably deceived
the nations, were silenced; in which respect the word of
Christ, Luke x, 17, was wonderfully fulfilled. The like
may be said as to Protestant being less imposed upon
then Popish nations by deceitful dæmons. It is more-
over, sometimes very difficult to pass a true judgement of
the spectres which do appear, whether they are good or
evil angels, or the spirits of deceased men.
That holy
angels were frequently seen in old times, we are from
the Scriptures of truth assured; and that the angelical
ministration doth still continue, is past doubt, Heb. i, 14;
but their visible appearance is less frequent than formerly.
They do invisibly perform many a good office for the heirs
I
APPARITIONS.
145
of salvation continually. Nor is it to be questioned, but
they may still appear visibly, when the work which they
are sent about cannot otherwise be performed. I would
not reject as fabulous all those passages which are related
by judicious authors referring to this subject.
At a time when Grynæus, Melancthon, and several
other learned men, were discoursing together at an house
in Spyres, there came a man of very grave and goodly
countenance into the house, desiring to speak with
Melancthon; who going forth to him, he told him that
within one hour some officers would be at that house to
apprehend Grynæus, and therefore required Melancthon
to advise Grynæus to flee out of that city; and having
so spoken, he vanished out of sight. Melancthon re-
turning into the room, recounted the words of this strange:
monitor; whereupon Grynæus instantly departed; and
he had no sooner boated himself upon the Rhine, but
officers came to lay hold of him. This story is mentioned
by Melancthon in his commentary upon Daniel. And
he concludeth that the man who had appeared to him was
indeed an angel, sent in order to Grynæus his being
delivered from the bloody hands of them that sought his
life. Many instances like to this I could mention. But
I shall only take notice of a strange providence which
came to pass of late years; the particulars whereof are
known to some who I suppose may be still living.
I find the history of the matter I intend in Mr. Clark's
Examples, vol. ii, page 18, 19. It is in brief as
followeth :-
One Samuel Wallas of Stamford in Lincolnshire, having
been in a consumption for thirteen years, was worn away
to a very skeleton, and lay bed-rid for four years.
But
10
146
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
April 7, 1659, being the Lords Day, about 6 h. P.M.
finding himself somewhat revived, he got out of the bed;
and as he was reading a book entituled, Abraham's Suit
for Sodom, he heard somebody knock at the door; where-
upon (there being none then in the house but himself) he
took a staff in the one hand, and leaning to the wall with
the other, came to the door, and opening it, a comely and
grave old man of a fresh complexion, with white curled
hair, entred; and after walking several times about the
room, said to him, "Friend, I perceive you are not well;"
to whom Wallas replied he had been ill many years,
and that the doctors said his disease was a consumption
and past cure, and that he was a poor man, and not able
to follow their costly prescriptions; only he committed
himself and life into the hands of God, to dispose of as he
pleased. To whom the man replied, "Thou sayest very
well; be sure to fear God, and serve him, and remember
to observe what now I say to thee: to-morrow morning go
into the garden, and there take two leaves of red sage, and
one of blood-wort, and put those three leaves into a cup of
small beer, and drink thereof as oft as need requires; the
fourth morning cast away those leaves, and put in fresh
ones; thus do for twelve dayes together; and thou shalt
find e're these twelve dayes be expired, through the help
of God, thy disease will be cured, and the frame of
thy body altered." Also he told him that after his
strength was somewhat recovered, he should change the
air, and go three or four miles off; and that within a
moneth he should find that the clothes which he had on
his back would then be too strait for him: having spoken
these things, he again charged Samual Wallas to remember
the directions given to him, but above all things to fear
APPARITIONS.
147
God and serve him.
Wallas asked him if he would eat
any thing; unto whom he answered, "No, friend, the Lord
Christ is sufficient for me. Seldom do I drink any thing
but what cometh from the rock." So wishing the Lord of
heaven to be with him, he departed. Samuel Wallas saw
him go out of the door, and went to shut the door after
him, at which he returned half way into the entry again,
saying, "Friend, remember what I have said to you, and
do it; but above all, fear God, and serve him." Wallas
beheld the man passing in the street, but none else
observed him, though some were then standing in the
doors opposite to Wallas his house; and although it
rained when this grave person came into the house, and
had done so all that day, yet he had not one spot of wet or
dirt upon him. Wallas followed the directions prescribed,
and was restored to his health within the dayes mentioned.
The fame of this strange Providence being noised abroad,
sundry ministers met at Stamford, to consider and consult
about it, who concluded that this cure was wrought by a
good angel, sent from heaven upon that errand. How-
ever, it is not impossible but that holy angels may appear,
and visibly converse with some. Yet for any to desire
such a thing is unwarrantable, and exceeding dangerous;
for thereby some have been imposed upon by wicked
dæmons, who know how to transform themselves into
angels of light.
Bodinus hath a strange relation of a man that prayed
much for the assistance of an angel; and after that, for
above thirty years together, he thought his prayer was
heard: being often admonished of his errors by a cælestial
monitor, as he apprehended, who once appeared visibly in
10a
148
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
•
the form of a child, otherwhile in an orb of light; would
sometimes speak to him when he saw nothing. Yet some
fear that his spirit which he took to be his good genius
was a subtle caco-dæmon. Plato writeth concerning
Socrates, that he had a good genius attending him, which
would still admonish him if he were about to do any thing
that would prove ill or unhappy.
The story of the familiarity which was between Dr. Dee
and Kelly, with the spirits which used to appear to them,
is famously known. Those dæmons would pretend to
discover rare mysteries to them, and at times would give
good advices in many things, so that they verily thought
they had extraordinary communion with holy angels,
whenas it is certain they were deceived by subtile and
unclean devils, since the spirits they conversed with did
at last advise them to break the seventh commandment
of the moral law. Satan, to insinuate himself and carry
on a wicked design, will sometimes seem to perswade men
unto great acts of piety.
Remigius (and from him others) write of a young man
whose name was Theodore Maillot, unto whom a dæmon
appearing, advised him to reform his life, to abstain from
drunkenness, thefts, uncleanness, and the like evils; and
to fast twice a week, to be constant in attendance upon
publick worship, and to be very charitable to the poor.
The like pious advice did another dæmon follow a
certain woman with, unto whom he appeared. Could a
good angel have given better counsel? But this was
Satans policy, hoping that thereby he should have gained
an advantage to take silly souls alive in his cruel snare.
APPARITIONS.
149
Like as thieves upon the road will sometimes enter into
religious discourse, that so their fellow-travellers may have
good thoughts of them, and be the more easily dispoyled
by them. And as the evil spirit will speak good words,
so doth he sometimes appear in the likeness of good men,
to the end that he may the more effectually deceive and
delude all such as shall be so unhappy as to entertain
converses with him. No doubt but that he knows how to
transform himself into the shape of not only an ordinary
saint, but of an Apostle, or holy prophet of God, 2 Cor.
xi, 13, 14. This we may gather from the sacred history
of dead Samuel's appearing to Saul. Some are of opinion
that real Samuel spake to Saul, his soul being by magical
incantations returned into his body; so divers of the
fathers and school-men; also Mendoza, Delrio, and other
Popish authors. Of late M. Glanvil and Dr. Windet
do in part favour that notion. But Tertullian, and the
author of the Quest. and Respons., which pass under
the name of Justin Martyr, are of the judgement that a
lying dæmon appeared to Saul in Samuel's likeness.
Our Protestant divines generally are of this judgment.
It was customary amongst the Gentiles for magicians and
necromancers to cause dead persons to appear, and they
would bring whomsoever they were desired to call for.
Thus did a wizard by Pompeys command call a dead
souldier, whom he enquired of the event of the Pharsalic
war, vide Lucan, lib. 6. Many examples to this purpose
are recorded in the histories of former times, and men-
tioned by the old poets. Those apparitions were caco-
dæmons, which feigned themselves to be the spirits of
men departed. I see no cogent reason why we should
not conclude the like with respect unto Samuel's appearing
150
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
unto Saul. Most certain it is, that the souls of holy men
departed are not under power of the devils, much less of
magicians to bring them hither when they please. As
for those that are gone into the other world, there is a
gulf fixed, that if men would they cannot pass into this
world again without leave, Luke xvi, 26. If Dives could
not bring Lazarus his soul out of Abraham's bosome,
how the witch of Endor should be able to bring Samuel's
soul from thence, I know not. Lyra (and from him others)
pretends that God then interposed and sent real Samuel
as he unexpectedly appeared to Baalam, when imployed
about his magical impostures. But I dare not believe
that the holy God or the true Samuel would seem so
far to countenance necromancie or psycomancy as this
would be, should the soul of Samuel really return into the
world when a witch called for him, Saul desiring that it
might be so. This opinion establisheth necromancy, the
main principal upon which that cursed and lying art is
built, being this, that it is possible for men to cause the
souls of dead persons to be brought back again. This
seeming Samuel did not at all ascribe his appearance to
the extraordinary providence of God, but rather to the
devil, since he complained that Saul had by the witch
disquieted him. The appearing Samuel was seen as-
cending out of the earth, whenas the true Samuel would
rather have appeared as descending from heaven. More-
over, the words of the witches Samuel, when he said,
"Tomorrow thou and thy sons shall be with me," 1 Sam.
xxix, 18, are hardly consistent with truth. Nor is it
likely that the true Samuel would preach nothing but
desperation to Saul, without so much as once exhorting
him in a way of repentance, to endeavour that his peace
APPARITIONS.
151
might be made with that God, whom he had provoked by
his sins; v. P. Martyr, in 1 Sam. xxviii, p. 161, 162,
and Voet. de Spectris, page 1006. This instance, then,
doth sufficiently prove that Satan may appear in the shape
of an holy man. Some acknowledge that he may do so
as to persons that are dead, but that he cannot personate
good and innocent men who are still living. It is by
some reported, that Mr. Cotton did once deliver such a
notion. Nothing is more frequent than for the judgment
of worthy men to be misrepresented after they are gone,
and not capable of clearing themselves. I know Mr
Cotton was a man of great reading, and deep judgment
I shall therefore rather suppose that they who relate
Mr. Cotton's opinion did themselves mistake him, then
believe that a man so learned and wise would express
himself as some say he did. Sure I am, that authentick
historians mention examples to the contrary.
Memorable is that which Lavater (de Spectris, part i,
cap. 19, p. mihi 86) hath testified, sc. that the præfect
of Zurick, travelling abroad with his servant betimes in the
morning, they saw an honest citizen committing nefandous
villany; at the which being astonished, they returned back,
and knocking at the citizens door, they found him in his
own house, nor had he been abroad that morning; so that
what the præfect and his servant beheld, appeared to be
nothing else but a diabolical illusion: a spiteful dæmon
designing to blast the credit and take away the life of an
innocent man. It is also reported by Albertus Granzius
(lib. iv, cap. 5), that Kunegund the empress was for some
time thought to be guilty of adultery, by reason that a
noble person was frequently seen going out of her chamber;
but after it appeared that the suspected noble person had
152
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
not been there, only a dæmon in his shape. I concern
not myself with the authentickness of that relation. The
matter in hand is sufficiently confirmed by a thing that
hapned more lately, and nearer home; for if any of the old
Puritans, who lived in Colchester in England fifty years
ago, be yet surviving, they can doubtless remember the
strange things which hapned to one Mr. Earl, a young man,
in those dayes. The devil did then frequently appear to
him in the shape of some of his acquaintance, and would
perswade him to three things: 1, that he should abstain
from praying; 2, that he should not frequent church-
meetings; 3, that he should never marry. But he did not
hearken to these suggestions. The night wherein he was
married, soon after he and his wife were bedded, the devil
came into the room, and pulled two of his teeth out of his
head, which put him to great pain; whereupon he cried
out, and when his friends came in, they found his mouth
bloody, and used means to ease his pain. This Mr. Earl
was afterwards for the space of ten years, ever and anon
assaulted by the devil, who under many appearances of his
friends, did endeavour to seduce him. There were then
two famous men, ministers of those parts, viz. Mr. John
Rogers of Dedham (who was father to the late eminent
Mr. Nathaniel Rogers of Ipswich in New England), and
Mr. Liddal of Colchester. With these Mr. Earl did con-
verse for comfort and instruction, but chiefly with Mr.
Liddal, than whom there was not a man more eminent for
godliness. It fell out once that the devil came to Mr. Earl
in Mr. Liddal's shape, and, as Mr. Earl's custom was, he did
propose to the seeming Mr. Liddal his cases of conscience;
but found that Mr. Liddal did not discourse after his
ordinary rate, which made him suspect whether he was not
APPARITIONS.
153
imposed upon by a deceitful dæmon. The next day, going
to Mr. Liddal's house, he enquired whether he was with
him the day before; Mr. Liddal told him that he was not;
"Then," said Mr. Earl, "it was my enemy in your shape.
What a miserable man am I, that know not when I speak
with my enemy or with my friend!" To which Mr. Liddal
replied: "If you would know when you speak with a spirit
or with a man, remember and follow the advice of Christ;
who, when he appeared to his disciples after his resur-
rection, and they thought he had been a spirit, and were
therefore troubled, he said to them, 'Handle me and see,
for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have.'
Luke xxiv, 39." This advice Mr. Earl followed; for not
long after the devil coming to him in Mr. Liddal's shape, he
went to take hold on his arms, but could feel no substance,
only a vanishing shadow. It seems that this Mr. Earl
was once an atheist, that did not believe that there was
either God or devil, and would often walk in solitary and
dismal places, wishing for the sight of a spirit; and that
he was first assaulted by a devil in a church-yard. And
though God mercifully gave him repentance, yet he was
miserably haunted with an evil spirit all his dayes. I find
that Mr. Clark in his first volume of Examples, chap. civ,
p. 510, hath some part of this strange Providence, but he
mentions not Mr. Earl's name. A gentleman worthy of
credit affirmed this relation to be most certainly true,
according to the particulars which have been declared; I
have thought it, therefore, not unworthy the publication.
There is another remarkable passage to this purpose,
which hapned of later years, wherein the Turkish Chaous,
baptized at London, January 30, A.D. 1658, was concerned.
154
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES
This Chaous being alone in his chamber, 3h P.M. a
person in the likeness of Mr. Dury, the minister with
whom he did most ordinarily converse, came and sat by
him. This seeming Mr. Dury told him, that he had
waited with a great deal of patience as to the matter of
his baptism; and that himself had endeavoured by all
means possible to procure it to be performed with publick
countenance; and to that effect, had dealt with Richard,
and several of his counsel, but that now he perceived that
it was in vain to strive or wait longer; and therefore
advised him not to be much troubled at it; but, setting
his mind at rest, to leave these thoughts, and take up his
resolution another way. When the Chaous heard this dis-
course, being much perplexed in his spirit, he lifted up his
hands and eyes to Heaven, uttering words to this effect:
"O my Lord Jesus Christ, what a miserable thing is this,
that a true Christian cannot be owned by other Christians;
that one who believeth on thee cannot be baptized into
thy name." When he had so spoken, looking down he saw
nobody, the appearance of Mr. Dury being vanished,
which was at first an amazement to him; but recollecting
himself, he began to rejoyce, as hoping that Satan would
be disappointed of his plot. About 8h. at night, the true
Mr. Dury met with the Chaous, who acquainted him with
what had hapned to him, so did he more fully understand
how he had been imposed upon by Satan. The mentioned
instances are enough to prove that the devil may possibly
appear in the shape of good men, and that not only of such
as are dead, but of the still living. It might, as a further
confirmation of the truth we assert, have been here noted,
that the devil doth frequently amongst the Papists visibly
appear, pretending to be Christ himself, as their own
APPARITIONS.
155
authors do acknowledge. They affirm that he came in the
shape of Christ to Pachomius and to St. Martin. So hath
he often appeared in the form of the Virgin Mary, whereby
miserable souls have been seduced into gross idolatries.
It is likewise reported, that when Luther had spent a day
in fasting and prayer, there appeared to him one seeming
to be Christ; but Luther said to him, "Away, thou con-
founded devil, I will have no Christ but what is in my
Bible," whereupon the apparition vanished.
As for the spirits of men deceased, it is certain they
cannot reassume their bodies, nor yet come to men in this
world when they will, or without a permission from Him,,
in whose hand they are. Chrysostom, in his second
sermon concerning Lazarus, saith the dæmons would
oftentimes appear, falsely pretending themselves to be the
souls of some lately dead. He saith, that he himself knew
many dæmoniacks; that the spirits in them would feign
the voice of men lately killed, and would discover the
secrets of such persons, professing that they were the souls
of those very men.
But those were no other then devilish
lies. Upon which account men had need be exceeding
wary what credit they give unto, or how they entertain
communion with, such spectres. I do not say that all
such apparitions are diabolical; only that many of them
are so. And as yet I have not met with any Tekμnpia,
whereby the certain appearance of a person deceased may
be infallibly discerned from a meer diabolical illusion.
The rules of judging in this case, described by Malderus,.
are very fallible.
As for the moving and procuring cause of such appari--
7
3
156
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES
tions, commonly it is by reason of some sin not discover-
able in any other way; either some act of injustice done
or it may be some murder committed. Platina, Nau-
clerus, and others, relate that Pope Benedict VIII did after
his death appear sitting upon a black horse before a bishop
of his acquaintance, declaring the reason to be, in that he
had in his lifetime nefariously consumed a great sum of
money which belonged to the poor. And there are fresh
examples to this purpose lately published in the second
edition of Mr. Glanvil's Sadducismus Triumphatus. He
there speaks of a man in Guildford, unto whom belonged
some copyhold land which was to descend to his children;
he dying, leaving no child born, his brother took
possession of the estate. So it hapned that the deceased
man's wife conceived with child but a little before her
husbands death, which after she perceived, by the advice of
her neighbours, she told her brother-in-law how matters
were circumstanced; he railed upon her, calling her whore,
and said he would not be fooled out of his estate so. The
poor woman went home troubled, that not only her child
should lose the land, but which was worse, that she should
be thought an whore. In due time she was delivered of a
son. Some time after which, as her brother-in-law was
going out of the field, his dead brother (the father of the
injured child) appeared to him at the stile, and bid him
give up the land to the child, for it was his right. The
brother being greatly affrighted at this spectre, ran away,
and not long after came to his sister, saying, she had sent
the devil to him, and bid her take the land; and her son
is now possessed of it.
The same author relates that the wife of Dr. Bretton of
APPARITIONS.
157
Deptford (being a person of extraordinary piety) did
appear after her death. A maid of hers, whose name was
Alice (for whom in her lifetime she had a great kindness),
married a near neighbour. As this Alice was rocking her
infant in the night, some one knocking at the door, she
arose and opened it, and was surprized by the sight
of a gentlewoman not to be distinguished from her late
mistriss. At the first sight she expressed great amaze-
ment and said, "Were not my mistriss dead I should
conclude you are she." The apparition replied, "I am
she which was your mistriss;" and withal added, that she
had a business of great importance to imploy her in, and
that she must immediately go a little way with her. Alice
trembled, and entreated her to go to her master, who was
fitter to be employed than she. The seeming mistriss
replied that she had been in the chamber of him who was
once her husband, but he was asleep; nor had she any
commission to awake him. Alice then objected that her
child was apt to cry vehemently, and should she leave it,
some hurt might come to him. The apparition replied,
"The child shall sleep until you return." Seeing there
was no avoiding it, Alice followed her over the style into a
large field, who said, "Observe how much of this field I
measure with my feet;" and when she had took a good
large leisurly compass, she said, "All this belongs to the
poor, it being gotten from them by wrongful means;" and
charged her to go and tell her brother, whose it was at
that time, that he should give it up to the poor again.
forthwith, as he loved her and his deceased mother. This
brother was not the person that did this unjust act, but
his father. She added, that she was the more concerned,
because her name was made use of in some writing that
158
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
related to this land. Alice asked her how she should
satisfie her brother that this was no cheat or delusion of
her phansie? She replied, "Tell him this secret, which he
knows that only himself and I am privy to, and he will
believe you." Alice promised her to go on this errand.
She entertained her the rest of the night with divine
discourse and heavenly exhortations; but when the
twilight appeared, the spectre said, "I must be seen by
none but yourself," and so disappeared. Immediately,
Alice makes hast home, being thoughtful for her child, but
found it, as the spectre said, fast asleep in the cradle.
That day she went to her master the doctor, who, amazed
at the account she gave, sent her to his brother-in-law.
He at first hearing of Alice's story, laughed at it heartily,
supposing her to be troubled with strange whimsies; but
then she told him of the secret which her appearing
mistriss, the gentleman's sister, had revealed; upon which
he presently changed his countenance, and told her he
would give the poor their own, which accordingly he did,
and they now enjoy it. Dr. Bretton himself (being a
person of great sincerity) gave a large narrative of his
wives apparition to several, and, amongst others, to
Dr. Whichcot; and this narrative was attested unto by
Mr. Edward Fowler, Feb. 16, 1680. See Mr. Glanvil's
Collection of Relations, p. 197.
In the same book, p. 243, he relates concerning one
Francis Taverner, that in September, 1662, riding late at
night from Hilbrough in Ireland, there appeared to him
one in the likeness of James Haddock, formerly an inhabi-
tant in Malone, where he died five years before. Taverner
asked him who he was; the spectre replied, I am James
APPARITIONS.
159
Haddock; you may call me to mind by this token, that
about five years ago, I and two other friends were at your
fathers house, and you by your fathers appointment
brought us some nuts, therefore be not afraid; and told
him if he would ride along with him he would acquaint
him with a business he had to deliver to him. Which
Taverner refused to do: upon his going from the spectre,
he heard hideous scrieches and noises, to his great amaze
ment. The night after there appeared again to him, the
likeness of James Haddock, telling him, that the woman
who had been his wife, when living, was now married
unto one Davis in Malone; and that the said Davis and
his wife wronged the son of James Haddock; and that
the will of Haddock, who had given a lease to his son,
was not fulfilled; and therefore he desired Taverner to
acquaint them therewith, and to see his son righted.
Taverner neglected to deliver his message, whereupon the
spectre appeared again unto him in divers formidable.
shapes, threatning to tear him in pieces, if he did not do
as he was required. This made him leave his house
where he dwelt in the mountains and remove to the town
of Belfast, where it appeared to him again in the house.
of one Pierce, severely threatning of him. Upon which
Taverner, being much troubled in his spirit, acquainted
some of his friends with his perplexity. They take
advice from Dr. Downs, then minister in Belfast, and
Mr. James South, chaplain to the Lord Chichester, who
went with Taverner to the house of Davis, and in their
presence he declared to her, that he could not be quiet
for the ghost of her former husband James Haddock, who
threatened to tear him in pieces, if he did not tell her
she must right John Haddock her son by him, in a lease
160
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
wherein she and Davis her now husband had wronged
him. Two nights after, the spectre came to him again,
looking pleasantly upon him, asking if he had done the
message? ? He answered, he had. Then he was told, he
must do the like to the executors. The day following
Dr. Jeremie Taylor, bishop of Down, Connor, and Dro-
more, being to keep court at Dromore, ordered his
Secretary (Thomas Alcock) to send for Taverner, who
accordingly came, and was strictly examined. The bishop
advised him, the next time the spectre appeared to him,
to ask him these questions : "Whence are you? Are
you a good or bad spirit? where is your abode ? what
station do you hold? How are you regimented in the
other world? And what is the reason that you appear
for the relief of your son in so small a matter, when so
many widows and orphans are oppressed in the world, and
none of their relations appear as you do to right them?"
That night Taverner lodged at my Lord Conways, where
he saw the spectre coming over a wall; and approaching
near to him, asked if he had done his message to the
executor also? He replied, he had, and wondered that he
should be still troubled. The apparition bid him not be
afraid, for it would not hurt him, nor appear to him any
more, but to the executor, if the orphan were not righted.
Taverners brother being by, put him in mind to propound
the bishops questions to the spirit; which he did; but the
spectre gave no answer to them; only seemed to crawl
on his hands and feet over the wall again, and vanished
with a melodious harmony. The persons concerned about
the lease (much against their wills) disposed of it for the
use of Haddock's son, only for fear lest the apparition
should molest them also. Thus concerning this. Before
APPARITIONS.
161
I pass to the next relation, I cannot but animadvert upon
what is here expressed, concerning the questions which
the bishop would needs have propounded to, and resolved
by this spectre. I am perswaded that the Apostle Paul,
who speaks of a mans intruding into those things which he
hath not seen, Col. ii, 18, would hardly have given such
counsel as the bishop did. One of his questions (viz.
“Are you a good or a bad spirit?”) seems to be a needless
and impertinent enquiry; for good angels never appear in
the shape of dead men ; but evil and wicked spirits have
oftentimes done so. His other queries savour too much of
vain curiosity; they bring to mind what is by that great
historian, Thuanus (lib. cxxx, page 1136), reported con-
cerning Peter Cotton the Jesuit, who, having a great
desire to be satisfied about some questions which no man
living could resolve him in, he applied himself to a maid
who was possessed with a devil, charging the spirit in her
to resolve his proposals; some of which were relating to
this world, e.g., he desired the devil, if he could, to tell
him when Calvinism would be extinguished? and what
would be the most effectual means to turn the kingdome
of England from the Protestant to the Popish religion?
what would be the issue of the wars and great designs
then on foot in the world? Other of his enquiries
respected the old world: e.g. How Noah could take the
living creatures that were brought into the ark? who
those sons of God were who loved the daughters of men
whether serpents went upon feet before Adam's fall? &c..
Some of his questions respected the other world. He
would have the spirit to resolve him, How long the fallen.
angels were in heaven before they were cast down from:
thence? And what is the most evident place in the
11
162
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
Scripture to prove that there is a purgatory? Who are
the seven spirits who stand before the throne of God?
Who is the king of the arch-angels? Where Paradise is?
Now, let the reader judge whether Dr. Taylor's questions,
when he would have the spectre resolve him, "Where is
your abode? What station do you hold? How are you
regimented in the other world" &c. be not as curious as
some of these of the Jesuits. Wise men thought it tended
much to the disreputation of Peter Cotton, when, through
his incogitant leaving the book wherein his enquiries of
the dæmon were written with a friend, the matter came
to be divulged. I cannot think that Dr. Taylor's secretary
his publishing these curiosities of his lord hath added
much to his credit amongst sober and judicious persons.
There is a tragical passage related in the story of the
dæmon, which for three moneths molested the house of
Mr. Perreaud, a Protestant minister in Matiscon. One in
the room would needs be propounding needless questions
for the devil to answer, though Mr. Perreaud told him of
the danger in it. After a deal of discourse, the devil
said to him, "You should have hearkened to the ministers
good counsel, who told you that you ought not to ask
curious questions of the devil; yet you would do it, and
now I must school you for your pains." Presently upon
which, the man was by an invisible hand plucked up by
his thumb, and twirled round, and thrown down upon the
floor, and so continued in most grievous misery. I hope,
then, that none will be emboldened from the bishops
advice, to enquire at the mouth of devils or of apparitions,
until such time as they know whether they are devils or
But to pass on.
no.
That the ghosts of dead persons have sometimes
APPARITIONS.
163
appeared, that so the sin of murder (as well as that of
theft) might be discovered, is a thing notoriously known.
I shall only mention two or three examples for this; and
the rather because some who are very unapt to believe
things of this nature, yet have given credit to those rela-
tions. Two of the stories are recited by Mr. Webster in
his Book of Witchcraft. He saith (p. 297) :—
"That about the year 1623, one Fletcher, of Raskelf, a
town in the North Riding of Yorkshire, a yeoman of a good
estate, married a woman from Thornton Brigs, who had
formerly been naught with one Ralph Raynard, who kept
an inn within half a mile from Raskelf, in the high road
betwixt York and Thirsk, his sister living with him.
This Raynard, continuing in unlawful lust with Fletcher's
wife, and not being content therewith, conspired the death
of Fletcher; one Mark Dunn being made privy, and hired
to assist in the murther; which Raynard and Dunn accom-
plished upon May Day, by drowning him, as they were
travelling all three together from a town called Huby,
and acquainted the wife with the deed; she gave them a
sack therein to convey his body, which they did, and
buried it in Raynard's back side, or croft, where an old
oak had been stubbed up, and sowed mustard-seed in the
place, thereby to hide it. They then continued their
wicked course of lust and drunkenness; and the neigh-
bours did much wonder at Fletchers absence; but his wife
excused it, and said, 'he was only gone aside, for fear of
some writs being served upon him;' and so it continued till
about July 7 after, when Raynard going to Topcliff fair, and
setting up his horse in the stable, the spirit of Fletcher, in
his usual shape and habit, did appear unto him, and said,
'O Ralph! repent! repent! for my revenge is at hand!'
11a
164
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES
and ever after, until he was put in the gaol, the spirit
seemed continually to stand before him, whereby he became
sad and restless; and his own sister, overhearing his con-
fession and relation of it to another person, did, through
fear of losing her own life, immediately reveal it to Sir
William Sheffield, who lived in Raskelf; whereupon Ray-
nard, Dunn and the wife, were all three apprehended, and
sent to the gaol at York, where they were condemned and
executed, near the place where Raynard lived and Fletcher
was buried; the two men being hung up in chains, and
the woman burned under the gallows. I have recited this
story punctually, as a thing that hath been very much
fixed on my memory (being then but young), and a certain
truth, I being (with many more) an ear-witness of their
confessions, and eye-witness of their executions, and like-
wise saw Fletcher when he was taken up, where they had
buried him in his clothes, which were a green fustian
doublet pinckt upon white, and his walking boots, and
brass spurs, without rowels." Thus Mr. Webster.
Again the same author (p. 298) relates-
"That about the year 1632, there lived one Walker,
near Chester, who was a yeoman of a good estate, and a
widower; he had a young kinswoman to keep his house,
who was by the neighbours suspected to be with child, and
was sent away one evening in the dark with one Mark
Sharp, a collier, and was not heard of, nor little notice
taken of her, till a long time after, one James Grayham,
a miller, who lived two miles from Walker's house, being
one night alone very late in his mill, grinding corn, about
twelve a clock at night, the doors being shut, there stood
a woman in the midst of the floor, with her hair hanging
down all bloody, and five large wounds in her head. He
APPARITIONS.
165
was very much frighted, yet had the courage to ask her
who she was, and what she wanted? To whom she
answered, 'I am the spirit of such a woman, who lived
with Walker; and being got with child by him, he pro-
mised to send me to a private place, where I should be
well lookt to till I was brought a bed and well, and then
I should come again and keep his house; and, accordingly'
(said the apparition), 'I was one night late sent away with
one Mark Sharp, who upon a moor' (naming a place which
the miller knew) 'slew me with a pick such as men dig
coals withal, and gave me these five wounds, and after
threw my body into a coal pit hard by, and hid the pick
under the bank; and his shoes and stockins being bloody,
he endeavoured to wash them, but seeing the blood would
not wash off, he left them there.' And the apparition
further told the miller, that he must be the man to
reveal it, or else she must still appear and haunt him.
The miller returned home very sad and heavy, but spake
not one word of what he had seen, yet eschewed as much
as he could to stay in the mill in the night without com-
pany, thinking thereby to escape the seeing this dreadful
apparition. But, notwithstanding, one night when it
began to be dark, the apparition met him again, and
seemed very fierce and cruel, and threatning him, that if he
did not reveal the murder she would continually pursue
and haunt him; yet, for all this, he still concealed it,
until St. Thomas Eve before Christmas, when being, soon
after sunset, walking in his garden, she appeared again,
and then so threatned and affrighted him, that he pro-
mised faithfully to reveal it the next morning. In the
morning he went to a magistrate and discovered the whole
matter, with all the circumstances; and, diligent search
166
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
being made, the body was found in a coal-pit, with five
wounds in the head, and the pick and shoes and stockins,
yet bloody, and in every circumstance as the apparition
had related to the miller. Whereupon Walker and Mark
Sharp were both apprehended, but would confess nothing.
At the assizes following (I think it was at Durham) they
were arraigned, found guilty, and hanged; but I could
never hear that they confessed the fact. It was reported
that the apparition did appear to the judge, or the
foreman of the jury, but of that I know no certainty.
There are many persons yet alive that can remember this
strange murder; and I saw and read the letter which was
sent to Serjeant Hutton about it from the judge before
whom they were tried, which maketh me relate it with
greater confidence."
Thus far we have Mr. Webster's relations.
It is also credibly attested, that a thing no less remark-
able than either of the former hapned but nine years ago
at another place in England. The sum of the story, as it
is published in Mr. Glanvil's Collection of Relations,
p. 172, is this:
On the 9th of November, 1674, Thomas Goddard, of
Marlborough, in the county of Wilts, as he was going to
Ogborn, about 9h. A.M. he met the apparition of his
father-in-law, Edward Avon, who had been dead about
half a year.
He seemed to stand by the stile which
Goddard was to go over. When he came near, the spectre
spake to him with an audible voice, saying, "Are you
afraid?" to whom he answered, "I am thinking of one
who is dead and buried, whom you are like." To which
the apparition replied, "I am he: come near me, I will do
APPARITIONS.
167
you no harm."
To which Goddard replied, "I trust in
Him who hath bought my soul with his precious blood,
you shall do me no harm." Then the spectre said, “How
stand cases at home?" Goddard asked, "What cases?"
Then it asked him, "How doth William and Mary?" mean-
ing belike, his son William and his daughter Mary, whom
this Goddard had married. And it said, "What? Taylor
is dead!" meaning, as Goddard thought, one of that name
in London, who had married another of Avon's daughters,
and died in September before this. The spectre offered
him some money, desiring it might be sent to his daughter,
that was lately become a widow; but Goddard answered,
"In the name of Jesus Christ I refuse all such money."
Then the apparition said, "I perceive you are afraid; I
will meet you some other time." So it went away. The
next night about 7h. it came and opened his shop-window,
and looked him in the face, but said nothing; and the
next night after, as Goddard went into his back-side, with
a candle light in his hand; but he, being affrighted, ran
into his house, and saw it no more at that time. But on
Thursday, November 12, as he came from Chilton, the
apparition met him again, and stood (about eight foot)
directly before him, and said with a loud voice, "Thomas,
bid William Avon take the sword which he had of me,
which is now in his house, and carry to the wood as we
goe to Alton, to the upper end of the wood by the wayes
side; for with that sword I did wrong above thirty years
ago and he never prospered since twas his. And do you
speak with Edward Lawrence, and I desire you to pay
him twenty shillings out of the money which you received
of James Eliot at two payments; for I borrowed so much
money of Edward Lawrence, and said that I had paid him,
168
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
but I did not pay it him." This money was received of
James Eliot on a bond due to Avon, and Goddard had it
at two payments after Avon had been dead several moneths.
Lawrence saith that he lent Avon twenty shillings in
money about twenty years ago, which was never paid him
again. November 23, Goddard did, by order from the
mayor of the town, go with his brother-in-law, William
Avon, with the sword to the place where the apparition
said it should be carried. And coming away thence,
Goddard looking back saw the same apparition, where-
upon he called to his brother-in-law and said,
"Here is
the apparition of your father!" William replied, "I see
nothing." Then Goddard fell upon his knees, and said,
Lord, open his eyes that he may see.” But William said,
.66
Lord, grant that I may not see it, if it be thy blessed
will." Then the ghost did, to Goddard's apprehension,
becken with his hand. To whom Goddard said, "What
would you have me to do?" The apparition replied,
"Take up the sword and follow me." To which he said,
"Should both of us come, or but one of us?" The spectre
replied, "Thomas, do you take up the sword." So he
took it up, and followed the apparition about ten poles
into the wood. Then the spectre coming towards Goddard,
he stept back two steps; but it said to him, "I have a
permission to you, and a commission not to touch you."
Then it took the sword, and went to the place at which
before it stood, and pointed the top of the sword into the
ground, and said, "In this place was buried the body of
him whom I murdered in the year 1635, but it is now
rotten and turned to dust." Whereupon Goddard said,
"For what cause did you murder him?" The seeming
Avon replied, "I took money from the man, and he con-
APPARITIONS.
169
tended with me, and so I murdered him." Then Goddard
said, "Who was confederate with you in the murder?"
The spectre answered, "None but myself." "What," said
Goddard, "would you have me do in this thing?" The
apparition replied, "Only to let the world know that I
murdered a man, and buried him in this place, in the year
1635." Then the spectre laid down the sword on the
bare ground there, whereupon grew nothing, but seemed
to Goddard to be as a grave sunk in. All this while
William Avon remained where Goddard left him, and said
he saw no apparition, only heard Goddard speak to the
spectre, and discerned another voice also, making reply to
Goddard's enquiries, but could not understand the words
uttered by that voice. The next day the mayor caused
men to dig in the place where the spectre said the body
was buried, but nothing could be found.
These examples then, show that the ghosts of dead
men do sometimes appear, and that for such causes as
those mentioned. There have been some in the world so
desperate as to make solemn covenants with their living
friends to appear unto them after their death; and some-
times (though not alwayes) it hath come to pass. It is
a remarkable passage which Baronius relates concerning
Marsilius Ficinus and his great intimate, Michael Mercatus.
These two, having been warmly disputing about the immor-
tality of the soul, entered into a solemn vow, that if there
were truth in those notions about a future state in another
world, he which died first should appear to his surviving
friend. Not long after this Ficinus died. On a morning
when Mercatus was intent upon his studies, he heard the
voice of Ficinus his friend at his window, with a loud cry,
saying, "O Michael! Michael! Vera, vera sunt illa: O, my
170
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
friend Michael, those notions about the souls of men being
immortal, they are true! they are true!" Whereupon
Mercatus opened his window, and saw his friend Marsilius
Ficinus, whom he called unto, but he vanished away. He
presently sent to Florence to know how Ficinus did, and
was informed that he died about the hour when his ghost
appeared at Mercatus his window.
There are also later instances, and nearer home, not
altogether unlike to this; for in Mr. Glanvil's late Collec-
tion of Relations (which we have had occasion more than
once to mention), it is said that Dr. Farrar and his
daughter made a compact, that the first of them which
died, if happy, should after death appear to the surviver,
if possible: his daughter with some difficulty consenting
to the agreement. Some time after, the daughter, living
then near Salisbury, fell in labour; and, having by an
unhappy mistake a noxious potion given to her instead of
another prepared, suddenly died. That very night she
appeared in the room where her father then lodged, in
London, and opening the curtains looked upon him. He
had before heard nothing of her illness, but upon this
apparition confidently told his servant, that his daughter
was dead, and two dayes after received the news.
Likewise, one Mr. Watkinson, who lived in Smithfield,
told his daughter (taking her leave of him, and expressing
her fears that she should never see him more), that should
he die, if ever God did permit the dead to see the living,
he would see her again. Now, after he had been dead
about half a year, on a night when she was in bed but
could not sleep, she heard musick, and the chamber grew
lighter and lighter; she then saw her father by the bed
side, who said, "Mall, did not I tell thee that I would see
APPARITIONS.
171
thee again?" He exhorted her to be patient under her
afflictions, and to carry it dutiful towards her mother;
and told her that her child that was born since his
departure should not trouble her long; and bid her speak
what she would speak to him now, for he must go, and
she should see him no more upon earth. Vide Glanvil's
Collections, pp. 189-192. Sometimes the great and holy
God hath permitted, and by his providence ordered, such
apparitions, to the end that atheists might thereby be
astonished and affrighted out of their infidelity.
3
Nam primus timor fecit in orbe Deos.
Remarkable and very solemn is the relation of the
appearance of Major Sydenham's ghost mentioned in the
book but now cited (p. 181): it is in brief this:-Major
George Sydenham of Dulverton in Somerset, and Captain
William Dyke of Skillgate in that county, used to have
many disputes about the being of God, and the immor-
tality of the soul; in which point they continued unre-
solved. To issue their controversies, they agreed that he
that died first should, the third night after his funeral,
between the hours of twelve and one, appear at a little
house in the garden. After Sydenham was dead, Captain
Dyke repairs to the place appointed between them two.
He acquainted a near kinsman, Dr. Thomas Dyke, with
his design, by whom he was earnestly disswaded from
going to that place at that time; and was told that the
devil might meet him and be his ruine, if he would venture
on in such rash attempts. The captain replied that he
had solemnly engaged, and nothing should discourage
him. Accordingly, betwixt twelve and one he went into
the garden-house, and there tarried two or three hours
1
172
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES
((
without seeing or hearing any thing more than what was
usual. About six weeks after, Captain Dyke rides to
Eaton, to place his son a scholar there. The morning
before he returned from thence, after it was light, one
came to his bed-side, and, suddenly drawing back the
curtains, calls, "Cap! Cap!" (which was the term of
familiarity which the major when living used to call the
captain by). He presently perceived it was his major, and
replieth, "What, my major!" On the table in the room
there lay a sword which the major had formerly given to
the captain. After the seeming major had walked a turn
or two about the room, he took up the sword, and drew
it out, and not finding it so bright and clean as it ought,
Cap! Cap!" said he, "this sword did not use to be kept
after this manner when it was mine." He also said to the
captain, "I could not come to you at the time appointed ;
but I am now come to tell you that there is a God, and
that he is a very just and a terrible God, and if you do
not turn over a new leaf you will find it so." So did he
suddenly disappear. The captain arose and came into
another chamber (where his kinsman, Dr. Dyke, lodged);
but in a visage and form much differing from himself, his
hair standing, his eyes staring, and his whole body
trembling, telling with much affection what he had seen.
The captain lived about two years after this, but was
much altered in his conversation, the words uttered by
his majors ghost ever sounding in his ears. Thus of that
remarkable providence.
+
I have not mentioned these things, as any way
approving of such desperate covenants; there is great
hazard attending them. It may be, after men have made
APPARITIONS.
173
such agreements, devils may appear to them, pretending to
be their deceased friends, and thereby their souls may be
drawn into woful snares. Who knoweth whether God will
permit the persons, who have thus confederated, to appear
in this world again after their death? and if not, then the
surviver will be under great temptation unto atheism; as
it fell out with the late Earl of Rochester, who (as is
reported in his Life, p. 16, by Dr. Burnet) did, in the year
1665, enter into a formal ingagement with another gen
tleman, not without ceremonies of religion, that if either
of them died, he should appear and give the other notice
of the future state, if there were any. After this the other
gentleman was killed, but did never appear after his death
to the Earl of Rochester, which was a great snare to him
during the rest of his life. Though when God awakened
the earl's conscience upon his death-bed, he could not but
acknowledge that one who had so corrupted the natural
principles of truth as he had, had no reason to expect that
such an extraordinary thing should be done for his convic-
tion. Or, if such agreement should necessitate an appari-
tion, how would the world be confounded with spectres;
how many would probably be scared out of their wits; or
what curious questions would vain men be proposing
about things which are (and it is meet they should be) hid
from mortals! I cannot think that men who make such
covenants (except it be with very much caution, as I have
heard that Mr. Knewstubs and another eminent person
did) are duely mindful of that Scripture, Deut. xxix, 29,
"The secret things belong to the Lord; but those things
which are revealed belong to us." Moreover, such sights
are not desirable; for many times they appear as fore-
runners of notable judgements at hand. I could instance
*
74
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
out of approved history, how particular families have
found that things of this nature have come to them as the
messengers of death. Lavater, in his book de Spectris,
and Goulartius, in his Select History, say, that spectres are
the harbingers of publick mutations, wars, and calamitous
times. Voetius, in his disputation, de Peste, sheweth that
sometimes the plague or strange diseases follow after such
appearances. There was lately a very formidable appari-
tion at Meenen. We are advised, that there did appear in
that place a person all in white, with a mitre on his head,
being followed with two more in black; after him came
four or five squadrons, who drew up as if they intended
to storm the town. The souldiers there refused to stand
their centry, having been so affrighted as that some of
them fell down in their posts. These spectres appeared
every night in June, 1682. How it is there since that,
or what events have followed in that place, I know not;
but I find in credible authors, that oftentimes mischief and
destruction unto some or other hath been the effect of
apparitions. Luther tells us of a shepherd (of whom also
he speaketh charitably) that, being haunted with a spirit,
the apparition told him, that after eight dayes he would
appear to him again, and carry him away and kill him;
and so it came to pass. The ministers whom the poor
man acquainted with his sorrowful estate, advised him not
to despair of the salvation of his soul, though God should
suffer the devil to kill his body. I have read of threescore
persons all killed at once by an apparition. George
Agricola giveth an account of twelve men, that as they
were digging in the mines, a spectre slew them. Some
have been filled with such anxiety at the appearance of a
spectre, that in one nights time the hair of their heads has
APPARITIONS.
175
turned white. Lavater speaketh of a man, who one night
meeting with an apparition, the terror of it caused such a
sudden change in him, as that when he came home his
own children did not know him. We may then conclude
that the witlings of this drolling age know not what they
do, when they make themselves sport with subjects of this
nature. I shall only add this further here, that from the
things which have been related, it is evident that they are
mistaken who suppose devils cannot appear to men except
with some deformities whereby they are easily discovered.
The nymphs which deluded many of old, when the world
was buried under heathenism, were dæmons, presenting
themselves in shapes very formose. Vide Martinii Lexic.
in verbo Nymphæ.


33
3 21:1:
CHAPTER VIII.
SEVERAL CASES OF CONSCIENCE CONSIDERED.
That it is not lawful to make use of herbs or plants to drive away evil
spirits; nor of words or characters. An objection answered. Whether
it be lawful for porsons bewitched to burn things, or to nail horse-shoes
before their doors, or to stop urin in bottles, or the like, in order to the
recovery of health. The negative proved by several arguments. Whether
it be lawful to try witches by casting them into the water. Several
reasons evincing the vanity of that way of probation, Some other
superstitions witnessed against.
'HE preceding relations about witchcrafts and
diabolical impostures give us too just occasion
to make enquiry into some cases of conscience,
respecting things of this nature. And in the
first place the quære may be :

W
Whither it is lawful to make use of any sort of herbs
or plants to preserve from witchcrafts, or from the power
of evil spirits? The answer unto which is: That it is in
no wise lawful, but that all attempts of that nature are
magical and diabolical, and therefore detestable super-
stition; as appears-1. In that if the devils do either
operate or cease to do mischief upon the use of such
things, it must needs be in that they are signs which give
notice to the evil spirits what they are to do. Now, for
men to submit to any of the devils sacraments is implicitly
to make a covenant with him. Many who practise these
176
CONSCIENCE.
177
nefarious vanities little think what they do. They would
not for the world (they say) make a covenant with the
devil; yet, by improving the devils signals, with an
opinion of receiving benefit thereby, they do the thing
which they pretend to abhor. For, 2. Angels (bad as well
as good) are by nature incorporeal substances. There are
some authors, who by a corporeal substance intend no
more but a real being; so that the term is by them used
in opposition to meer phantasms in that sence; none but
Sadduces will deny angels to be corporeal; and in that
respect the antient doctors, Tertullian and others, call
them corpora.
But commonly a body is set in opposition
to a meer spiritual substance, Mat. x, 28; Heb. xii, 13;
and thus it is certain that dæmons are incorporeal, Eph.
vi, 12. They are frequently, not only by authors, but in
the Holy Scripture, stiled spirits, because of their being
incorporeal. And thence it is that they are not visible or
palpable, or any way incurring the outward sences, Luke
xxiv, 39. Homer saith, that when the ghost of Anticlea
appeared to Ulysses, he attempted three times to embrace
that image, but could feel nothing, for it had not σapkas
kai dorea, but, as Virgil expresseth it, tenues sine corpore
vitas. Cajetan and Vasquez affirm that apparitions can at
no time be felt. It is not to be doubted but that spirits
may make use of vehicles that are subject to the outward.
senses; nevertheless, a meer spirit cannot be touched by
humane hands. Moreover, we read of a legion of dæmons
possessing one miserable body, Luke viii, 30. A legion is
at least 6000; now, if they were corporeal substances, it.
could not be that so many of them should be in the same
person at the same time; and if they are incorporeal sub-
stances, then it is not possible that herbs or any sensible
12
178
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
objects should have a natural influence upon them as they
have upon elementary bodies. This argument is of such
weight, as that of Porphyrius and other heathenish authors,
who affirm that dæmons are affected with smells, and with
blood, &c. suppose them to have aereal bodies; so do
some Talmudical and cabalistical writers; they hold that
there are a middle sort of devils made of fire and air, who
live upon the liquidity of the air and the smoke of fire,
&c. These are called . Munster, in his notes on
Lev. xvii, does, out of R. Abraham, cite many passages to
this purpose; but such Jewish fables are so foolish as that
they need no confutation. And as the argument we have
mentioned is a sufficient refutation of them that imagine
a natural vertue to be in herbs, whereby evil spirits are
driven away; so may it be improved against their supersti-
tion, who suppose that fumes are of force to expel dæmons.
The author of the book of Tobit, chap. vi, tells a tale that
the heart and liver of a fish, if a smoke be made therewith,
the devil will smell it, and then be forced to flee away
from any one that shall be troubled with an evil spirit;
and that Tobit following the counsel which Raphael gave
him about these matters, the devil was fain to run for it
as far as to the utmost parts of Egypt, chap. viii, ver. 2, 3.
This passage is so far from being divine as that indeed it
is prophane and magical; whereas the author saith, that
whoever is troubled with an evil spirit shall by that means
find relief; he does expressly contradict the Son of God,
who has taught otherwise, Matt. xvii, 21; Mark ix, 28.
And his ascribing such vertue to the heart of a fish is as
true as what Cornelius Agrippa saith, who affirms that the
gall of a black dog will drive away evil spirits, and free
from witchcrafts. And there is as much credit to be given
CONSCIENCE.
179
:
警
​to these things as to another Jewish fable, viz, that the
clapping of a cocks wings will make the power of dæmons
to become ineffectual; yet that this fable hath obtained
too much credit in the world is evident by words of
Prudentius, who saith-
Ferunt vagantes Dæmonas,
Lætos tenebros noctium
Gallo canente exterritos
Sparsim timere et cedere.
3. God, in his Holy Word, has forbidden his people to
imitate the heathen nations. He requires that those who
profess his Name should not learn the way of the heathen,
nor do after their manners, Lev. xx, 23; Jer. x, 2. But
to attempt the driving away of evil spirits by the use of
herbs, fumes, &c. is an heathenish custom. Whoso shall
read Proclus his book, de Sacrificio et Magia, will see how
the Ethnicks taught that smells and smokes would cause
dæmons to depart; and the like they believed (and prac-
tised accordingly) with respect unto several sorts of
herbs. See Sennertus Med. Pract. 1. vi, part 9, cap. 7.
Dioscorides, being deceived with the doctrine of that great
magician, Pythagoras, saith, that the sea-onion being hung
in the porch of an house will keep evil spirits from entring
therein. In that book which passeth under the name of
Albertus Magnus de Mirabilibus Mundi (though Picus
Mirandula, in his disputation about magick, is so favour-
able as to think Albertus was not the author of it, but that
the true author has abusively prefixed Albertus his name),
there are many superstitious vanities of this nature, which,
in times of Popish darkness, were received from the
Arabians and other heathenish worshippers of the devil.
It is true that the Jews did some of them practise this kind
12a
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REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
of magick. Josephus (Antiq. lib. viii, cap. 2) confesseth,
that those of their nation (in special, one whose name was
Eleazar), did, by holding an herb (viz. that called "Solo-
mon's seal”) to the noses of dæmoniacks, draw the devils
out of them. He speaketh untruly in saying that they
learned such nefarious arts from Solomon, for they had
them from the heathen, who received them from the devil
himself; as is evident from another passage in the men-
tioned Josephus. In his History of the Wars with the
Jews. lib. vii, cap. 25, he says, that there is a root, by the
Jews called baaras, which if a man pluck it up he dieth.
presently; but to prevent that, they make bare the root,
and then tye it with a string to a dog, who, going away
to follow his master, easily plucks up the root, whereupon
the dog dieth; but his master may then, without danger
handle the root, and thereby fright the devils out of persons
possessed with infernal spirits; whom he (in that also
following the heathen) supposes to be the spirits of wicked
men deceased. And that the Jews received these curious
or rather cursed arts from Ethnics, is manifest, inasmuch.
as Pliny taught that the herb called Aglaophotis had
power to raise the gods (so did they call the devils whom
they served). Now that was the same herb with baaras ;
for as Delacampius, Rainold, and others have observed,
both names have the same signification. So then the
making use of herbs to fright away devils, or to preserve
from the power of witches, is originally an heathenish
custome, and, therefore, that which ought to be avoided
and abhorred by those that call themselves Christians.
It is no less superstitious when men endeavour by
characters, words, or spells, to charm away witches, devils,
or diseases. Such persons do (as Fuller speaks) fence
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181
themselves with the devils shield against the devils sword.
Agrippa, in his book, de Occulta Philosophia, has many
of these impious curiosities. But in his book of The
Vanity of Sciences, chap. xlviii, he acknowledgeth that he
wrote his other book of Occult Philosophy when he was a
young man, and bewails his iniquity therein, confessing
that he had sinfully mispent precious time in those unpro-
fitable studies. There is also an horrid book full of con-
jurations and magical incantations, which the prophane
author hath ventured to publish under the name of King
Solomon. There cannot be a greater vanity than to imagine
that devils are really frighted with words and syllables:
such practices are likewise of diabolical and heathenish
original. They that have read subjects of this nature are
not ignorant of what is related concerning the strange
things done by the incantations of that famous wizard,
Apollonius. The like has been also noted of the Brack-
manes of old, who were much given to such unlawful arts.
It is still customary amongst the heathenish Africans, by
incantations, to charm serpents; which, when they are in
that way brought to them by the devil, they use with the
blood of such serpents to anoint their weapons, that so
they may become the more mortiferous. And that the
like incantations were practised among the Gentiles of old,
is evident from that verse of Virgil in his 8th Eclog.,
Frigidus in pratis cantando rumpitur anguis.
As also by that of Ovid in Metam. lib. vii,
Viperias rumpi verbis et carmina fauces.
Yea, the Holy Scriptures intimate, that such diabolical prac--
tices were used by some in the dayes of old: those words
of David, Psalm lviii, 4, 5, imply no less, as our excellent
182
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES
•
Rainold has, with great learning and judgement, evinced.
It must be acknowledged that the notion which many
have from Austin taken up, as if serpents, to avoid the
power of charms would lay one ear to the ground, and
with their tails stop the other ear, is to be reckoned
amongst vulgar errors; nevertheless, that there were
then charmers in the world, the mentioned (as well as
other) scriptures notifie. Moreover, those inchanters had
their formula, whereby they did imprecate the persons
whom they designed hurt unto; and the devil (when the
great and holy God saw meet to permit him) would, upon
the using of those words, go to work and do strange
things. Hence Livy speaks of the devotaria carmina used
by wizards. The truth of this is also manifest from some
passages in Æschines his Oration against Ctesiphon. And
of this nature were Balaam's curses, desired by Baalak, as
enchantments against Jacob, Numb. xxii, 6, and xxiii, 23.
If it had not been a thing famously known, that Balaam
(a black wizard) did mischief others by his incantations,
the king of Moab would never have sent to him for that
end. And as witchcrafts of this kind were frequent among
the Gentiles who knew not God, so, in a more especial
manner, amongst the Ephesians, before they were enlight-
ened by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Upon their con-
version to the Christian faith, as many as had used curious
(i.e. as the Syriac translation rightly interprets magical)
arts, brought their books together, and burned them
before all men, Acts xix, 19; which sheweth that Ephesus
did once abound with these heathenish superstitions.
They pretended that they could by certain words cure
diseases, eject devils, &c. Hence, it became a proverbial
phrase to say Εφέσια γραμματα, when magical spells and
1
CONSCIENCE.
183
1
incantations were intended. Hesychius mentions some of
those charms being obscure and barbarous words; such as
ασκι, κατα κι, αιξ, τετραξ, &c. These words they would
sometimes carry about with them, fairly written; and
then they were a sacrament for the devil to operate by.
That insignificant word, Abrodacara, is by Sammonicus
mentioned as a magical spell; which hobgoblin word the
late miracle-monger or Mirabilarian stroaker in Ireland,
Valentin Greatrix, attempted to cure an ague
ague by.
Porphyrius saith that the Egyptians had symbols which
Serapis appointed them to use in order to the driving
away dæmons.
Now, he whom the Egyptians called
Serapis, is by the Greeks called Pluto, and by the Jews
Belzebub; and, as the heathen learned such things from
Belzebub, so have the Papists (who are called Gentiles in
the Scripture, Rev. xi, 2; and well they may be so, since.
as to all manner of idolatry and superstition they gentilize)
from them learned to cure diseases, and drive away evil
spirits by words and spells, exorcizations, &c. Matthiolus
reports that he knew a man that would, and that without
seeing the persons wounded, by charms heal those that
were stung with deadly serpents; and Fernelius saith that
he has seen some curing a feaver only by muttering words,
without the use of any natural means.
Not only pos-
sessed heathen, but Papists, have, by reciting certain
verses, been wont to cure other diseases; yea, they have
practised to free persons from the epilepsie, by mentioning
the names of the three kings of Colon (as the wise men
which came from the East are usually called). Hence are
those celebrated verses:-
Hæc tria qui sécum portabit nomina regum
Solvitur a morbo Christi pietate caduco.
184
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
It is too well known that Popish countries do still
abound with such superstitious vanities as these men-
tioned. And as Voetius (in his dissertation, de Exorcismo)
truly tells them, the exorcizations of the Papists are as like
those of the heathen as milk is like to milk, or as one egg
is like to another. I know that some Popish authors (who
are more ingenious) write against attempting the cure of
diseases by words or charms. Fernelius, Benevenius, and
(as I remember) Valesius, disapprove of it; but few (if
any) of them are against conjuring away evil spirits by
words, and I know not what formulæ of their own, or
rather of the devils inventing. One of them (viz.
Hieronymus Mengus), having published a book filled with
conjurations, entituleth it The Scourge of Devils. It adds
to the abomination when men shall not only break the
first and second commandment, but the third also, by
making use of any of the sacred names or titles belonging
to the glorious God, or to his Son Jesus Christ, as
charms; then which nothing is more frequent amongst
Romanists. To conclude, God in his word doth with the
highest severity condemn all such practices, declaring not
only that enchanters and charmers are not to be tolerated
amongst his people, but that all who do such things are an
abomination to him, Deut. xviii, 10, 11, 12. The Jews
are wont to be extreamly charitable towards those of their
own nation, affirming, "That every Isrealite shall have a
part in the world to come;" only they except such as
shall by incantations heal diseases. There are some that
practise such things in their simplicity, not knowing that
therein they gratifie the devil. Voetius, in his disputation,
de Magia, p. 576, speaks of one that, according to the
vain conversation received by tradition from forefathers,
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185
would sometimes attempt things of this nature; but upon
Voetius his instructing him concerning the sin and evil
which was therein, the man durst never more do as
formerly. If this discourse fall into the hands of any
whose consciences tell them they have been guilty of the
same iniquity, God grant that it may have the same effect
on them. It is a marvelous and an amazing thing, that
in such a place as New England, where the Gospel hath
shined with great power and glory, any should be so
blind as to make attempts of this kind; yet some such I
know there have been. A man in Boston gave to one a
sealed paper as an effectual remedy against the tooth-ach,
wherein were drawn several confused characters, and these
words written, "In nomine Patris, Filii, et Spiritus Sancti,
preserve thy servant (such an one)." Bodinus and others
write of a convicted witch, whose name was Barbary
Dore, that confessed she had often cured diseases by
using the like words unto those mentioned. Not long
since a man left with another in this town, as a rare
secret, a cure for the ague, which was this: five letters
viz. K₁ α.
&c. were to be written successively on pieces of
bread, and given to the patient; on one piece he must
write the word Kalendant, and so on another the next
day; and in five dayes (if he did believe) he should not
fail of cure. These considerations have made me the more
willing a little to inlarge upon the argument in hand.
But before I proceed to handle the next case it may not
be amiss to answer that which seems the most considerable
allegation against the arguments thus far insisted on. It
is then by some objected that musick driveth away evil
spirits; for when David took an harp and played with his
hand the evil spirit departed from Saul, 1 Sam. xvi, 23;
186
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
so that it seems the devils are driven away by sounds, and
why not then by words, or fumes, or herbs?
Ans. 1. It is confessed that Satan does take great
advantage from the ill humors and diseases which are in
the bodies of men, greatly to molest their spirits. Espe-
cially it is true concerning melancholly, which has there-
fore been called Balneum Diaboli-the devils bath,
wherein he delights to be stirring.
2. When bodily diseases are removed by the use of
natural means, the matter upon which the evil spirit was
wont to operate being gone, he does no more disturb and
disquiet the minds of men as before that he did. The
passive disposition in the body ceasing, the active afflic-
tion caused by the devil ceaseth also. Rulandus writes of
possessed persons who were cured by emetic medicines,
clearing them of those melancholly humors by means
whereof the evil spirit had sometimes great advantages
over them. This also Pomponatius does by many
instances confirm. Sennertus likewise has divers passages
to the same purpose. Also we see, by frequent expe-
rience, persons strangely hurried by Satan, have, by the
blessing of God upon the endeavour of the physitian, been
delivered from those woful molestations. Serrarius,
Delrio, Burgensis, and others, commenting on 1 Sam. xvi,
conceive that the ingress and egress of evil spirits depends
upon the humors and dispositions of the body; which
assertion is not universally true; for sometimes the devil
hath laughed at the physitians, who have thought by
medicinal applications to dispossess him. Examples for
this may be seen in Fernelius and Codronchus ; wherefore
Voetius, in his disputation, de Emergumenis, p. 1025,
speaketh cautiously and judiciously, in asserting that we
CONSCIENCE.
187
may not suppose that the devils taking bodily possession
of this or that person depends wholly upon corporeal dis-
positions; nevertheless that natural distempers sometimes
are an occasion thereof.
3. It is also true that musick is of great efficacy
against melancholly discomposures. This notwithstand-
ing, there is no reason to conclude with Mendozo, Bodin,
and others, that musick is so hateful to the devil, as that
he is necessitated to depart when the pleasant sound is
made. If that were so, how comes it to pass that
appearing dæmons do sometimes depart with a melodious
sound or that in the conventicles of witches there is
musick heard? But La Torr has notably confuted such
imaginations. Indeed, the sweetness and delightfulness of
musick has a natural power to lenisie melancholly passions.
They say that Pythagoras by musick restored a frantick
man to his wits again. Thus was Saul's pensive spirit
refreshed by David's pleasant harp; and when he was
refreshed and well, the evil spirit, which took advantage
of his former pensiveness, upon his alacrity departed from
him. So that it remains still a truth, that corporeal
things have no direct physical influence upon infernal
spirits; and that, therefore, for men to think that they
shall drive away dæmons by any such means is folly and
superstition. I shall add no more in answer to the first
quære proposed.
A second case which we shall here take occasion to
enquire into, is, Whether it be lawful for bewitched
persons to draw blood from those whom they suspect for
witches; or, to put urin into a bottle, or, to nail an
horse-shoe at their doors, or the like, in hopes of recover-
ing health thereby?
188
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES
Ans. There are several great authors who have disco-
vered and declared the evil of all such practices. In
special, Voetius, Sennertus, and our Perkins, disapprove
thereof. There is another question, much what of the
same nature with this, viz. Whether a bewitched person
may lawfully cause any of the devils symbols to be
removed, in order to gaining health? As, suppose an
image of wax, in which needles are fixed, whereby the
devil doth, at the instigation of his servants, torment the
diseased person, whether this, being discovered, may be
taken away, that so the devils power of operation may
cease, and that the sick person may in that way obtain
health again? The affirmative of this question is stiffly
maintained by Scotus, Cajetan, Delrio, Malderus, and by
Popish authors generally. Yet, amongst them, Hesselius,
Estius, and Sanchez, hold the negative; and so do all our
Protestant writers, so far as I have had occasion to
observe. And although some make light of such prac-
tices, and others undertake to justifie them, yet it cannot
justly be denied but that they are impious follies.
For, 1. They that obtain health in this way have it
from the devil. The witch cannot recover them but by
the devils help. Hence, as it is unlawful to entreat
witches to heal bewitched persons, because they cannot do
this but by Satan, so is it very sinful by scratching, or
burnings, or detention of urin, &c. to endeavour to
constrain them to unbewitch any; for this is to put them
upon seeking to the devil. The witch does neither inflict
nor remove the disease but by the assistance of the devil;
therefore, either to desire or force thereunto, is to make
use of the devils help. The person thus recovered cannot
say, "The Lord was my healer," but "The devil was my
CONSCIENCE.
189
healer." Certainly, it were better for a man to remain
sick all his dayes, yea (as Chrysostom speaks), "He had
better die than go to the devil for health."
Hence, 2. Men and women have, by such practices as
these mentioned, black commerce and communion with the
devil. They do (though ignorantly) concern and involve
themselves in that covenant which the devil has made
with his devoted and accursed vassals; for, whereas it is
pleaded that if the thing bewitched be thrown into the fire
or the urin of the sick stopped in a bottle, or an horse
shoe nailed before the door, then, by vertue of the compact
which is between the devil and his witches, their power of
doing more hurt ceaseth. They that shall for such an end
so practise, have fellowship with that hellish covenant.
The excellent Sennertus argueth solidly in saying, "They
that force another to do that which he cannot possibly do
but by vertue of a compact with the devil, have themselves
implicitly communion with the diabolical covenant." And
so is the case here. Who was this art of unbewitching
persons in such a way first learned of? If due enquiry be
made, it will be found that magicians and devils were the
first discoverers. Porphyrie saith, it was by the revelation
of the dæmons themselves that men came to know by what
things they would be restrained from, and constrained to
this or that: Euseb. Præp. Evan. 1. v, c. 7; Dr. Willet
in Ex. vii, quest. 9. To use any ceremonies invented by
Satan, to attain a supernatural end, implies too great a
concernment with him; yea, such persons do honour and
worship the devil, by hoping in his salvation. They use
means to obtain health which is not natural, nor was ever
appointed by God, but is wholly of the devils institution;
which he is much pleased with, as being highly honoured
190
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
thereby; nay, such practices do imply an invocation of the
devil for relief, and a pleading with him the covenant
which he hath made with the witch, and a declaration of
confidence that the father of lies will be as good as his
word; for the nefandous language of such a practice is
this: "Thou, O devil, hast made a covenant with such an
one, that if such a ceremony be used, thou wilt then cease
to torment a poor creature that is now afflicted by thee.
We have used that ceremony, and therefore now, O Satan,
we expect that thou shouldest be as good as thy word,
which thou hast covenanted with that servant of thine,
and cease tormenting the creature that has been so af-
flicted by thee." Should men in words speak thus, what
horrid impiety were it! Therefore, to do actions which
import no less, is (whatever deluded souls think of it)
great and heinous iniquity.
3. Let such practitioners think the best of themselves,
they are too near a kin to those creatures who commonly
pass under the name of "white witches." They that do
hurt to others by the devils help are called “black
witches:" but there are a sort of persons in the world that
will never hurt any; but only by the power of the infernal
spirits they will un-bewitch those that seek unto them for
relief. I know that by Constantius his law, black witches
were to be punished, and white ones indulged; but M.
Perkins saith, that the good witch is a more horrible and
detestable monster than the bad one. Balaam was a black
witch, and Simon Magus a white one.
hurt by his cures than the former by his curses. How
persons that shall un-bewitch others, by putting urin
into a bottle, or by casting excrements into the fire, or
nailing of horse-shoes at men's doors can wholly clear
This later did more
CONSCIENCE.
191
themselves from being white witches I am not able to
understand.
4. Innocent persons have been extreamly wronged by
such diabolical tricks; for sometimes (as is manifest from
the relation of the Groton maid, mentioned in the fifth
chapter of this essay) the devil does not only himself inflict
diseases upon men, but represent the visages of innocent
persons to the phansies of the diseased, making them
believe that they are tormented by them, when only
himself does it; and in case they follow the devils direc-
tion, by observing the ceremonies which he has invented,
he will inflict their bodies no more. So does his malice
bring the persons accused by him (though never so inno-
cent) into great suspicion; and he will cease afflicting the
body of one, in case he may ruin the credit of another, and
withal endanger the souls of those that hearken to him.
5. If the devil, upon scratchings, or burnings, or
stoppings of urin, or the nailing of an horse-shoe, &c. shall
cease to afflict the body of any, he does this either as being
compelled thereto, or voluntarily. To imagine that such
things shall constrain the evil spirit to cease afflicting,
whether he will or no, is against all reason; but if he does
this voluntarily, then, instead of hurting their bodies, he
does a greater mischief to souls: ex@pwv adwpa dwpa.
The devil heals the body that he may wound the soul; he
will heal them with all his heart, provided that he may but
thereby draw men to look unto him for help, instead of
seeking unto God alone, in the use of his own means, and
so receive that honour (the thing that he aspires after)
which is the Lords due. How gladly will that wicked
spirit heal one body, upon condition that he may entangle
many souls with superstition! and if men and women
192
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
(especially in places of light) will hearken to him, it is a
righteous thing with God to suffer it to be thus. It is
past doubt that Satan, who has the power of death, Heb.
ii, 14, has also (by Divine permission) power to inflict, and
consequently to remove, diseases from the bodies of men.
In natural diseases he has many times a great operation,
and is willing to have them cured rather by the use of
superstitious than of natural means. It is noted in the
Germanic Ephemeris, for the year 1675, that a man trou-
bled with a fistula, which the physitians by all their art
could no way relieve, a person that was esteemed a wizard
undertook to cure him; and applying a powder to the
wound, within a few dayes the sick party recovered. The
powder was some of the ashes of a certain woman who had
been burnt to death for a witch. This was not altogether
so horrid as that which is by authors worthy of credit re-
ported to have come to pass in the days of Pope AdrianVI;
when, the plague raging in Rome, a magician (whose
name was Demetrius Spartan) caused it to be stayed by
sacrificing a bull to the devil. See P. Jovius Histor.
lib. xxi. Such power hath the righteous God given unto
Satan over the sinful children of men; yea, such a ruler
hath he set over them as a just punishment for all their
wickedness. His chief design is to improve that power
which, by reason of sin, he hath obtained to seduce into
more sin; and the Holy God, to punish the world for
iniquity, often suffers the enemy to obtain his desire this
way. What strange things have been done, and how have
diseases been healed, by the sign of the cross many times,
by which means Satans design in advancing staurolatry to
the destruction of thousands of souls, has too successfully
taken place! And this iniquity did he early and gradually
·
!
CONSCIENCE.
193
In
advance amongst Christians. I have not been able without
astonishment to read the passages related by Augustin, de
Civitate Dei, lib. xxii, cap. 8. He there speaks of one
Innocentia, whom he calls a most religious woman, who,
having a cancer in her breast, the most skilful physitians
doubted of the cure; but in her sleep she was admonished
to repair unto the font where she had been baptized, and
there to sign that place with the sign of the cross; which
she did, and was immediately healed of her cancer.
the same chapter he reports that a friend of Hesperius did
from Jerusalem send him some earth that was taken out of
the place where our Lord Christ had been buried; and
that Hesperius had no sooner received it but his house,
which before had been molested with evil spirits, was rid of
those troublesome guests. He giveth an account also of
strange cures wrought by the reliques of the martyrs. It
was not (he saith) known where the bodies of Protasius
and Gervas (holy martyrs) were buried; but Ambrose had
it revealed to him in his sleep; and a blind man
approaching near unto the bodies, instantly received his
sight. Another was cured of blindness by the reliques of
the martyr Stephen. And a child playing abroad, a cart-
wheel run over him, and bruised him, so that it was
thought he would immediately expire; but his mother car-
rying him unto the house that was built to honour the
memory of St. Stephen, life and health were miraculously
continued. Many other wonderful cures doth Augustin
there mention as done by Stephen's reliques. But who seeth
not that the hand of Joab was in all things? For by this
means Satan hath filled the world with superstition. The
cross is worshipped; the reliques of martyrs are adored;
the honour due to God alone is given to the creature..
13
194
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
The same method has the grand enemy observed, that so
he might bring that superstition of iconolatry or image
worship, which is so provoking to the jealous God, into
repute amongst Christians. It would be endless to cnu-
merate how many in Popish countries have been cured of
diseases, which for their sins God hath suffered the devil
to punish them with, by touching the image of this or that
saint; nay, some whose bodies have been possessed with
evil spirits, have in that way of superstition found relief ;
in a more especial manner, when the image of the Virgin
Mary hath been presented before persons possessed, the
devil in them hath cried out and shrieked after a fearful
manner, as if he had been put to horrible torture at the
sight of that image, and so hath seemed to depart out of
the miserable creature molested by him; and all this that
so deluded Papists might be hardened in their supersti-
tious opinion of that image. Many such devices hath
Satan to ensnare and ruin the souls of men. Some report
that the bodies of excommunicates in the Greek churches
at this day are strangely handled by the devil after death
hath taken hold of them. M. Ricaut, in his relation of
the present state of the Greek Churches, page 279, &c.,
saith that a grave Kaloir told him that, to his own certain
knowledge, a person who fell under their church-censure,
after he had been for some time buried, the people where
his corps lay interred were affrighted with strange appari-
tions, which they concluded arose from the grave of the
accursed excommunicate, which thereupon was opened,
and they found the body uncorrupted, and replete with
blood, the coffin furnished with grapes, nuts, &c. brought
thither by infernal spirits. The Kaloirs resolved to use
the common remedy in those cases, viz. to cut the body in
CONSCIENCE.
195
several parts, and to boyl it in wine, as the approved
means to dislodge the evil spirit; but his friends intreated
rather that the sentence of excommunication might be
reversed, which was granted. In the mean time prayers
and masses and offerings were presented for the dead;
and whilst they were performing these services, on a
sudden was heard a rumbling noise in the coffin of the
dead party; which being opened, they found the body
consumed and dissolved into dust, as if it had been
interred seven years. The hour and minute of this dissolu-
tion being compared with the date of the patriarchs release.
when signed at Constantinople, was found exactly to agree
with that moment. If there be truth in this relation, 'tis
a dreadful evidence of Satans reigning amongst a supersti-
tious people, who nevertheless, call themselves Christians ;
and that he does by such means as these keep them under
chains of darkness still. The devil hath played such reax
as these are, not only amongst Christians, but amongst the
Gentiles of old; for Titus Latinus was warned in his sleep
that he should declare unto the senate that they must
reniew their stage plays. He neglecting to deliver his
message, was again by the same dæmon spoken unto in his
sleep, and severely reproved for his omission, and his son
died. Still persisting in his omission, the dæmon again
cometh to him, so that he was surprized with an acute
and horrible disease. Hereupon, by counsel of his friends,
he was carried in his bed into the senate; and as soon as
he had declared what he had seen, his health was restored,
that he returned home upon his feet.
The issue was,
stage plays were more in fashion than ever before.
Augustin, de Civitate Dei, lib. iv, cap. 26. Learned men
are not ignorant that strange cures were effected amongst
13a
196
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
the heathen by the use of talismans or images; of which
inventions, Zoroaster (the father of magicians) is supposed
to be the first author. It is reported that Virgil made a
brazen fly, and a golden horse-leach, whereby flies were
hindred from coming into Naples, and the horse-leaches
were all killed in a ditch. Thus doth Beelzebub draw
miserable men into superstition.
And although I am upon a serious subject, and my
design in writing these things is, that so I might bear
witness against the superstition which some in this land of
light have been found guilty of, and that (if God shall
bless what has been spoken to convince men of the error
of their way) the like evils may no more be heard of
amongst us; this notwithstanding it may not be improper
here to recite some facetious passages which I have met
with in Hemmingius his discourse de Superstitione Magica,
since they are to my present purpose, as discovering what
delight the infernal spirits take in drawing men to make
use of superstitious means for the recovery of health unto
their bodies. The learned author mentioned reports, that
as he was instructing his pupils in the art of logic, he had
occasion to recite a couple of verses consisting of nine
hobgoblin words, fecana, cajeti, daphenes, &c. adding, by
way of joke, that those verses would cure a feaver, if every
day a piece of bread were given to the sick person with
one of these words written upon it. A simple fellow that
stood by thought Hemmingius had been in earnest in what
he spoke; and not long after, having a servant that fell sick.
of a feaver, he gave him the first day a bit of bread, with
a paper wherein fecana was written, and so on for six
dayes until he came to the word gebali; and then, on a
sudden, his servant was well again. Others seeing the
CONSCIENCE.
197
efficacy of the amulet, did the like, and many were cured
of feavers thereby.
In the same chapter, page 908, Hemmingius writeth of
a knavish scholar, that a certain women repairing to him
for help, who was exceedingly troubled with sore eyes, pro-
mising him a good reward for his cure, the knave, though
he had no skill, yet for lucre sake, he promised to effect a
cure; and, in order thereto, taketh a piece of paper, and
maketh therein characters, unto which he never saw the
like before, only then devised them, and writeth in great
letters these abominable words: Diabolus eruat tibi oculos,
et foramina stercoribus impleat. (The Papists say that
their Saint Francis caused the devil to depart out of a
possessed person by using an alike brutish expression.)
He folded up the paper in a cloth, requiring the diseased
party to wear it about her neck; which she did, and her
disease was healed. After two years, being desirous to
know what was in the paper, she caused it to be opened
and read; and being greatly offended and inraged at this
indignity, cast the paper away, immediately upon which
her sore eyes returned again. Without doubt, then, the
devils design in this cure was to encourage the prophane
impostor to endeavour the removal of diseases by like su-
perstitious and wicked practices, whereby his own and the
souls of others, unto whom he should impart the mystery,
would be endangered. The like is to be affirmed concern-
ing attempts to heal diseases by scratching suspected
witches, or stopping urin in bottles, nailing of horse-shoes,
&c. It may be the time will come when they that have
been thus foolish will feel their own consciences smiting
them for what they have done. Let them remember
the example of that gracious and famous gentlewoman,
198
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
Mrs. Honeywood; the occasion of whose sorrowful and
doleful desertion was, in that having a child sick, she
asked counsel of a wizard about its recovery. Certainly
it is better for persons to repent of sin, the procuring
cause of all affliction, and by the prayer of faith to betake
themselves to the Lord Jesus, the great Physitian both of
body and soul; and so to wait for healing in the use of
lawful means, until God shall see meet to bestow that
mercy on them; I say this is better than to follow such
dark methods as those declared against, wherein, if they
have found any success, they may fear it is in wrathful
judgment unto them or theirs. Some observe, that persons
who receive present healing in such unlawful wayes, usually
come to unhappy ends at last. Let me, then, conclude the
answer unto the case propounded with the words which
the angel bid the prophet Elijah speak to Ahaziah's mes-
sengers, 2 Kings i, 3, "Is it because there is no God in
Israel that you go to Baalzebub the god of Ekron?”
There is another case of conscience which may here be
enquired into, viz. "Whether it be lawful to bind persons
suspected for witches, and so cast them into the water, in
order to making a discovery of their innocency or guilti-
ness; so that if they keep above the water, they shall
be deemed as confederate with the devil; but if they
sink they are to be acquitted from the crime of witch-
craft?" As for this way of purgation, it cannot be denied
but that some learned men have indulged it. King James
approveth of it in his Discourse of Witchcraft, b. iii, ch. 6,
supposing that the water refuseth to receive witches into
its bosom, because they have perfidiously violated their
covenant with God, confirmed by water in baptism.
Kornmannus and Scribonius do, upon the same ground,
CONSCIENCE.
199
justifie this way of tryal. But a worthy casuist of our
own giveth a judicious reply to this supposal, viz. that all
water is not the water of baptism, but that only which is
used in the very act of baptism. Moreover, according to
this notion the proba would serve only for such persons
as have been baptized. Wierus and Bodinus have written
against this experiment; so hath Hemmingius, who saith
that it is both superstitious and ridiculous. Likewise
that learned physitian, John Heurnius, has published a
treatise, which he calls, Responsum ad supremam curiam
Hollandiae, nullum esse æquæ innatationem lamiarum
indicium: that book I have not seen, but I find it men-
tioned in Meursius his Athence Batave. Amongst English
authors, Dr. Cotta hath endeavoured to shew the unlaw-
fulness of using such a practice; also, Mr. Perkins is so
far from approving by this probation by cold water, as that
he rather inclines to think that the persons who put it in
practice are themselves, after a sort, practisers of witch-
craft. That most learned, judicious, and holy man, Gis-
bertus Voetius, in his forementioned exercitation de Magia,
p. 573, endeavours to evince that the custom of trying
witches by casting them into the water is unlawful, a
tempting of God, and indirect magic. And that it is
utterly unlawful I am by the following reasons convinced:
1. This practice has no foundation in nature, nor in
Scripture. If the water will bear none but witches, this
must needs proceed either from some natural or some
supernatural cause.
No natural cause is, or can be,
assigned why the bodies of such persons should swim
rather than of any other. The bodies of witches have not
lost their natural properties: they have weight in them as
well as others. Moral changes and viciousness of mind
200
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
make no alteration as to these natural proprieties which
are inseparable from the body. Whereas some pretend
that the bodies of witches are possessed with the devil,
and are on that account uncapable of sinking under the
water. Malderus his reply is rational, viz. that the allega-
tion has no solidity in it, witness the Gadarens hoggs,
which were no sooner posssessed with the devil but they
ran into the water and there perished. But if the expe-
riment be supernatural, it must either be divine or diabo-
lical. It is not divine, for the Scripture does no where
appoint any such course to be taken to find out whether
persons are in league with the devil or no. It remains,
then, that the experiment is diabolical. If it be said that
the devil has made a compact with wizards, that they
shall not be drowned, and by that means that covenant
is discovered, the reply is, we may not in the least build
upon the devils word. By this objection, the matter
ultimately resolved into a diabolical faith. And shall
that cast the scale when the lives of men are concerned?
Suppose the devil saith, these persons are witches, must
the judge, therefore, condemn them?
2. Experience hath proved this to be a fallacious way
of trying witches, therefore it ought not to be practised.
Thereby guilty persons may happen to be acquitted, and
the innocent to be condemned. The devil may have power
to cause supernatation on the water in a person that never
made any compact with him; and many times known
and convicted wizards have sunk under the water when
thrown thereon. In the Bohemian History mention is
made of several witches, who being tried by cold water,
were as much subject to submersion as any other persons.
Delrio reports the like of another witch. And Godel-
CONSCIENCE.
201
mannus speaks of six witches in whom this way of trial
failed. Malderus saith, it has been known that the very
same persons being often brought to this probation by
water, did at one time swim and another time sink; and
this difference has sometimes hapned according to the
different persons making the experiment upon them; in
which respect one might with greater reason conclude that
the persons who used the experiment were witches, then
that the persons tried were so.
3. This way of purgation is to be accounted of, like
other provocations or appeals to the judgement of God,
invented by men; such as camp-fight, explorations by
hot water, &c. In former times it hath been customary
(and I suppose tis so still among the Norwegians) that
the suspected party was to put his hand into scalding
water, and if he received no hurt thereby then was he
reputed innocent; but if otherwise, judged as guilty.
Also, the trial by fire ordeal has been used in our nation
in times of darkness. Thus Emma, the mother of King
Edward the Confessor, was led barefoot and blindfold
over certain hot irons, and not hapning to touch any of
them, was judged innocent of the crime which some sus-
pected her as guilty of. And Kunegund, wife to the
Emperour Henry II, being accused of adultery, to clear
herself, did in a great and honourable assembly take up
seven glowing irons one after another with her bare hand,
and had no harm thereby. These bloody kind of ex-
periments are now generally banished out of the world.
It is pity the ordeal by cold water is not exploded with
the other.
4. This vulgar probation (as it useth to be called) was
first taken up in times of superstition, being (as before
202
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
+
was hinted of other magical impostures) propagated from
Pagans to Papists, who would (as may be gathered from
Bernards 66 Serm. in Cantica) sometimes bring those
that were under suspicion for heresie unto their purgation
in this way.
We know that our ancestors, the old Pagan
Saxons, had amongst them four sorts of ordeal (i.e., trial
or judgement, as the Saxon word signifies), whereby, when
sufficient proof was wanting, they sought (according as
the prince of darkness had instructed them) to find out
the truth concerning suspected persons, one of which
ordeals was this, the persons surmised to be guilty, having
cords tied under their arms, were thrown with it into
some river, to see whether they would sink or swim: so
that this probation was not originally confined to witches,
but others supposed to be criminals were thus to be tried;
but in some countries they thought meet thus to examine
none but those who have been suspected for familiarity
with the devil. That this custom was in its first rise
superstitious, is evident from the ceremonies of old used
about it. For the proba is not canonical, except the
person be cast into the water with his right hand tied to
his left foot. Also, by the principle which some approvers
of this experiment alledge to confirm their fansies, their
principle is, Nihil quod per necromantian fit, potest in
aqua fallere aspectum intuentium. Hence William of
Malmsbury, lib. ii, p. 67, tells a fabulous story (though he
relates it not as such) of a traveller in Italy that was by a
witch transformed into an asse, but retaining his humane
understanding, would do such feats of activity as one that
had no more wit than an asse could not do; so that he
was sold for a great price; but breaking his halter, he ran
into the water, and thence was instantly unbewitched, and
CONSCIENCE.
203
turned into a man again. This is as true as Lucian's
relation about his own being by witchcraft transformed
into an asse; and I suppose both are as true as that cold
water will discover who are witches. It is to be lamented
that Protestants should in these dayes of light either
practise or plead for so superstitious an invention, since
Papists themselves have of later times been ashamed of it.
Verstegan in his Antiquities, lib. iii. p. 53, speaking of the
trials by ordeal, and of this by cold water in particular,
has these words: "These aforesaid kinds of ordeals the
Saxons long after their Christianity continued; but seeing
they had their beginnings in paganism, and were not
thought fit to be continued amongst Christians, at the
last, by a decree of Pope Stephen II, they were abolished."
Thus he. Yea, this kind of trial by water was put down
in Paris A.D. 1594, by the supream court there. Some
learned papists have ingenuously acknowledged that such
probations are superstitous. It is confessed that they
are so by Tyræus, Binsfeldius, Delrio, and by Malderus.
de Magia, tract x, cap 8, dub. 11, who saith that they
who shall practise this superstition, and pass a judgement
of death upon any persons on this account, will (without
repentance) be found guilty of murder before God.
It was in my thoughts to have handled some other
cases of the like nature with these insisted on; but upon
further consideration, I suppose it less needful, the prac
tices which have given occasion for them being so grosly
superstitious, as that they are ashamed to show their
heads openly. The Chaldæans, and other magicians.
amongst the heathen nations of old, practised a sort of
divination by sieves (which kind of magic is called
coscinomantia). The like superstition has been frequent
204
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
in Popish countries, where they have been wont to utter
some words of Scripture and the names of certain saints
over a sieve, that so they might by the motion thereof
know where something stollen or lost was to be found.
Some also have believed that if they should cast lead into
the water, then Saturn would discover to them the thing
they enquired after. It is not Saturn but Satan that
maketh the discovery, when any thing is in such a way
revealed. And of this sort is the foolish sorcery of those
women that put the white of an egg into a glass of water,
that so they may be able to divine of what occupation
their future husbands shall be. It were much better to
remain ignorant than thus to consult with the devil.
These kind of practices appear at first blush to be dia-
bolical, so that I shall not multiply words in evincing
the evil of them. It is noted that the children of Israel
did secretly those things that are not right against the
Lord their God, 2 Kings xvii, 9. I am told that there
are some who secretly practice such abominations as these
last mentioned, unto whom the Lord in mercy give deep
and unfeigned repentance and pardon for their grievous
sin.


CHAPTER IX.
DEAF AND DUMB PERSONS.
A strange relation of a woman in Weymouth in New England that has been
dumb and deaf ever since she was three years old, who, nevertheless,
has a competent knowledge in the mysteries of religion, and is admitted
to the sacrament. Some parallel instances. Of wayes to teach those
that are naturally deaf and dumb to speak. Another relation of a man
in Hull in New England, under whose tongue a stone bred. Concerning
that petrifaction which humane bodies are subject unto. That plants
and diverso sorts of animals have sometimes bred in the bodies of men.
AVING dispatched the disgression which the
things related in some of the preceding
chapters did necessarily lead us into, I now
proceed in commemorating some other remark-
ables, which it is pity but that posterity should have the
knowledge of. I shall in this chapter only take notice of
two particulars amongst ourselves, with some parallel
instances which have hapned in other parts of the world.
I am informed that there is now at Weymouth in New
England a man and his wife who are both of them deaf,
that the woman had been so from her infancy; and
yet she understands as much concerning the state of
the countrey, and of particular persons therein, and of ob-
servable occurrences, as almost any one of her sex; and
(which is more wonderful), though she is not able to speak
a word, she has by signs made it appear that she is not

205
206
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
ignorant of Adam's fall, nor of man's misery by nature,
nor of redemption by Christ, and the great concernments
of eternity, and of another world, and that she herself has
had experience of a work of conversion in her own soul.
I have made enquiry about this matter of some that are
fully acquainted therewith, and have from a good hand
received this following account :— "Matthew Prat, aged
about fifty-five years, was in his minority by his godly
parents educated religiously, and taught to read. When
he was about twelve years old, he became totally deaf by
sickness, and so hath ever since continued. After the loss
of his hearing he was taught to write. His reading and
writing he retaineth perfectly, and makes much good
improvement of both; but his speech is very broken and
imperfect, not easily intelligible; he maketh use of it more
seldom, only to some few that are wonted to it; he dis-
courseth most by signs, and by writing. He is studious
and judicious in matters of religion; hath been in church-
fellowship, a partaker of all ordinances near thirty years;
hath approved himself unto good satisfaction therein,
in all wayes of church communion, both in publick and
private, and judged to be a well-wrought convert and real
Christian. Sarah Prat, his wife, being about forty-three
years old, was also quite deprived of hearing by sickness,
when about the third year of her age, after she could
speak, and had begun to learn letters; having quite lost
hearing, she lost all speech (doubtless all remembrance
and understanding of words and language); her religious
parents being both dead, her godly brother, Ephraim
Hunt (yet surviving), took a fatherly care of her; she also
happily fell under the guardianship and tuition of the
Reverend Mr. Thomas Thacher, who laboured with design
DEAF AND DUMB PERSONS.
207
to teach her to understand speech or language by writing,
but it was never observed that any thing was really
effected; she hath a notable accuracy and quickness of
understanding by the eye; she discourseth altogether by
signs; they that are able to discourse with her in that way
will communicate any matter much more speedily (and as
full) as can be by speech, and she to them. Her children
sign from the breast, and learn to speak by their eyes and
fingers sooner than by their tongues. She was from her
childhood naturally sober, and susceptible of good civil
education, but had no knowledge of a Deity, or of any
thing that doth concern another life and world; yet God
hath of his infinite mercy revealed Himself, his Son, and
the great mysteries of salvation, unto her by an extraordi-
nary and more immoderate working of his spirit (as tis
believed), in a saving work of conversion. An account of
her experiences was taken from her in writing by her
husband; upon which she was examined by the elders of
the church, they improving her husband and two of her
sisters, intellectual persons, and notably skill'd in her artifi-
cial language, by whose help they attained good satisfac-
tion that she understandeth all the principles of religion :
those of the unity of the divine essence, trinity of
persons, the personal union, the mystical union, they made
most diligent enquiry about, and were satisfied that her
knowledge and experience was distinct and sound, and
they hoped saving. She was under great exercise of
spirit, and most affectionately concerned for and about her
soul, her spiritual and eternal estate; she imparted herself
to her friends, and expressed her desire of help; she made
use of the Bible and other good books, and remarkt such
places and passages as suited her condition, and that with
208
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
tears. She did once in her exercise write with a pin upon
a trencher three times over, 'Ah, poor soul!' and there-
withal burst forth into tears before divers of her friends.
She hath been wont to enquire after the text, and when
it hath been shewed to her, to look and muse upon it;
she knoweth most, if not all, persons names that she hath
acquaintance with; if Scripture names, will readily turn
and point to them in the Bible. It may be conceived,
that although she understands neither words, letters, nor
language, yet she understands things hieroglyphically; the
letters and words are unto her but signs of the things,
and as it were hieroglyphicks. She was very desirous of
church communion in all ordinances, and was admitted
with general and good satisfaction, and hath approved
herself to the best observation a grave and gracious wo-
man. They both attend publick worship with much reve-
rence and constancy, and are very inoffensive, and (in
divers respects) exemplary in their conversation." Thus
far is that narrative, written June 27, 1683.
I suppose no one that rightly considers the circum-
stances of this relation will make a scruple about the law-
fulness of admitting such persons to participate in the
holy mysteries of Christ's kingdom. All judicious casuists
determine, that those who were either born, or by any
accident made, deaf and dumb, if their conversation be
blameless, and they able by signs (which are analogous to
verbal expressions) to declare their knowledge and faith,
may as freely be received to the Lords supper as any that
shall orally make the like profession. Of this judgement
was Luther, and Melancthon in Consil. part i, page 268;
Gerhard Loc. Com. tom. v. Thess. 226; Alting, Loc. Com.
part i, page 90; Voetius Disp. Select. part ii, in Appendice
deaf and duMB PERSONS.
209
de Surdis. Balduinus, in his Cases of Conscience, lib. ii,
c. 12, does confirm this, by producing several instances
of dumb persons admitted to the communion. It is cer-
tain that some such have been made to understand the
mysteries of the Gospel, so as to suffer martyrdome on that
account.
In the year 1620, one that was deaf and dumb, being
solicited by the Papists to be present at masse, chose
rather to suffer death. It is also a thing known, that men
are able by signs to discourse, and to communicate their
sentiments one to another. There are above thirty mutes.
kept in the Ottoman court for the Grand Seignior to sport
with; concerning whom, Mr. Ricaut, in his History of the
Present State of the Ottoman Empire (p. 62) reports that
they are able by signs not only to signifie their sence in
familiar questions, but recount stories, and understand
the fables of the Turkish religion, the laws and precepts of
the Alcoran, the name of Mahomet, and what else may be
capable of being expressed by the tongue. This language
of the mutes is so much in fashion in the Ottoman court,
that almost every one can deliver his sense in it. And
that deaf persons have been sometimes able to write, and
to understand what others say to them by the very motion
of their lips is most certain. Camerarius tells us of a
´young man and a maid, then living at Noremberg, who,
though deaf and dumb, could read and write and cypher,
and by the motion of a mans lips knew his meaning.
Platerus speaketh of one deaf and dumb born, that yet
could express his mind in a table-book, and understood.
what others wrote therein; and was wont to attend upon.
the ministry of Oecolampadius, understanding many things.
by the motion of the lips of the preacher. Mr. Clark, in
14
210
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
his Examples (vol. i, chap. 33), saith, that there was a
woman in Edinburgh in Scotland (her name was Gennet
Lowes), who being naturally deaf and dumb, could under-
stand what people said meerly by the moving of their
lips. It is famously known, that Mr. Crisp of London
could do the like. Borellus giveth an account of one that
lost his hearing by a violent disease when he was five years
old, yet if they did but whisper to him, he could by their
lips perceive what they said. There is one now living (or
that not many years since was so) in Silesia, in whom that
disease of the small-pox caused a total deafness, who,
nevertheless, by exact observing the motion of mens lips,
can understand what they say; and if they do but whisper,
he perceives what they say better than if they vociferate
never so loudly; he attends upon publick sermons, being
able to give an account of what is delivered, provided he
may but see the preacher speaking, though he cannot hear
a word. It is consistent with reason that mutes should
understand what others say by the motion of their lips,
since it is evident that the lips are of great use in framing
speech. Hence Job calls his speech, "the moving of his
lips,” chap. xvi, ver. 5; and we know that tongueless
persons, by the help of their lips and other organs of
speech, have been able to speak. Ecclesiastical story
informs us of several confessors of the truth, who after
their tongues were cut out by bloody persecutors, could
still bear witness to the truth. Honorichus (that cruel
king of the Vandals) caused the tongues of many to be
violently pluckt out of their mouths, who after that could
speak as formerly; only two of them, when they became
guilty of the sin of uncleanness, were able to speak no
more.
This has been attested by three credible witnesses
DEAF AND DUMB PERSONS.
211
who knew the persons: see Mr. Baxter's Church History,
p. 130. There is lately published (in Latin) a very strange
relation of a child in France (his name was Peter Durand)
who being visited with the small-pox when he was about
six years old, his tongue putrified, and was quite consumed ;
after which (the uvula in his mouth being longer than it
was before) he could, by the help of the other organs of
speech, discourse as plainly as if he had never lost his
tongue. These things are marveilous and yet I have
lately met with a passage more strange than any of these
related. There is (or was in the year 1679) living, near
Kerchem in Germany, a man (his name is John Algair)
who suddenly lost the use of his speech: the case has been
so with him, that fourteen years together he can never
speak but one hour of the day; just as the sun cometh
to the meridian, he has the liberty of his speech for an hour
and no more, so that he knoweth exactly when it is twelve
a clock, because then he can speak, and not a minute before
that, nor a minute after one. This is related in the
Germanic Ephemerides of Miscellaneous Curiosities for
the year 1679 (observat. 188). It is evident that the
sun has a marvelous influence as to some diseases which
the bodies of men are subject unto; for in Egypt, though
the plague rage the day before, on that very day when the
sun enters into Leo it ceaseth, when also the floods of
Nilus abate, as geographiers inform us.
Moreover, it is possible by art to teach those that are
by nature deaf and dumb to speak. The Dactylogy of
Beda is pretty, whereby men speak as nimbly with the
fingers as with the tongue; taking five fingers of the one
hand for vowels, and the several positions of the other for
consonants. But that deaf persons may learn to speak
14a
212
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES
happy experience hath proved, and that by many instances.
A. Castro has given an account of the method by him suc-
cessfully observed in teaching a boy to speak that was
born deaf. After the use of some purgative medicines, he
caused the hair to be shaven off from his head, over the
coronal suture, and then frequently anointed the shaven
place with a mixture of aqua vita, saltpeter, oyl of bitter
almonds, &c. Having done this, he began to speak to the
deaf person (not at his ear, but) at his coronal suture; and
there, after the use of unctions and emunctions, the sound
would pierce, when at his ears it could not enter; so did he
by degrees teach him to speak. (Vide Ephem. German.
anno 1670, observat. 35.) But others have, with good
effect, followed another kind of method. There was a
Spanish nobleman (brother to the constable of Castile),
who being born deaf, and consequently dumb, from his
infancy, physitians had long in vain tried experiments for
his relief. At last a certain priest undertook to teach
him to speak. His attempt was at first laughed at; but
within a while the gentleman was able (notwithstanding
his deafness still remained) to converse and discourse with
any friend. He was taught to speak by putting a cord
about his neck, and straitning or losening the same, to
advertise him when to open or shut his mouth, by the
example of his teacher. Nor was there any difference
found between his speech and that of other men, only that
he did not regulate his voice, speaking commonly too high.
(Vid. Conferences of Virtuosi, p. 215). Not long since,
Fran. Mercur. Helmont, designing to teach a deaf man
to speak, concluded it would be more easily practicable if
the experiment were made with an eastern wide-mouthed.
language, which does remarkably expose to the eye the
DEAF AND DUMB PERSONS.
213
motions of the lips, tongue, and throat. Accordingly he
tried with the Hebrew tongue, and in a short time his
dumb schollar became an excellent Hebrician. Others
have lately been as successful in their attempts to cause
deaf persons to speak and understand the European lan-
guages. We need not go out of our own nation, for there
we find living instances. In the Philosophical Transac-
tions for the year 1670, numb. 61, an account is given con-
cerning Mr. Daniel Whaley, of Northampton, in Eng-
land, who, by an accident, lost his hearing when he was
about five years of age, and so his speech, not at once, but
by degrees in about half a years time. In the year 1661,
the learned and ingenious Dr. Wallis, of Oxford, under-
took to teach the deaf gentleman to speak and write. Nor
did the doctor fail in attaining his end; for in the space
of one year the dumb man had read over great part of
the English Bible, and had attained so much skill as to
express himself intelligibly in ordinary affairs, to under-
stand letters written to him, and to write answers to them.
And when foreigners, out of curiosity, came to visit him,
he was able to pronounce the most difficult words of their
language (even Polish itself) which any could propose
unto him. Nor was this the only person on whom the
doctor showed his skill, but he has since done the like for
another (a gentleman of very good family), who did from
his birth want his hearing. Likewise, Dr. Holder, in his
late book about the natural production of letters, giveth
rules for the teaching of the deaf and dumb to speak.
Í have the rather mentioned these things, for that there
are several others in this countrey who are deaf and dumb,
when, as if they had an ingenious instructor, I am abund-
antly satisfied that they might be taught to speak, their
214
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
deafness notwithstanding. Nor is this more difficult than
it is to learn those that are blind to write; which, though
some may think it impossible and incredible, there is (or,
at least, three years ago there was) a living instance to
convince them; for, in the Weekly Memorials for the
Ingenious, lately published at London (in page 80), I find
an observable passage, which I shall here cause to be
transcribed and inserted, from the Journal des Scavans,
set forth March 25, 1680 :
An Extract of a Letter written from Lyons, by M. Spon,
M.D., &c., concerning a remarkable Particular.
"Esther Elizabeth van Waldkirk, daughter of a mer-
chant of Shaffhausen, residing at Geneva, aged at pre-
sent nineteen years, having been blind from two moneths
old, by a distemper falling on her eyes, nevertheless
hath been put on to the study of learning by her father,
so that she understands perfectly, French, High-Dutch,
and Latin; she speaks ordinarily Latin with her father,
French with her mother, and High-Dutch with the people
of that nation; she hath almost the whole Bible by heart,
is well skill'd in philosophy, plays on the organs and
violin, and, which is wonderful in this condition, she hath
learned to write, by an invention of her fathers, after this
manner:-
"There was cut for her upon a board, all the letters of
the alphabet, so deep as to feel the figures with her fingers,
and to follow the traces with a pencil, till that she had
accustomed herself to make the characters. Afterwards
they made for her a frame, which holds fast her paper
when she will write, and which guides her hand to make
straight lines; she writes with a pencil rather than with
DEAF AND DUMB PERSONS
215
ink, which might either foul her paper, or, by falling,
might cause her to leave words imperfect. 'Tis after this
manner that she writes often in Latin to her friends, as
well as in the other two languages."
But this much may suffice to be spoken about mutes,
and the possibility of their being taught intelligibly to
express themselves, though their deafness should still
remain. I now proceed unto things of another nature :
and the next remarkable which we shall take notice of, is
concerning one now in Hull in New England (viz. Lieu-
tenant Collier), who, about sixteen years ago, being sensi-
ble of pain in his throat, made use of the common reme-
dies in that case, but to little effect. At last the pain
about those parts became very extream, especially when he
drank any beer, nor was he able to swallow without much
difficulty, so that he lived upon water and liquid sub-
stances. After he had been for some time in this misery,
a stone appeared under his tongue, which, though visible
to the eye, continued there for some dayes before it was
taken out; and at last of itself fell into his mouth (and so
into his hands) leaving an hole behind it at the roof of his
tongue. This stone I have by me, whilest I write this,
only some part of it is broken away; that which remains
weighs twelve grains. The person concerned affirms that
it was first of a yellowish colour, but now it is white, not
being an inch in length, in shape somewhat resembling a
mans tongue. But that which made the matter the more
strange, was, that when he had occasion to void urin, he
was in as much pain as if the stone had been in his
bladder or kidney; for when his urin passed from him he
was usually put into a sweat with pain and anguish, the
eason whereof I shall leave unto the more curious inquisi-
216
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
:
tors into nature to determine. There are lapideous
humors in the bodies of men, occasioned, sometimes by
colds, sometimes by ill diet, which are apt to become
stones. It is related by the late German. Curiosi, that in
the year 1655 a person of quality in Dantzick was much
afflicted with a painful tumor in his tongue; a skilful
chirurgeon, perceiving a stone there, cut it out, upon which
the patient recovered, the stone being as big as a small
olive. The like hapned to another in the year 1662.
Again in the year 1678, a gentlewoman in Grunberg,
having been for several years in the spring and in the fall
afflicted with a pain in her tongue, at last the pain became
intollerable, untill a stone as big as a filberd-nut came out
of her tongue, upon which she had case. In the Philo-
sophical Transactions for the year 1672, page 4062, an
account is given of a man in England who had a stone
breeding under his tongue, occasioned by his suffering
much cold in a winter sea voyage. Not long after his
landing he found an hard lump in the place where the
stone was generated. There were eight years between the
time of the stones first breeding and its being taken away.
Upon a fresh cold-taking he suffered much pain; but
when his cold was over his pain ceased. At last it caused
a swelling about his throat, especially at the first draught
of beer at meals. The last summer of his affliction the
stone caused him to be vertiginous; and some dayes before
its excision such an abundance of rheume and spittle
flowed out of his mouth as would presently wet all the bed
about him. The stone weighed but seven grains, being
much of the shape of our ordinary horse-beans. This
stone was by judicious observators judged to be one of
those tumors called atheroma, and therefore the name they
DEAF AND DUMB PERSONS.
217
would have it called by is lapis atheromatis. Stones
have been taken out of the joynts of many gouty persons,
some cold imposthumes arising in their joynts before.
Sennertus, Platerus, Bartholinus, Skenckius, and other
learned men, have observed that humane bodies are subject
to petrification in every part of them; and many notable.
instances to this purpose are mentioned in the Philoso-
phical Transactions at London, and by the Curiosi in
forreign countries. I presume it will not be unacceptable
unto such as have not those books for me to relate some
examples out of them to our present purpose. There was
then a man, who being troubled with a catarrh and
obstruction of urin, when a vein was opened, there came
four stones out of it. Again, a person that was much
afflicted with a distillation of rhume, and another that was
continually imployed in preparing lime, small stones bred
in their lungs, many of which (as big as peas) were
coughed up. A stone as big as a gooses egg was found
adhering to the liver of the Countess of Nadasti. One
that died by a violent pain in his head, there was found a
stone therein between the dura and the pia mater. A
woman that died by nephretick pains, the physitian found
her left kidney to be filled with large stones; as for the
right kidney, the substance of it was converted into a per-
fect stone. In the same year, there was an ox near Padua
in Italy, which could by no means be made fat, but was
observed to be strangely stupid, and to hold down his
head after an unusual manner; they that killed him found
that his brains were petrified, being as hard as marble.
The like hapned to another ox in Suecia.
Nor are humane bodies wholly free from the like petri-
fication; for anatomists of good credit affirm that they
218
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
1
have known several dissected by them, whose brains were
in part petrified; nay, the heart itself is not exempted from
this misery. There were three stones found in the heart
of the Emperour Maxmilian II. It is no less strange
that bones should be generated in the lungs, heart, and
other bowels. Nothing in nature seems more mysterious
than that which hapned to the brother of the illustrious
Caspar Horwath, a baron in the kingdom of Hungaria,
who having been for some years consumptive, after his
death the physitians opened him, and found in the midst
of his heart (which was very much dried) a bone like an
almond, perfectly expressing the genuine effigies of the
dead gentleman, representing his very beard, and all the
features of his face so exactly, as that it was not possible
for any artist to have drawn a picture more like the person
than nature had performed in this bone. (Vide Germ.
Ephem. an. 1671, observ. 40, p. 72.) Moreover, credible
histories report, that in Africa the bodies of men (and of
other animals) have been turned into perfect stones. Nor
is that much less prodigious which Albosius reports con-
cerning a tailors wife (her name was Columba Chatry),
who having conceived with child, the usual time for deli-
very being come, was in great pain, and other symptoms
of birth appeared, yet she was never delivered, but lived
twenty-eight years in much misery, still retaining her
burden. After her death the physitians found that the
child within her was turned into a stone. (Vide Sennert.
Pract. Med. liv. iv, part 2, cap. 8, de Lythopædia.)
Thuanus hath another instance like unto this. And within
a few years there hapned a thing as prodigious and astonish-
ing (though without any lapidification) as any of the former
relations; for in the year 1652, the wife of John Puget,
at Tolouse in France, being with child, and come to her
DEAF AND DUMB PERSONS.
219
full time, was in travailing pains, but no child followed.
For the space of twenty years she perceived the child to
stir, with many troublesome symptoms accompanying; but
for the last six years of her life she perceived it not to move.
Falling sick, she requested a chirurgeon to open her after
she was dead: that being done, a child was found in her
body, neither putrified nor yet petrified; all the inward
parts of the child were discoloured with a blackishness,
except the heart, which was red, and without any issuing
blood. This infant weighed eight pound averdupoise. The
mother died June 18, 1678, being about the sixty-fourth.
year of her age. I should hardly give credit to a story so
stupendous and incredible, were it not mentioned in the
Philosophical Transactions (No. 139, p. 979), as a thing
most undoubtedly true. But to conclude the discourse
we are upon, I shall only add here, that it is not so strange
for stones to breed in all parts of the bodies of men, as for
plants and diverse sorts of animals to be formed therein;
yet many authors have attested to this; and a late writer
affirms that there was not long since a woman, who having
drunk stagnating water out of a pond where frogs used to
keep, grew cachectical, and swelled so as that she was
thought to be hydropical. One evening, walking near the
pond where the frogs croked, she perceived frogs to croke
in her belly. Acquainting a physitian, he gave her a strong
cathartick, whereupon she cast up two living frogs,
pretty large, green on their back, and yellow under their
bellies, and voided three dead by siege, with a great deal
of greenish serum; after which she was well disposed.
Again, in the year 1680, a man, living near Lyons in
France, voided a worm seven ells long, scaly like a serpent,
and hairy. See the Weekly Memorials for the Ingenious,
pp. 67, 82, 100.

CHAPTER X.
OF REMARKABLE TEMPESTS, Erc. IN NEW ENGLAND.
A remark upon the hurricane, anno 1635. A remarkable accident by a
sudden freezing of rain in the year 1659. A strange whirl-wind in
Cambridge, 1680. Another in New Haven Colony, 1682. Another at
Springfield. Some parallel instances. Of earthquakes in this countrey.
Land wonderfully removed. Parallel stories. Of remarkable floods
this year, not only in New England, but in other parts of the world.
An account of a prodigious flood in France five years ago, with con-
jectures concerning the natural reason of it.
THER remarkables, besides those already
mentioned, have hapned in this countrey,
many of which I cannot insert, as not
having received a full and clear account con-
cerning them. Nevertheless, such particulars as I have
by good and credible hands been informed of, I shall
further add. And let it be here recorded, that we have
seen diverse tempests in New-England which deserve to
have a remark set upon them, in respect of some notable
circumstances wherewith they have been attended. I have
not heard of any storm more dismal than the great
hurricane which was in August, 1635, the fury whereof
threw down (either breaking them off by the bole or
plucking them up by the roots) thousands of great trees
in the woods. Of this some account is given by Mr.

220
TEMPESTS.
221
Thacher, in the first chapter of our present collection.
And I must confess, I have peculiar reason to commemo-
rate that solemn providence, inasmuch as my father and
mother and four of my brethren were then in a vessel
upon the coast of New-England, being at anchor amongst
the rocks at the Isles of Sholes when the storm began;
but their cables broke, and the ship was driving directly
upon a mighty rock, so that all their lives were given up
for lost; but then in an instant of time, God turned the
wind about, which carried them from the rock of death
before their eyes. This memorable providence is men-
tioned in my fathers life, both in that edition published in
this countrey, page 21, 22, and also in that published
by Mr. Clark in his last volume of lives, page 131;
wherefore I shall not here further enlarge upon it. In
the year 1659, near the town of Concord in New-England,
there hapned that which is somewhat rare, and therefore
to be reckoned amongst remarkable accidents. In the
moneth of February, it having rained a great part of the
day, at night it froze extreamly, so as that many limbs
were broken off from many trees by the weight of the ice,
caused by the sudden friezing of the rain upon the boughs.
It was somewhat formidable to hear the crackings made
a good part of the night, by the falling of so much wood
(thousands of cords) as was by that means occasioned.
Of later years several places in this countrey have been
visited with strange and awful tempests. That was very
remarkable which hapned in Cambridge in New-England,
July 8, 1680; the persons who were witnesses of that
very amazing providence have declared what themselves
observed about it; the history whereof I shall here insert,
a worthy person having furnished me with the following
222
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
:—
narrative "Samuel Stone of Cambridge in New-Eng-
land does declare and testifie, that July, 1680, about two
of clock in the afternoon, he being with his young son
in the field, the wind then southerly, he observed
a cloud in the north-west in opposition to the wind,
which caused a singing noise in the air; and the wind
increased till the whirl-wind came, which began in the
meadow near where he was, though then it was not so
violent as it proved afterwards. As it passed by him it
sucked up and whirled about the hay that was within the
compass of it; it passed from him towards his house over
an hill, tearing down several trees as it went along; and,
coming to his barn, carried off a considerable part of the
roof (about twenty-four foot one way, and thirty the other),
fell near the dwelling-house where people were, yet could
not its fall be heard by them (yet it was so great that it
was heard by some a mile off) by reason of the great
rushing noise of the wind. Afterwards, as it pressed to-
wards Matthew Bridge's house, it tore down some trees
and Indian corn, and there rose up into the air for the
space of a quarter of a mile; afterwards it came down
upon the earth in a more violent manner; the effects
whereof he saw not, but it may be known by the follow-
ing relation.
"Matthew Bridge, who was an eye-witness of what hap-
ned, declares that he observed a thick cloud coming along
his fathers field before his house, as to appearance very
black; in the inside of the cloud, as it passed over him,
there seemed to be a light pillar, as he judged about eight
or ten foot diameter, which seemed to him like a screw or
solid body. Its motion was continually circular, which
turned about the rest of the cloud. It passed along upon
TEMPESTS.
223
the ground, tearing all before it, bushes by the roots, yea
the earth itself, removing old trees as they lay along on
the earth, and stones of a great magnitude, some of which
could not be found again. Great trees were twisted and
torn down, and carried a distance from the place where
they were; branches of trees, containing about a load of
wood, were blown from their bodies, and carried forty
yards or more.
The cloud itself was filled with stones,
bushes, boughs, and other things that it had taken up
from the earth, so that the top and sides of the cloud
seemed like a green wood. After it went from him, it
went a mile and half before it scattered, bearing down the
trees before it above a mile in breadth; passing through a
thick swamp of spruse pine and other young trees (which
was about half a mile through), it laid all flat to the
ground, yet the trees, being young, are since risen up. It
was observable, as it passed through a new-planted orchard,
it not only pulled up some of the young trees by the roots,
but broke off some of them in the bodies, about two or
three foot high, as if they had been shot off, not hurting
the stocks. Moreover, there was such a great noise made
by the storm, that other considerable noises at the same
time, as falling of very great trees very near one, could
not be heard. The above-said Matth. Bridge, and a boy
with him, endeavoured to run to the house, but were
prevented by the storm, so that they were necessitated
to ly flat upon the ground behind some bushes, and this
thick cloud and pillar passed so near them as almost to
touch their feet, and with its force bent the bushes down
over them, and yet their lives were preserved. John
Robbins, a servant man, was suddenly slain by this storm,
his body being much bruised, and many bones broken by
the violence thereof." Thus concerning that.
224
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
The last year was attended with sundry remarkable
tempests in several parts of this countrey. One of which
hapned in New-Haven Colony, June 10, 1682, con-
cerning which I have received from a good hand the
following account:-This storm began about 2 h. P.M.,
and continued two hours. It reached Stratford, Milford,
Fairfield, New-Haven, and it was very violent in every
one of these places, especially at Milford, where three barns
were blown down by it, and one house new built, that was
forty foot in length, well inclosed, was moved from the
foundation at one corner, near two foot and an half. But
the greatest strength of the storm was about six miles
above Stratford, as is evident by the great havock that
is there made: for the compass of half a mile in breadth,
scarce a tree left standing, which is not shaken by the
storm; the strongest oaks are torn up by the roots, some
two foot, some three foot and more, over; young saplins
that were not so big as a mans middle, were broken off in
the midst. The storm came out of the west, and the wind
did before the end somewhat vere towards the north; it
was attended with a violent rain: the very noise of the
wind in the woods was such, as that those that were in
it could not hear the fall of a tree a few rods from them.
Great limbs of trees were carried like feathers in the air
an incredible distance from the trees they were broken
from; many that were at work in the woods were in
great danger, and had no way to preserve themselves but
by running into open plains, where there were no trees.
The strength of the storm passed along east and by south,
over Stratford river, and between Milford and New-Haven,
and there it passed away into the sound towards Long-
Island. Many thousands of trees were blown down both
TEMPESTS.
225
above and below the place before specified; but in the
compass of that half mile the greatest strength of the
storm was; for here almost there was an universal de-
struction of all the trees, leaving the place upon hills so
naked that very few trees are found standing. Thus of
that tempest.
Also, on June 26, 1682, there were the most amazing
lightnings that have been known in New-England, a great
part of the night being thereby made as light as the day.
In some places grievous hail fell with the lightning,
breaking the windows of some houses. But at Springfield
it was most dreadful, where great pieces of ice, some seven,
some nine inches about, fell down from the clouds with
such violence that the shingles upon some houses were
broken thereby, and holes beaten into the ground that a
man might put his hand in. Several acres of corn (both
wheat and Indian) were beat down and destroyed by the
hail. Yet this hail-storm (though terrible) was not com-
parable to that which hapned three years ago in another
part of the world, viz., at the town of Blois in France,
where the people were by the amazing fury of a prodigious
tempest affrighted out of their sleep, and forced to rise
out of their beds, that they might save their lives.
Several houses and two (churches) meeting-houses, were
beat down to the ground. This tempest was likewise
accompanied with a most prodigious hail, many thousand
stones being found as big as a mans fist. This unusual
artillery of Heaven broke all the slates wherewith the
houses were covered, and the glass-windows, all over the
town, as if they had been beaten in a morter. Without
the town eight whole parishes with the fields adjacent, were
wholly ruined by that hail, in such a terrible manner, that
15
226
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
it seemed as if no corn had been sown, or vines planted
there. Four other parishes were much endamaged, mul-
titudes of chimneys beaten down, so that the damage
thereby, with the breaking of the windows and tyles, were
valued to be above two hundred thousand crowns; and
the harm in the vineyards and corn-fields invaluable.
"The Divine Providence was very much seen, in that, man,
woman, nor child, were killed in this fearful desolation,
The reader may see a more full relation of this prodigious
hail-storm in Mr. Burton's Surprising Miracles of Nature,
pages 180, 181. As for those sudden gusts wherewith
part of Cambridge and several towns near New Haven in
New England were alarmed, the like hapned at a place in
England, fourteen years ago, the account whereof may
be seen in the Philosophical Transactions, number 17,
page 2156, which I shall here insert. It is that which
followeth.
Octob. 30, 1669, betwixt five and six of the clock in
the evening, the wind westerly, at Ashley in Northamp-
tonshire hapned a formidable hurricane, scarce bearing
sixty yards in its breadth, and spending itself in about
seven minutes of time. Its first discerned assault was
upon a milk-maid, taking her pail and hat from off her
head, and carrying it many scores of yards from her, where
it lay undiscovered some dayes. Next it storm'd the yard
of one Sprigge, dwelling in Westthorp (a name of one part
of the town), where it blew a wagon-body off of the axel-
trees, breaking the wheels and axel-trees in pieces, and
blowing three of the wheels so shattered over a wall; the
wagon stood somewhat cross to the passage of the wind.
Another wagon of Mr. Salisburies marched with great
speed upon its wheels against the side of his house, to the
EARTHQUAKES.
227
astonishment of the inhabitants. A branch of an ash-tree,
of that bigness that two lusty men could scarce lift it,
blew over Mr. Salisburies house without hurting it, and
yet this branch was torn from a tree an hundred yards
distant from that house. A slate was found upon a
window of the house of Samuel Templer, Esq., which very
much bent an iron bar in it, and yet tis certain that the
nearest place the slate was at first forced from was near
two hundred yards. Not to take notice of its stripping of
several houses, one thing is remarkable, which is, that at
Mr. Maidwells, senior, it forced open a door, breaking the
latch, and thence marching through the entry, and forcing
open the dairy door, it overturned the milk vessels, and
blew out three panes or lights in the window; next it
mounted the chambers, and blew out nine lights more;
from thence it proceeded to the parsonage, whose roof it
more than decimated; thence crosseth the narrow street,
and forcibly drives a man headlong into the doors of Tho.
Brigges. Then it passed with a cursory salute at Thomas
Marstones, down to Mr. George Wignils, at least a
furlongs distance from Marstones, and two furlongs from
Sprigges, where it plaid notorious exploits, blowing a
large hovel of peas from its supporters, and settling it
cleaverly upon the ground, without any considerable
damage to the thatch. Here it blew a gate-post, fixed
two foot and an half in the ground, out of the earth, and
carried it into the fields many yards from its first abode.
Thus much concerning remarkable tempests.
Earthquakes deserve to be mentioned amongst Remark-
able providences, since Aristotle himself could say, that
the man is stupid and unreasonable who is not affected
15a
228
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
with them. This part of the world hath not been alto-
gether free from such tremendous accidents, albeit (through
the gracious providence of God) there never was yet any
harm done amongst us thereby, so far as I have heard.
The year 1638 was attended with a considerable
earthquake. There are who affirm that they heard a
strange kind of noise before the earth began to tremble.
Another earthquake was observed in some parts of New
England, A.D. 1658. Also in the year 1662, on the 26,
27, and 28 of January, the earth was shaken at least six
times in the space of three dayes. I remember that upon
the first approach of the earthquake the things on the
shelves in the house began to move. Many people ran
out of their houses with fear and amazement; but no
house fell, nor was any damage sustained. There was
another earthquake, April 3, 1668. We in Boston were
sensible of it, but some other parts of the countrey were
more terribly shaken. The Indians say that the
earthquake this year did stop the course of a considerable
river. It is also reported, that amongst the French in
Nova Scotia there hapned an earthquake which rent an
huge rock asunder to the centre, wherein was a vast
hollow of an immeasurable depth. Concerning earth-
quakes which have lately, hapned in remoter parts of the
world, I shall not here insert any thing, having mentioned
them in my Discourse on Comets, printed the last year;
only therein I have not taken notice of that memorable
earthquake, May 12, 1682, having received information.
concerning it more lately. Such readers as are inquisitive
into things of this nature may see that earthquake de-
scribed and discoursed on in the Weekly Memorials for
the Ingenious, page 125, &c. Remarkable was that which
EARTHQUAKES.
229
hapned A.D. 1670, at a place called Kenebunck, in the
Province of Main in New England, where not far from the
river side a piece of clay ground was thrown up over the
top of high oakes that grew between it and the river, into
the river, stopping the course thereof, and leaving an hole
forty yards square, wherein were thousands of clay bullets
like musket bullets. It is also remarkable that the like to
this hapned at Casco (twenty miles to the eastward of the
other place) much about the same time. Whether the
removal of this ground did proceed from an earthquake,
or by the eruption of mineral vapors, or from some other
cause, may be disputed; they that would give a probable
conjecture concerning the natural cause must first know
whether a great drought, or much rain, or both succes-
sively did not precede, of which I am not informed. The
like memorable accidents have hapned in several places in
England, both in the former and in this present age;
which it may be twill be pleasing and edifying to some
readers for me here to commemorate.
To proceed. The like to what hath been related fell
out (1571) in Herefordshire. Marcley Hill, in the east part
of the shire, with a roaring noise, removed itself from the
place where it stood, and for three dayes together travelled
from its old seat. It began first to take its journey
February 17, being Saturday, at six of the clock at night,
and by seven of the clock next morning, it had gone
forty paces, carrying with it sheep in their cotes, hedge-
rows and trees, whereof some were overturned, and some
that stood upon the plain are firmly growing upon the
hill; those that were east were turned west, and those in
the west were set in the east. In this remove it over-
threw Kinnaston chappel, and turned two highwayes near
230
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
an hundred yards from their old paths. The ground that
thus removed was about twenty-six acres, which opening
itself with rocks and all, bore the earth before it for four
hundred yards space, without any stay, leaving pasturage
in the place of the tillage, and the tillage overspread the
pasturage. Lastly, overwhelming its lower parts, it
mounted to an hill of twelve fathom high, and there
rested, after three dayes travel.
Again, on the third of January, A.D. 1582, at Hermitage
in Dorsetshire, a place of ground of three acres removed
from its old place (as is testified by Stow in his Summary),
and was carried over another closure, where alders and
willows grew, the space of forty rod or perches, and stopped
the highway that led to Cerne; and the hedges that it
was inclosed with inclose it still, and the trees stand bolt
upright; and the place where this ground was before, is
like a great pit.
Also, on the fourth of August, 1585, at Motingham in
Kent, after a very violent tempest of thunder and rain,
the ground suddenly began to sink, and three great elms
growing upon it were carried so deep into the earth, that
no part of them could any more be seen. The hole left is
in compass eighty yards, and a line of fifty fathom plummed
into it finds no bottom.
Also, December, 18, 1596, a mile and a half from West-
erham, southward (which is not many miles from Moting-
ham), two closes lying together, separated with an hedge
of hollow ashes, there was found a part thereof, twelve
pearches long, to be sunk six foot and an half deep; the
next morning fifteen foot more; the third morning eighty
foot more at the least; and so daily, that great trench of
ground, containing in length about eighty pearches, and in
EARTHQUAKES.
231
breadth about twenty-eight, began, with the trees and
hedges on it, to lose itself from the rest of the ground
lying round about it, and withal to move and shoot forward
day and night for eleven dayes. The ground of two
water-pits, the one six foot deep of water, the other twelve
at the least, and about four pearches over in breadth,
having sundry tufts of alders and ashes growing in the
bottoms, with a great rock of stone under them, were not
only removed out of their places, and carried towards the
south, at least four pearches a pieces, but withal mounted
aloft and become hills, with their sedge, flags, and black
mud upon the tops of them, higher than the face of the
water which they had forsaken by three foot; and in the
place from which they are removed, other ground which
lay higher, is descended, receiving the water which lies
upon it. Moreover, in one piece of the plain field, there
is a great hole made by sinking of the earth to the depth
of thirty foot at the least, being in breadth in some places
two pearches over, and in length five or six pearches.
Also there, an hedge, thirty pearches long, carried south-
ward with his trees seven pearches at the least; and
sundry other sinkings there be in divers places, one of sixty
foot, another of forty-seven, and another of thirty-four foot,
by means of which confusion is come to pass; that where
the highest hills were, there be the deepest dales, and the
lowest dales are become the highest ground. The whole
measure of breaking was at the least nine acres.
One instance more I find to the like purpose in Mr.
Childrey his Britannia Baconica, p. 131, where speaking
of the natural rareties of Cheshire, he thus writeth: "July
1, 1657, about 3h, in the Parish of Bulkley, was heard a
very great noise, like thunder afar off, which was much
232
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
wondred at, because the sky was clear, and no appearance
of a cloud. Shortly after, a neighbour comes to me (saith
the author of this relation), and told me I should see a
very strange thing, if I would go with him; so coming into
a field, called the Lay-field, we found a very great bank of
earth, which had many tall oaks growing on it, quite sunk
under the ground, trees and all. At first we durst not go
near it, because the earth for near twenty yards round
about is exceeding much rent, and seems ready to fall in ;
but since that time, myself and some others, by ropes,
have ventured to see the bottom, I mean, to go to the
brink, so as to discern the visible bottom, which is water,
and conceived to be about thirty yards from us, under
which is sunk all the earth about it for sixteen yards round
at least. Three tall oaks, a very tall awber, and certain
other small trees, and not a sprigg of them to be seen
above water: four or five oaks more are expected to fall
every moment, and a great quantity of land is like to fall,
indeed never ceasing more or less; and when any consider-
able clod falls, it is much like the report of a canon. We
can discern the ground hollow above the water a very
great depth, but how far hollow, or how far deep, is not
to be found out by man. Some of the water was drawn
out of this pit with a bucket, and they found it to be as
salt as sea water; whence some imagine that there are
certain large passages there, into which the sea flows under
ground; but I rather think that this salt water is no more.
but that which issues from those salt springs about Nant-
wich and other places in this shire. But of this no more
at present."
Some remarkable land floods have likewise hapned in
New England. Nor is that which came to pass this present
FLOODS.
233
year to be here wholly passed over in silence. In the
spring time, the great river at Connecticut useth to over-
flow, but this year it did so after Midsummer, and that
twice; for, July 20, 1683, a considerable flood unexpect-
edly arose, which proved detrimental to many in that
colony. But on August 13, a second and a more dreadful
flood came: the waters were then observed to rise twenty-
six foot above their usual boundaries: the grass in the
meadows, also the English grain, was carried away before
it; the Indian corn, by the long continuance of the waters,
is spoiled, so that the four river towns, viz. Windsor,
Hartford, Weathersfield, Middle-town, are extream suf-
ferers. They write from thence, that some who had hun-
dreds of bushels of corn in the morning, at night had not
one peck left for their families to live upon. There is an
awful intimation of Divine displeasure remarkable in this
matter, inasmuch as August 8, a day of public humiliation,
with fasting and prayer, was attended in that colony, partly
on the account of Gods hand against them in the former
flood, the next week after which the hand of God was
stretched out over them again in the same way, after a
more terrible manner than at first. It is also remarkable
that so many places should suffer by inundations as this
year it hath been; for at the very same time when the
flood hapned at Connecticut, there was an hurricane in
Virginia, attended with a great exundation of the rivers
there, so as that their tobacco and Indian corn is very much
damnified. Moreover, we have received information this
summer, that the mighty river Danow (the biggest in
Europe) hath overflowed its banks, by means whereof many
have lost their lives. Also, near Aix in France, there
lately hapned an unusual flood, whereby much harm was
234
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES
done; and had the waters continued rising but one hour
longer, the city had probably been destroyed thereby.
There was likewise a sudden and extraordinary flood in
Jamaica, which drowned many (both men and beast), and
was very detrimental to some plantations there. They that
came lately from thence assure us, that the waters in some
places arose an hundred and fifty foot, such mighty streams
did the heavens suddenly pour down upon them. Thus
doth the great God, "who sits King upon the floods for
ever," make the world see how many wayes he hath to
punish them, when it shall seem good unto him. Many
such things are with him. There are who think that the
last comet, and those more rare conjunctions of the superiour
planets hapning this year, have had a natural influence
into the mentioned inundations. Concerning the flood at
Connecticut, as for the more immediate natural cause, some
impute it to the great rain which preceded; others did
imagine that some more than usual cataracts did fall
amongst the mountains, there having been more rain than
what now fell sometimes when no such flood has followed.
It is not impossible but that the wind might be a secondary
cause of this calamity. Judicious observators write con-
cerning the river Dee in Cheshire in England, that though
much rain do fall, it riseth but little; but if the south
wind do beat vehemently upon it, then it swells and over-
flows the grounds adjoyning extreamly; the reason of which
is, that the river being broad towards the sea, when the
rain falls it hath a quick and easie passage, but the south
wind brings the sea in, and doth somewhat stop the free
passage of the river into the sea. Whether there might
not be some such natural reason of the great flood in Con-
necticut at this time, the ingenious upon the place, who
FLOODS.
235
know best how things are there circumstanced, may con-
sider. With us in Boston it was then at first an Euro-
clydon; but in the afternoon the wind became southerly,
when it blew with the greatest fierceness. If it were so
at Connecticut, it seems very probable that the fury of the
wind gave a check to the free passage of the river, which
caused the sudden overflowing of the waters. It has,
moreover, been by some observed, that the breaking forth
of subterraneous waters has caused very prodigious floods.
Since the dayes of Noah, when the fountains of the great
deep were opened, no history mentions a more surprizing
and amazing inundation than that which hapned five years
ago at Gascoyn in France, proceeding (as tis probably
judged) from the irruption of waters out of the earth. Con-
cerning which remarkable accident a judicious account is
given in the late Philosophical Collections, published by
Mr. Robert Hook, page 9. There being but one of these
books in the countrey, the ingenious will not blame me if I
here insert what is there related, which is as followeth:-
"In the beginning of the moneth of July, 1678, after
some gentle rainy dayes, which had not swelled the waters
of the Garonne more than usual, one night this river
swelled all at once so mightily, that all the bridges and
mills above Toulouse were carried away by it. In the
plains which were below this town, the inhabitants who
had built in places, which by long experience they had
found safe enough from any former inundation, were by
this surprised; some were drowned, together with their
cattle; others had not saved themselves but by climbing
of trees, and getting to the tops of houses; and some
others, which were looking after their cattle in the field,
warned by the noise which this horrible and furious torrent
236
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES
of water, rowling towards them with a swiftness like that
of the sea (in Britain he means) made at a distance, could
not scape without being overtaken, though they fled with
much precipitation: this, nevertheless, did not last many
hours with this violence. At the same time exactly, the
two rivers only of Adour and Gave, which fall from the
Pyrænean hills, as well as the Garonne, and some other
small rivers of Gascoyn, which have their source in the
plain, as the Gimone, the Save, and the Ratt, overflowed
after the same manner, and caused the same devastations.
But this accident hapned not at all to the Aude, the Ariege,
or the Arise, which come from the mountains of Toix,
only that they had more of the same than those of the
Conseraut, the Comminge, the Bigorre. Those who have
heard talk of those inundations at a distance were not at all
astonished at it, believing it to proceed from the violent
rains of some tempests which had suddenly filled these
rivers, or that they had caused a sudden thaw of the snow
of the Pyræneans, which had swelled the rivers that were
near.
"Monsieur Martel of Montaubon, advocate of the Par-
liament, an inquisitive and learned man, hath searched
after this cause of this deluge (by the order of Monsieur
Foucault, Intendant de Justice en la Généralité de Mon-
tauban, one not less seeing and understanding in ingenious
sciences, than expert and exact in the performance of his
charge and imployment), understanding that this over-
flowing could not be produced by either of the foremen-
tioned causes, and being assured that it must have had one
more extraordinary than all these.
"And first he grounded his thoughts upon the report of
the people of the place who were witnesses of this prodigy;
FLOODS.
237
and above all, of those, who being in the highest valleys
of the Pyrenæans, at the very source, had either seen or
known all circumstances; for they all agreed that it had
rained indeed, but that the rain was neither so great, nor
lasted so long, as to swell the rivers to that excess, or to
melt the snow off the mountains. But the nature of these
waters, and the manner of their flowing from the moun-
tains, confirmed him perfectly in his sentiments. For-
1. The inhabitants of the Lower Pyrenæans observed that
the waters overflowed with violence from the entrails of the
mountains, about which there were opened several channels,
which forming so many furious torrents, tore up the trees,
the earth, and great rocks, in such narrow places where
they found not a passage large enough. The water which
also spouted from all the sides of the mountain in innu-
merable jets, which lasted all the time of the greatest
overflowing, had the taste of minerals.
"2. In some of these passages, the waters were stinking
(as when one stirs the mud at the bottom of mineral water),
in such sort that the cattle refused to drink of it; which
was more particularly taken notice of at Lombez, in the
overflowing of the Save (which is one of the rivers), where
the horses were eight hours thirsty before they would
endure to drink it.
"3. The Bishop of Lombez having a desire to cleanse
his gardens, which the Save passing through by many
channels by this overflowing, had filled with much sand
and mud, those which entred them felt an itching like to
that which one feels when one bathes in salt water, or
washes oneself with some strong lixivial, these waters have
caused the same kind of itching risings in the skin. This
last observation is not less strong than both the others to
238.
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
prove that this overflowing was not either caused by the
rains, or by the meltings of the snows, because this itching
could not be produced by either of the said waters, which
are not at all of this nature, but by some mineral juice, either
vitriotic or aluminious, which the waters had dissolved in
the bowels of the mountains, and had carried along with it
in passing through those numerous crannies. And tis for
this reason that Monsieur Martel believes he had found
out the true cause of this overflowing to be nothing else
but the subterraneous waters; for if the heavens have not
supplied his prodigious quantity of waters neither by the
rain, nor the melting of the snow, it cannot come else
where than from the bowels of the earth, from whence,
passing through divers channels, it had contracted and
carried along with it that stinking and pungent quality."
But thus much concerning late remarkable floods.


CHAPTER XI.
CONCERNING REMARKABLE JUDGEMENTS.
Quakers judicially plagued with spiritual judgements. Of several sad
instances in Long Island and in Plimouth Colony. That some of the
Quakers are really possessed with infernal spirits proved by a late won
derful example of one at Balsham, near Cambridge in England. Of
several who imprecated vengeance upon themselves. The woful end of
drunkards; and of those that have designed evil against the churches
of Christ in New England.
HOSE memorable judgements which the hand
of Heaven has executed upon notorious
sinners are to be reckoned amongst Remark-
able Providences. Lubricus hic locus et dif-
ficilis. He undertakes a difficult province that shall relate
all that might be spoken on such a subject, both in that
it cannot but be gravaminous to surviving relations when
such things are published, also in that men are apt to
misapply the unsearchable judgements of God, which are a
great deep, as Job's friends did; and wicked Papists have
done the like with respect to the untimely death of famous
Zuinglius. We may not judge of men meerly by outward
accidents which befal them in this world, since all things
happen alike unto all, and no man knoweth either love or
hatred by all that is before them. We have seen amongst
ourselves that the Lords faithful servants have sometimes
been the subjects of very dismal dispensations. There
hapned a most awful providence at Farmington in

289
240
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
Connecticut colony, Dec. 14, 1666, when the house of
Serjeant John Hart taking fire in the night, no man knows
how (only it is conjectured that it might be occasioned by
an oven), he and his wife and six children were all burned
to death before the neighbours knew any thing of it, so
that his whole family had been extinguished by the fatal
flames of that unhappy night had not one of his children
been providentially from home at that time. This Hart
was esteemed a choice Christian, and his wife also a good
woman. Such things sometimes fall upon those that are
dear unto God, to intimate, "If this be done to the green
tree, what shall be done to the dry? that is, fit for nothing
but the fire." Nevertheless, a judgement may be so cir-
cumstanced as that the displeasure of Heaven is plainly
written upon it in legible characters; on which account it
is said, “That the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men," Rom.
i, 18. Sundry learned men have published whole volumes.
profitable to be read, on this subject, e.g. Goulartius his
Historical Collections; Honsdorsius, in his Historical
Theater, which is inlarged by Lonicerus. Chassalion, his
memorable Histories of the Judgements of God. And
amongst our English writers, Dr. Beard, in his Theater of
Gods Judgements, with Dr. Taylor's additions; and Mr.
Clark, in his two volumes of Examples, have said enough
to convince atheists that there is a God, and that there is
a judgement; yea, the Divine Providence, in remarkable
punishments inflicted upon very wicked men, has been so
conspicuous and glorious as that the Gentiles of old could
not but take notice of it. The poet could say, "Raro
antecedentem scelestum deseruit pede pæna claudo." And
whereas Epicures did object that evil men sometimes
JUDGEMENTS.
241
escape punishment a long time; Plutarch (whose works
Beza esteemed to be amongst the most excellent of
humane writings) has a notable treatise, the design
whereof is to vindicate Divine Justice in this matter.
Many remarkable examples to our present purpose have
hapned in New England, and more than I shall at present
take notice of. All wise men that are acquainted there-
with observe the blasting rebukes of Providence upon the
late singing and dancing Quakers in signal instances, two
or three of which may be here recorded, that so others
may hear and fear, and do no more so wickedly.
The first instance shall be that which concerns the un-
happy man that was murdered in Long Island, of which a
good hand in those parts, in a letter bearing date Decemb.
12, 1681, writes as follows:- "There went down about
a moneth since three mad Quakers, called Thomas Case's
crew, one man named Denham, belonging to Newer-snicks,
and two women with him belonging to Oyster Bay; these
went down to South-hold, where they meet with Samuel
Banks of Fairfield, the most blasphemous villain that ever
was known in these parts. These joyning together with
some other inhabitants of South-hold of the same spirit,
there went into their company a young merchant named
Thomas Harris, who was somewhat inclining to the
Quakers before (he belonged to Boston); they all go
about him, and fell a dancing and singing, according to
their diabolical manner. After some time the said Harris
began to act like them, and to dance and sing, and to
speak of extraordinary raptures of joy, and to cry out
upon all others as devils that were not of their religion;.
which also they do frequently. When the said Harris.
manifested these signs of conversion, as they accounted.
16
242
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
it, they solemnly accepted of him as one of their company,
and Banks or Denham (for I have forgotten which of the
two) gave him this promise, 'that henceforth his tongue
should be as the pen of a ready writer, to declare the
praises of their Lord.' After this, the young who was
sober and composed before, ran up and down, singing joy,
and calling such devils as should say anything in way of
opposition, and said his father was a devil that begat him.
Quickly after he went from the town of South-hold, to a
farm belonging to that town, to the house of a Quaker of
the same spirit, and went to bed before the rest of the
family; and when a young man of the same house went
to go to bed to him, he told him that he must get up, and
go to South-hold that night, where he had left Banks, and
the rest; the young man endeavoured to perswade him to
lie still till day, but he would not, but gat up, and went
away; after some time he was missed, and enquiry made
for him, but he could not be heard of, only his hat and
gloves and neckcloth was found in the road from the farm
to the town. And two dayes after, Banks looking into a
Bible, suddenly shut it again, crying out, his friend Harris
was dead; the next day he was found by the sea-side,
about a quarter of a mile from the place, where his hat
and other things were found, but out of the road, with
three holes like stabs in his throat, and no tongue in his
head, nor the least sign thereof, but all was clear to his
neck-bone within, his mouth close shut, one of his eyes.
hanging down upon his cheek out of his head, the other
sunk so deep in his head that at first it seemed quite out,
but was whole there. And Mr. Joshua Hobart, who was
one of them to view his dead body, told me that there was
no sign of any tongue left in his mouth: Such was the
JUDGEMENTS.
243
end of that tongue which had the promise of being as the
pen of a ready-writer.' Further, the night after he was
buried, Captain Young (who is high sheriff, and chiefly
concerned in looking after the business), as he told me
himself, being in bed, in the dead of the night, was
awakened by the voice of this Harris calling to his
window very loud, requiring him to see that justice was
done him. This voice came three times in that night.
The next night, when he was asleep, it came into his
house, close to his bed-side, and called very loud, asking
him if he heard him, and awaked him." Thus concerning
that tragical story.
An intelligent and credible person living upon that
island, in a letter dated September 4, 1683, adds as
follows:-
"There was about four years since, by some of the
same crew, another attempt made amongst us, which was
also attended with the like providence, though not so fatal
an issue. There was a young woman, a daughter of a
Quaker among us, who was howled into their society, as
Harris was, and quickly fell to railing on others, and then
to raving, being in a dreadful condition, so that several
persons of their gang watched with her; and she was
made wonderfully strong to outstrive them, and to break
away from them. One of their own party newly in favour
with them, told me that he was by in the night when they
watched with her, and in the very darkness of the night
they heard a very doleful noise, like the crying of a young
child in the yard or field near the house, which filled the
auditors with some fearful apprehensions, which when the
young woman heard, she violently brake from her attend-
ance, saying, 'The Lord calls me, and I must go;' so in
16a
244
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
the dark she got from them, to the cry-ward as they sup-
posed, and it was a good space of time before they could
find her, and then she was as one affrighted and bereaved
of understanding, and continued so a space of time,
sometimes ridiculous to behold, sometimes very awful, till
such time as Justice Wood of Huntington, by the use of
means, recovered her, which her quaking friends, notwith-
standing their brags, could not do; so that I heard her
husband say, that he was convinced that the devil was
among them. This providence was at that time fearful
among us, yet since, both that woman and her husband
are railing Quakers, and do hum and revile as the rest of
them, though several forsook their society upon this
account." Thus hee.
That which was perpetrated by this woful generation of
Quakers, no longer since than this last summer in Plimouth
colony, is horrid to be related; yet, inasmuch as the pub-
lication of it will make appear unto all mankind that
Quakers are under the strong delusions of Satan, I think
myself bound to acquaint the world, that not many moneths
ago, a man, passing under the name of Jonathan Dunen
(alias Singleterry) a singing Quaker, drew away the wife
of one of Marshfield to follow him; also, one Mary Ross,
falling into their company, was quickly possessed with the
devil, playing such frentick and diabolical tricks as the
like hath seldom been known or heard of; for she made
herself naked, burning all her clothes, and, with infinite
blasphemy, said that she was Christ, and gave names to
her apostles, calling Dunen by the name of Peter, another
by the name of Thomas, declaring that she would be dead
for three dayes, and then rise again; and, accordingly,
seemed to die. And while she was pretendedly dead her
-
↑
JUDGEMENTS.
245
apostle Dunen gave out that they should see glorious
things after her resurrection; but that which she then did
was, she commanded Dunen to sacrifice a dog. The man
and the two women Quakers danced naked together,
having nothing but their shirts on. The constable brought
them before the magistrates in Plimouth, where Ross
uttered such prodigious blasphemy as is not fit to be men-
tioned; Dunen fell down like a dead man upon the floor,
and so lay for about an hour, and then came to himself.
The magistrates demanding the reason of his strange act-
ings, his answer was, that Mary Ross bid him, and he had
no power to resist. Thus, when men will not receive the
truth in the love of it, the righteous judgement of God
sends upon them the efficacy of error, that they shall believe
a lie. That the Quakers are some of them undoubtedly
possessed with evil and infernal spirits, and acted in a
more than ordinary manner by the inmates of hell, is evi-
dent, not only from the related instances, but by other
awful examples which might be mentioned. They are
indeed to be pitied, in that they themselves know not
that an evil spirit doth possess and act them; yet others
should, from that consideration, dread to come among
such creatures, lest haply the righteous God suffer Satan
to take possession of them also.
Memorable and marvelous is that relation, published
the last year by Dr. Henry More, in his addition to Mr.
Glanvil's Collections, p. 58, &c. wherein a true and faith-
ful account is given of a man whose name is Robert
Churchman, living at Balsham in Cambridgeshire, who
was for some time inveigled in Quakerisme, and then an
infernal spirit spake in him, pretending to be an angel of
light. Inasmuch as there is (so far as I have heard) but
246
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
one of those books in this countrey, I suppose it will be a
service for the truth, and may (if the Lord please to add
his blessing) tend to reclaim some from the error of their
way and to deterr those from Quakerisme who have,
through the temptations of Satan, any inclinations there-
unto, if that notable history should be more divulged; I
shall therefore here insert it: and thus it was:-
Dr. Templar (the minister in Balsham) perceiving that
Robert Churchman was in danger of being poysoned and
seduced by the papers which the Quakers had been dis-
persing in that place, desired him, that when any of their
books came to his hands, he might have the perusal of
them; which, being granted, he suggested that it would be
very convenient that the person who had given him that
book should be present when they considered it together.
This also was consented to. When the Quaker came, a
special subject of the discourse was, "Whether the Scrip-
ture is to be owned as a rule." This the Quaker denied,
asserting that the rule was within them. Hereupon
Dr. Templar desired Churchman to take notice that the
Quakers did not own the Scriptures to be their rule, which
before this conference he would not believe concerning
them. The next time he met with his brother, Thomas
Churchman, he acquainted him with the conference which
had been in Dr. Templars house, and said, for his part, he
would not be of that religion which did disown the Scrip-
ture to be the rule. Not long after, the wife of the fore-
mentioned Quaker, coming to his house to visit his wife,
he met her at the door, and told her she should not
come in, intimating that her visit would make division
betwixt them. After some parley, the Quaker's wife spake
unto him in these words: "Thou wilt not believe unless
JUDGEMENTS.
247
thou see a sign, and thou mayest see some such." Within
a few nights after, Robert Churchman had a violent storm
upon the room where he lay, when it was very calm in all
other parts of the town, and a voice within him, as he was
in bed, spake to him, and bid him "Sing praises; sing
praises;" telling him, that he should see the glory of the
New Jerusalem; about which time a glimmering light
appeared all about the room. Toward the morning the
voice commanded him to go out of his bed naked, with
his wife and children. They all standing upon the floor,
the spirit making use of his tongue, bid them to lie down
and put their mouthes in the dust, which they did accord-
ingly. It likewise commanded them to go and call his
brother and sister that they might see the New Jerusalem,
to whom he went naked about half a mile. When he had
delivered his message, that which spake within him to
denounce wrath against them, and declare that fire and
brimstone would fall upon them, as it did upon Sodom
and Gomorrah if they did not obey; and so he returned
to his own house, where upon the floor of a low room he
stood about three or four hours. All that while he was
acted in a very unusual manner; sometimes the spirit within
forced him to sing, sometimes to bark like a dog. When
his brother and sister, who followed him, were very impor-
tunate with him to resist it, it bid him to kill them, making
use of these words: "These my enemies, which would not
that I should reign over them, bring them, and slay them
before my face." It made him to utter with great readi-
ness many places of Scripture which he had no knowledge
of before. The drift of what was spoken was to perswade
him to comply with the Quakers; and it named some
which lived in the neighbouring towns. About three or
248
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
four hours being thus spent, he came to himself, and was
able to give a perfect account of what had befallen him.
Several nights after, the same trouble returned upon
him his wife was tortured with extraordinary pains; the
children which lay in the room complained that their
mouthes were stopped with wool as they were in bed.
The disturbance was so great, that he had thoughts of
leaving his house for a time, and made it his desire to be
at Dr. Templars, who prevailed with him not to be so
sudden in his removal, but to make some further trial.
It pleased God, upon a continuation with him in prayer
every day in the house, that he was at last perfectly free
from all molestation. The Quakers, hearing of his con-
dition, gave it out that the power of God would come
upon him again, and that the wound was but skinned over
by the priest, which made Dr. Templar the more impor-
tunate with him to keep close to the publick worship of
God, and to have nothing to do with them or their writings;
which direction he followed till November 1661, and then
perusing one of their books, a little after, upon the tenth
day of that moneth, his troubles returned: a voice within
him began to speak to him after the former manner. The
first sentence which it uttered was: "Cease thou from
man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to
be accounted?" The design which he discerned it did aim
at, was to take him off from comeing to the church (where
he had been that day), and from hearing the Word of God.
It suggested several other Scriptures, in order to the per-
swading of him to a compliance with the Quakers, and told
him that it would strive with him, as the angel did with
Jacob, until the breaking of the day; at which time it left
him. The two next nights it gave him the same molesta-
JUDGEMENTS.
249
tion, saying, it must be with him as it was with David,
who "gave no sleep to his eyes, nor slumber to his eye-
lids, until he found a place for the Lord, an habitation for
the mighty God of Jacob." Upon Wednesday at night
he was very peremptory in his resisting of it. When it
began to solicit him, he replied, that he saw it was a spirit
of delusion, which he would not obey; upon which the
spirit denounced a curse against him in these words, “Go,
ye cursed, into everlasting fire ;" and so left him with a
very great heat in his body. After this, he was, in his
own apprehension, in a very comfortable condition; and
while he was considering what had hapned, a voice within
him spake to him, saying, "That the spirit which was
before upon him was a spirit of delusion, but now the true
spirit of God was come into him." It acquainted him
that the doctrine of the Trinity was true; and that God
had an elect people; and that those whom the Father
elected the Son hath redeemed; and when Christ redeemeth
the Holy Ghost sanctifieth; and told him that the minister
of the town would further instruct him about the truth of
these things. Upon Thursday morning, about break of
day, it set him upon his knees as he was in bed, and bid
him farewel. The same day it came upon him in the
field, as he was going to and coming from the market,
and pressed upon him to believe that it was the good
spirit which he was acted with, which he still doubted of.
One night that week, amongst many arguments which it
used to that purpose, it told him, if he would not believe
without a sign, he might have what sign he would. Upon
that, Robert Churchman desired, if it was a good spirit,
that a wier candlestick, which stood upon the cupboard,
might be turned into brass, which the spirit said he would
250
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
do.
Presently there was a very unsavoury smell in the
room, like that of the snuff of a candle newly put out; but
nothing else was done towards the fulfilling of the promise.
Upon the Lords Day following, he then attending the
publick worship of God, it came upon him; when the
chapters were named, he turned to them in his Bible, but
was not able to read; when the psalm was sung, he could
not pronounce a syllable. Upon Monday morning his
speech was wholly taken away from him. When the
minister in that place came to him, and asked him how it
was with him, he moved his head towards him, but was
not able to speak. The minister waited an hour or two in
the room, hoping that his speech might have returned unto
him, and that he might have gained from him some
account of his condition; but finding no alteration, he
desired those who were present to joyn with him in prayer.
As they were praying, Churchman's body was with much
violence thrown out of bed; and then with great vehe-
mency he called to the minister, Dr. Templar, to hold his
tongue. When prayer was done, his tongue was bound as
before, till at last he broke out into these words: "Thine
is the kingdom! Thine is the kingdom !" which he repeated
(as was judged) above an hundred times. Sometimes he
was forced into extream laughter, sometimes into singing;
his hands were usually imployed in beating his breast: all
of them who stood by could discern unusual heavings in
his body. This distemper did continue towards the morn-
ing of the next day, and then the voice within him signified
to him that it would leave him, bidding him get upon
his knees in order to that end, which he did, and then
presently he had a perfect command of himself.
When Dr. Templar came to him, he gave a sober
JUDGEMENTS.
251
account of all the passages of the day before having a
distinct remembrance of what the spirit forced him to do,
and what was spoken to him by those that stood by; in
particular, he told the doctor that he was compelled to give
him that disturbance in prayer before mentioned; the
spirit using his limbs and tongue as it pleased, contrary to
the inclination of his own mind.
Upon the Thursday following, the spirit began to rage
after its former manner; as Dr. Templar was at prayer
with him, it was very discernable how it wrought upon
his body, forced him to grate his teeth and draw his mouth
awry. He told the minister after he had done, that it bid
him to denounce woe against him. It pleased God,
upon continuance in prayer with him, at last to release
him of all his tronble, and so far to make it advantagious
to him and to his wife and some others, which were too
much byassed with the principles of the Quakers, that now
they have a perfect dislike that way, and do diligently
attend upon the publick worship of God.
Thus concerning this strange but true relation. We
may by this judge whose servants the singing Quakers
are, and what spirit doth powerfully breath in and act
those miserable and deluded enthusiasts.
But I shall say no more to the Quakers at present;
only pray that such of them as have not "sinned unto
death" may have their eyes opened, and (if possible) be
delivered out of the snares of Satan, "by whom they are
taken captive at his will."
It hath been by many observed, that men addicted to
horrid cursings and execrations have pulled down the im-
precated vengeance of Heaven upon themselves. Sundry
252
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES
very awful examples of this kind have lately hapned: I
shall here mention one or two.
The hand of God was very remarkable in that which
came to pass in the Narraganset countrey in New-England,
not many weeks since; for I have good information, that
on August 28, 1683, a man there (viz. Samuel Wilson)
having caused his dog to mischief his neighbours cattle,
was blamed for his so doing. He denied the fact with
imprecations, wishing that he might never stir from that
place if he had so done. His neighbour being troubled at
his denying the truth, reproved him, and told him he did
very ill to deny what his conscience knew to be truth.
The atheist thereupon used the name of God in his impre-
cations, saying, "He wished to God he might never stir
out of that place, if he had done that which he was charged
with." The words were scarce out of his mouth before he
sunk down dead, and never stirred more; a son-in-law of
his standing by and catching him as he fell to the ground.
A thing not unlike to this hapned (though not in New-
England) yet in America, about a year ago; for in Sep-
tember 1682, a man at the Isle of Providence, belonging
to a vessel, whereof one Wollery was master, being charged
with some deceit in a matter that had been committed to
him, in order to his own vindication, horribly wished "that
the devil might put out his eyes if he had done as was
suspected concerning him." That very night a rhume
fell into his eyes, so as that within a few dayes he
became stark blind. His company being astonished at the
Divine hand which thus conspicuously and signally ap-
peared, put him ashore at Providence, and left him there.
A physician being desired to undertake his cure, hearing
how he came to lose his sight, refused to meddle with him
JUDGEMENTS.
253
This account I lately received from credible persons, who
knew and have often seen the man whom the devil (ac-
cording to his own wicked wish) made blind, through the
dreadful and righteous judgment of God.
Moreover, that worse than brutish sin of drunkenness
hath been witnessed against from heaven by severe and
signal judgements. It was a sign of the fearful wrath of
God upon that notorious drunkard at a place called
Seatucket in Long Island; who, as he was in drink, fell
into the fire (the people in the house then being in bed and
asleep), and so continued for some considerable time, until
he received his death wound. At his first awakening he
roared out, "Fire! Fire!" as if it had been one in hell,
to the great astonishment of all that heard him. One in
the house flung a pail of water on him to quench his
clothes, but that added to his torment; so he continued
yelling after an hideous manner, "Fire! Fire!" and
within a day or two he died in great misery. And though
this drunkard died by fire, it is remarkable that many of
those who have loved drink have died by water, and that
at the very time when their understandings have been
drowned by drink. It is an awful consideration that there
have been at several times above forty persons in this land
whom death hath found in that woful plight, so that their
immortal souls have gone out of drunken bodies to appear
before God the judge of all.
That remarkable judgement hath first or last fallen upon
those who have sought the hurt of the people of God in
New-England, is so notorious as that it is become the
observation of every man.
This Israel in the wilderness
254
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
hath eat up the nations his enemies; he hath broke their
bones, and pierced them through with his arrows. Some
adversaries have escaped longer unpunished than others;
but then their ends have been of all the most woful and
tragical at last. I shall instance only in what hath lately
come to pass with respect unto the heathen who rose up
against us, thinking to swallow us up quick when their
wrath was kindled against us. Blessed be the Lord, who
hath not given us a prey to their teeth! The chieftains
amongst them were all cut off, either by sword or sickness,
in the war time, excepting those in the eastern parts,
whose ringleaders outlived their fellows; but now God
hath met with them. There were in special two of those
Indians who shed much innocent blood, viz. Simon and
Squando. As for bloody Simon, who was wont to boast
of the mischiefs he had done, and how he had treacherously
shot and killed such and such Englishmen, he died mise-
rably the last winter. Another Indian discharging a gun,
hapned to shoot Simon, so as to break his arm. After
which he lived two years, but in extremity of pain, so as
that the Indians when enquired of how Simon did, their
usual answer was,
"Worse than dead." He used all
means that earth and hell (for he betook himself to
powaws) could afford him for his recovery, but in vain.
Thus was the wickedness of that murtherer at last re-
turned upon his own head.
Concerning Squando, the Sachem of the Indians at
Saco, the story of him is upon sundry accounts remark-
able. Many years ago, he was sick and near unto death,
after which he said, that one pretending to be the English-
mans God appeared to him in the form of an English
minister, and discoursed with him, requiring him to leave
JUDGEMENTS.
255
off his drinking of rum, and religiously to observe the
Sabbath-day, and to deal justly amongst men, withal
promising him that if he did so, then at death his soul
should go upwards to an happy place; but if he did not
obey these commandments, at death his soul should go
downwards, and to be for ever miserable. But this pre-
tended God said nothing to him about Jesus Christ.
However, this apparition so wrought upon Squando, as
that he left his drunkenness, and became a strict observer
of the Sabbath-day; yea, so that he alwayes kept it
as a day of fast, and would hear the English ministers
preach, and was very just in his dealing. But in the time
of the late Indian war, he was the principal actor in the
bloody tragedies in that part of the countrey. The last
year the pretended Englishmans God appeared to him
again, as afore, in the form of a minister, requiring him to
kill himself, and promising him that if he did obey, he
should live again the next day, and never die more.
Squando acquainted his wife and some other Indians with
this new apparition; they most earnestly advised him not
to follow the murderous counsel which the spectre had
given. Nevertheless, he since hath hanged himself, and
so is gone to his own place. This was the end of the man
that disturbed the peace of New-England.

*

CHAPTER XII.
AN ACCOUNT OF SOME REMARKABLES AT NORWICH
IN NEW ENGLAND.
Special answers of prayer made in that place. That people marvelously
preserved. The scandalous miscarriage of one so over-ruled by Pro-
vidence, as to be an occasion of the conversion of several others. A
further account of some personal deliverances in Norwich. Concerning
sudden deaths which have hapned in New-England.
HERE is lately come to my hand an account
of some remarkables which have hapned at
Norwich in New-England, drawn up by Mr.
Fitch, the judicious and eminently faithful
pastor of the church in that place; which, that others
may be incouraged to follow his example, in observing
and recording the special works of Divine Providence, I
shall here insert, as I received it, and so hasten to finish
this essay. It is that which follows.
Remarkable Providences at Norwich.
1. "Many times the heavens have been shut up; but
God hath answered our prayers in sending rain, and
sometimes so speedily and so plentifully, after our seeking
the Lord by fasting and prayer, that the heathen, now for
more than twenty years upon occasion of want of rain, will
speak to us to call upon the name of the Lord our God; one
especial instance of this kind I have already given, and its
#

256
FIREARMS.—FIRE.
257
upon record in the history of the war with the Indians in
New-England.
2. " Many among us have been in more than ordinary
hazard by rattlesnakes; some have set their feet upon
them; some have been bitten by them upon the skin;
and one, as he was stooping down to drink at a spring of
water spied a rattlesnake, within two foot of his head,
rising up against him. Thus manifold wayes in danger
by this venimous creature, and yet none of us have suf-
fered any harm, but only one was bitten in the finger,
and in a short time perfectly healed.
3. "In the time of the wars with the Indians we were
not only preseved from the heathen in the midst of the
heathen, but by the Lords making some of them to be a
wall of defence unto us; and thus were saved by a des-
troying means.
And at this time the providence of God was very
remarkable in preserving many of our people in one of
our garrisons, who were driven to garrison several houses;
and the house of which now I speak did contain about
sixty persons; and in this house one of the souldiers
taking a gun loaden with bullets into his hand, as he
stood in a lower room, the lock being half bent, and he
holding the gun right upwards, the gun was discharged;
though many people were in the chamber, yet none of
them suffered any harm, because Providence did guid the
shot into the summer-that piece of timber which is the
support of the chamber.
"Also, one in the same house, looking with a candle
under a bed for something he wanted, fired some flax,
which filled the room with flame and smoke; and two
small children lay sleeping in this peril, but were preserved
258
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
喙
​from the fire or any harm by the throng of people in the
room. At length one of the children was taken up by one
of the men, with a purpose of throwing it out of the
chamber window; but at that very moment there was
such an abatement of the flame, and hope that the worst
of the danger was past, that he held the child in his
arms; and yet presently after the fire brake out again in
the uppermost room in the house, nigh to a barrel of gun-
powder; but some were guided, strengthened, and suc-
ceeded in their endeavour to the extinguishing the fire;
so that the lives and limbs and goods of all these was
preserved by the good hand of God, who doth wonder-
fully when we know not what to do.
4. "One of the children of the church (grown up,
though not in full communion) was left to fall into a most
notorious abominable practice, which did occasion the
church to meet and humble their souls by fasting and
prayer; and at this time, in the sermon and prayer, it
was declared, that the Lord had determined either to
bring our children nearer to him, and not to suffer them
to live out of full communion with his church, or else he
would in his anger leave them to such abominations as
shall cut them off from his church. And since this time
many young people have, by the grace of the Lord, been
prepared for full communion, and have taken hold of the
covenant, confessing that they have felt the impression of
that Work upon that abashing occasion spoken. And
thus the fall of one hath been the rising of many. Where
sin abounds the Lord can make grace to superabound."
Concerning some Personal Deliverances.
"There was a young man endeavouring to subdue a
PERSONAL DELIVERANCES.
259
>
young horse; and a rope at one end of it was fastned
about the horses neck, but the horse running with great
speed, the other end of the rope caught the foot of this
young man, as in a snare, and was so entangled therein,
that he was drawn ten rods upon his back in a very rough
and uneven place of land, he being unable to free himself,
and none at hand that could help him; and thus it being
come to this extremity, the horse of himself stood still so
long, and no longer time, than that the young man did
clear his foot out of the rope; and thus was delivered out
of the danger, and suffered not a broken bone, nor any
considerable bruise or harm.
"There was another young man, who sat upon a
plough-beam, and suddenly his cattle moving, his plough
turned, and one of his legs were entangled within the
plough, and the plough irons pressing hard against some
part of his body, but could not free himself; and the more
he called to the cattle the more speedily they moved, and
thus was in danger of being torn in pieces; but in this
extremity it was not long before the cattle of themselves
stood still.
"There was another young man, who did fall about
ten foot from some part of the mill timber into deep
waters, and a place of many rocks, a stream very violent,
and he was carried about eleven rod down the stream,
where there was a great piece of ice; and while he was in
this confounded and amazed posture, his hand was guided
to take hold of that ice, and there to hold, until one who
saw him fall, did adventure upon that ice, and drew him
out of the waters, and thus they were both delivered.
"There was a very aged man among us, who, riding in
his cart over a river; and when the cattle were coming
1
260
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
out of the river, he endeavoured to come out of the cart;
but he did fall down so nigh to the wheel, that it began
to press hard against his breast; and he only speaking to
the cattle, they stood still, and ceased moving till he was
removed out of the danger, otherwise, if they had moved
a few inches more, he had been prest to death."
Thus far is Mr. Fitch's narrative. Had all others been
as diligent in observing the works of God, as this worthy
person has, the account of New-Englands Remarkables
would have been more full and compleat. But other
things must be left for another attempt of this kind.
I
shall only add at present, that there have been many
sudden deaths in this countrey which should not pass
without some remark; for when such strokes are multi-
plied there is undoubtedly a speaking voice of Providence
therein; and so it hath been with us in New-England
this last year, and most of all the last summer.
To my
observation in August last, within the space of three or
four weeks, there were twelve sudden deaths (and it may
be others have observed more than I did), some of them
being in respect of sundry circumstances exceeding awful.
Let me only add here that sudden death is not alwayes a
judgment unto those who are taken out of an evil world:
it may be a mercy to them, and a warning unto others, as
the prophet Ezekiels wife was. Many of whom the world
was not worthy, have been so removed out of it. Moses
died suddenly, and so have some excellent persons in this
countrey done. Governour Eaton at New-Haven, and
Governour Haines at Hartford, died in their sleep without
being sick. That excellent man of God, Mr. Norton, as
he was walking in his house in this Boston, was taken
•
SUDDEN DEATHS.
261
with a syncope, fell down dead, and never spake more.
The like has hapned to other servants of God in other
parts of the world. Famous Mr. Vines, on a Lords Day,
after he had preached and administered the sacrament,
went to bed well, and went to heaven that night. Nor
is there any rule or reason for Christians to pray abso-
lutely against sudden death. Some holy men have, with
submission to the will of the Most High, desired and
prayed for such a death; so did Mr. Capel, and God gave
him his desire; for on September 21, 1656, having
preached twice that day, and performed religious duties
with his family, went to bed, and died immediately. The
like is reported by Dr. Fuller, in his Church History,
concerning that angelical man, Mr. Brightman, who would
often pray (if God saw fit) that he might die rather a
sudden than a lingring death, and so it came to pass; for,
as he was travelling in the coach with Sir John Osborne,
and reading of a book (for he would lose no time), he was
taken with a fainting fit, and, though instantly taken out
in the arms of one there present, and all means possible
used for his recovery, he there died, August 24, 1607.
The learned and pious Wolfius (not the divine who has
written commentaries on several parts of the Scriptures,
but he that published Lectionum Memorabilium et Re-
conditarum Centenarios), on May 23, 1600, being in
usual health, was, after he had dined, surprised with a
sudden illness, whereof he died within a few hours. That
holy man, Jacobus Faber, who did and suffered great
things for the name of Christ, went suddenly into the
silent grave. On a day when some friends came to visit
him, after he had courteously entertained them, he laid
himself down upon his bed to take some repose, and no
262
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES.
sooner shut his eyes, but his heaven-born soul took its
flight into the world of souls.
The man who being in Christ, shall alwayes be doing
something for God, may bid death welcome whenever it
shall come, be it never so soon, never so suddenly.
PSALM III, 2.
גדלים מעשי יהוה דרושים
לבל־הבציהם
תם
FINIS.
AN ESSAY
FOR THE
RECORDING
OF
Illustrious Providences:
Wherein an Account is given of many Remarkable
and very Memorable Events, which have
hapned this last Age,
ESPECIALLY IN NEW-ENGLAND.
By INCREASE MATHER,
Teacher of a Church at Boston in New-England.
Psal. 107. 8. Oh that men would praise the Lord
for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the
Children of Men.
Psal. 145. 4. One Generation shall praise thy works
to another, and shall declare thy mighty Acts.
BOSTON IN NEW-ENGLAND,
Printed by Samuel Green for Joseph Browning and are
to be sold at his Shop at the corner of the Prison-
Lane next the Town-House. 1684.

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