ing or recovery
out of a sick Fit, why may not the Diseased Person be as well ordered to
touch the Witch for the same cause? And if to touch him, why not to
scratch him and fetch Blood out of him, which is but an harder kind of
touch? But as for this Mr. _Perkins_ doubts not to call it a _Practice
of Witchcraft_. It is not safe to meddle with any of the Devils
Sacraments or Institutions; _For my own part, I should be loath to say
to a Man, that I knew or thought was a Witch, do you look on such a
Person, and see if you can Witch them into a Fit, and there is such an
afflicted Person do you take them by the Hand, and see if you can Witch
them well again. If it is by vertue of some Contract with the Devil that
witches have Power to do such things, it is hard to conceive how they
can be bid to do them, without being too much concerned in that Hellish
Covenant._ I take it to be (as elsewhere[71] I have expressed) a solid
Principle, which the Learned _Sennertus_ insists on, _viz._ _That they
who force another to do that which he cannot possibly do, but by vertue
of a Compact with the Devil, have themselves implicitely Communion with
the Diabolical Covenant._ The Devil is pleased and honoured when any of
his Institutions are made use of; this way of discovering Witches, is no
better than that of putting the Urine of the afflicted Person into a
Bottle, that so the Witch may be tormented and discovered: The Vanity
and Superstition of which practice I have formerly shewed, and testified
against. _There was a Conjurer his name was +Edward Drake+[72] who
taught a Man to use that Experiment for the Relief of his afflicted
Daughter, who found benefit thereby;_ But we ought not to practice
Witchcraft to discover Witches, nor may we make use of a _White healing
Witch_ (as they call them) to find out a _Black and Bloody one_. And how
did men first come to know that Witches would be discovered in such
ways as these, which have been mentioned? If Satan himself were the
first Discoverer (as there is reason to believe) the experiment must
needs have deceit in it. See Dr. Willet on _Exod. 7._ _Quest. 9._ And
such Experiments better become Pagans or Papists than Professors in
_New-England_; whereas 'tis pleaded, that such things are practised by
the Judges of the Imperial Chamber, I reply, that those Judges (as
_Bodin_ relates, _Lib. 3. Daemon. Cap. 6._) have required suspected
Witches to pronounce over the afflicted persons, these words, _I b