Witchcraft in America. Charles Wentworth Upham

and Execution. This did the rarest King that ever lived caused to be done, viz. Josiah, 2 Kings 23.24. The Workers with familiar Spirits and the Wizzards, that were spied in the Land of Judah, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the Words of the Law. It seems there were some that sought to hide those Workers of Iniquity, but that incomparable King spied them out, and rid the Land and the World of them.

      Q. But then the Enquiry is, What is sufficient Proof?

      A. This Case has been with great Judgment answered by several Divines of our own, particularly by Mr. Perkins, and Mr. Bernard; also Mr. John Gaul a worthy Minister at Staughton, in the County of Huntington, has published a very Judicious Discourse, called, Select Cases of Conscience touching Witches and Witchcrafts, Printed at London A.D. 1646. wherein he does with great Prudence and Evidence of Scripture light handle this and other Cases: Such Jurors as can obtain those Books, I would advise them to read, and seriously as in the fear of God to consider them, and so far as they keep to the Law and to the Testimony, and speak according to that Word, receive the Light which is in them. But the Books being now rare to be had, let me express my Concurrence with them in these two particulars.

      1. That a free and voluntary Confession of the Crime made by the Person suspected and accused after Examination, is a sufficient Ground of Conviction.

Indeed, If Persons are Distracted, or under the Power of Phrenetick Melancholy, that alters the Case; but the Jurors that examine them, and their Neighbours that know them, may easily determine that Case; or if Confession be extorted,85 the Evidence is not so clear and convictive; but if any Persons out of Remorse of Conscience, or from a Touch of God in their Spirits, confess and shew their Deeds, as the Converted Magicians in Ephesus did, Acts 19.18, 19. nothing can be more clear. Suppose a Man to be suspected for Murder, or for committing a Rape, or the like nefandous Wickedness, if he does freely confess the Accusation, that's ground enough to Condemn him. The Scripture approveth of Judging the wicked Servant out of his own Mouth, Luke 19.22. It is by some objected, that Persons in Discontent may falsly accuse themselves. I say, if they do so, and it cannot be proved that they are false Accusers of themselves, they ought to dye for their Wickedness, and their Blood will be upon their own Heads; the Jury, the Judges, and the Land is Clear: I have read a very sad and amazing, and yet a true Story to this purpose.

There was in the Year 1649, in a Town called Lauder in Scotland, a certain woman accused and imprisoned on suspicion of Witchcraft, when others in the same Prison with her were Convicted, and their Execution ordered to be on the Monday following, she desired to speak with a Minister, to whom she declared freely that she was guilty of Witchcraft, acknowledging also many other Crimes committed by her, desiring that she might die with the rest: She said particularly that she had Covenanted with the Devil, and was become his Servant about twenty years before, and that he kissed her and gave her a Name, but that since he had never owned her. Several Ministers who were jealous that she accused herself untruly, charged it on her Conscience, telling her that they doubted she was under a Temptation of the Devil to destroy her own Body and Soul, and adjuring her in the Name of God to declare the Truth: Notwithstanding all this, she stifly adhered to what she had said, and was on Monday morning Condemned, and ordered to be Executed that day. When she came to the place of Execution, she was silent until the Prayers were ended, then going to the Stake where she was to be Burnt, she thus expressed herself, All you that see me this day! Know ye that I am to die as a Witch, by my own Confession! and I free all Men, especially the Ministers and Magistrates, from the guilt of my Blood, I take it wholly on my self, and as I must make answer to the God of Heaven, I declare I am as free from Witchcraft as any Child, but being accused by a Malicious Woman, and Imprisoned under the Name of a Witch, my Husband and Friends disowned me, and seeing no hope of ever being in Credit again, through the Temptation of the Devil, I made that Confession to destroy my own Life, being weary of it, and chusing rather to Die than to Live. This her lamentable Speech did astonish all the Spectators, few of whom could restrain from Tears. The Truth of this Relation (saith my Author86) is certainly attested by a worthy Divine now living, who was an Eye and an Ear-Witness of the whole matter; but thus did that miserable Creature suffer Death, and this was a just Execution. When the Amalekite confessed that he killed Saul, whom he had no legal Authority to meddle with, although 'tis probable that he belyed himself, David gave order for his Execution, and said to him, Thy Blood be upon thy Head, for thy Mouth hath Testified against thee, 2 Sam. 1.16. But as for the Testimony of Confessing Witches against others, the case is not so clear as against themselves, they are not such credible Witnesses, as in a Case of Life and Death is to be desired: It is beyond dispute, that the Devil makes his Witches to dream strange things of themselves and others which are not so. There was (as Authors beyond Exception relate) in appearance a sumptuous Feast prepared, the Wine and Meat set forth in Vessels of Gold; a certain Person whom an amorous young Man had fallen in Love with, was represented and supposed to be really there; but Apollonius Tyanæus87 discovered the Witchery of the Business, and in an instant all vanished, and nothing but dirty Coals were to be seen: The like to this is mentioned in the Arausican Council. There were certain Women that imagined they rode upon Beasts in the Night, and that they had Diana and Herodius in company with them, besides a Troop of other Persons; the Council giveth this Sentence on it; Satanas qui se transfigurat in Angelum Lucis, transformat se in diversarum personarum species, & mentem quam captivam tenet, in somnis deludit. Satan transforms himself into the likeness of divers Persons, and deludes the Souls that are his Captives with Dreams and Fancies; see Dr. Willet on 1 Sam. 28. p. 165. What Credit can be given to those that say they can turn Men into Horses? If so, they can as well turn Horses into Men; but all the Witches on Earth in Conjunction with all the Devils in Hell, can never make or unmake a rational Soul, and then they cannot transform a Bruit into a Man, nor a Man into a Bruit; so that this Transmutation is fantastical. The Devil may and often does impose on the Imaginations of his Witches and Vassals, that they believe themselves to be Converted into Beasts, and reverted into Men again; as Nebuchadnezzar whilst under the Power of a Dæmon really imagined himself to be an Ox, and would lye out of Doors and eat Grass: The Devil has inflicted on many a Man the Disease called Lycanthropia, from whence they have made lamentable Complaints of their being Wolves: In a word, there is no more Reality in what many Witches confess of strange things seen or done by them, whilst Satan had them in his full Power, than there is in Lucian's ridiculous Fable of his being Bewitched into an Asse, and what strange Feats he then played; so that what such persons relate concerning Persons and Things at Witch-meetings, ought not to be received with too much Credulity.

      I could mention dismal Instances of Innocent Blood which has been shed by means of the Lies of some Confessing Witches; there is a very sad Story mentioned in the Preface to the Relation of the Witchcrafts in Sweedland, how that in the Year 1676, at Stockholm, a young Woman accused her own Mother (who had indeed been a very bad Woman, but not guilty of Witchcraft,) and Swore that she had carried her to the Nocturnal Meetings of Witches, upon which the Mother was burnt to Death. Soon after the Daughter came crying and howling before the Judges in open Court, declaring, that to be revenged on her Mother for an Offence received, she had falsely accused her with a Crime which she was not guilty of; for which she also was justly Executed. A most wicked Man in France freely confessed himself to be a Magician, and accused many others, whose Lives were thereupon taken from them; and a whole Province had like to have been ruined thereby, but the Impostor was discovered: The Confessing pretended Wizzard was burnt at Paris in the year 1668. I shall only take notice further of an awful Example mentioned by A. B. Spotswood in his History of Scotland, p. 449. His words are these, 'This Summer (viz. Anno 1597.) there was a great business for the Tryal of Witches, amongst others, one Margaret Atkin being apprehended on suspicion, and threatned with Torture, did confess herself Guilty; being examined touching her Associates in that Trade, she named a few, and perceiving her Delations find Credit, made offer to detect all of that sort, and to purge the Country of them; so she