k down at the Look or cast of the Eye of
another, and after that recovered again by a Touch from the same Person,
Is not this an infallible Proof, that the Person suspected and
complained of is in League with the Devil?_

_Answer;_ It must be owned that by such things as these Witchcrafts and
Witches have been discovered more than once or twice: And that an ill
Fame, or other Circumstances attending the suspected Party, this may be
a Ground for Examination; but this alone does not afford sufficient
Matter for Conviction: As _Spectres_ or _Devils_ appearing in the Shapes
of Men that have been murdered, declaring that they were murdered by
such Persons and in such a place, may give just occasion to the
Magistrate for Enquiry into the Matter: One great Witch-Advocate[49]
confesseth, that by this means Murders have been brought to light; yet
that alone, if other Circumstances did not concur, would not by the Law
of God take away the Life of any Man. If my Reader pleaseth, he shall
hear what old Mr. _Bernard_ of _Batcomb_ saith to a Case not unlike to
this, and the former: His Words are these,[50] 'The naming of the
suspected in their Fits, and also where they have been, and what they
have done here or there, as Mr. _Throgmorton's_ Children could do, and
that often and ever found true; this is a great Presumption: yet is this
but a Presumption, because this is only the Devils Testimony, who can
lie, and that more often than speak Truth. Christ would not allow his
Witness of him in a point most true; nor St. _Paul_ in the due Praises
of him and _Sylas_; his Witness then may not be received as sufficient
in case of ones Life: He may accuse an Innocent, as I shewed before in
Mr. _Edmund's_ giving over his Practice to find Stollen Goods; and Satan
we read would accuse _Job_ to God himself to be an Hypocrite, and to be
ready to be a Blasphemer, and he is called the Accuser of the Brethren.
Albeit, I cannot deny but this has very often proved true, yet seeing
the Devil is such an one as you heard, Christian Men should not take his
Witness, to give in Verdict upon Oath, and so swear that the Devil has
therein spoken the Truth; be it far from good men to confirm any Word of
the Devil by Oath, if it be not an evident Truth without the Devil's
Testimony, who in speaking the Truth, has a lying Intent, and speaks
some Truths of things done, which may be found to be so, that he may
wrap with them some pernicious Lye, which cannot be tried