[122] There was a Line of Swedish Monarchs of the Name of Biorn. The first of the Name began to reign about 829 of the present era. [123] When these _Wonders_ were written, the _Paradise Lost_ had been published twenty-five Years. The Author must have been very familiar with it, yet I have not met with any Reference to Milton in any of his Writings. [124] It may be Difficult for some to comprehend wherein the Devil was blamed; for, according to the Text he goes no further than he is commanded or permitted to go by a Power whereby he was fully and completely controlled. [125] "The pious Bishop of Norwich." He was a Cotemporary of the weak King James, and his Companion on one of his Excursions into Scotland. He was mild and temperate compared with Laud and others of his Time. He was born in Leicester about 1574, and died in Norfolk in 1656, in the 82d Year of his Age. He appears not to have been much behind Dr. Mather in speaking of the "damned Brood" of Witches. His Works are even now held in much Repute by many, and were collected and published in three heavy Folios, 1647-62. [126] The Reader may perhaps find all he will care to know respecting the Suffolk Witches in Hutchinson's _Historical Essay_, 79, _et sequen._ second Edition. But Suffolk furnishes but a small Portion of England infected by Witchcraft, and Mr. Hutchinson's Work has not the hundredth Part of them. [127] Witchcraft may be said to have been on the Wane in Old England when this of 1692-3 began in New England. Indeed there is no Comparison, as to the Extent of the Delusion between the two Countries. [128] If he _is_ such a knowing Devil as was generally supposed, he certainly must have known to a certainty the Success he was to meet with before setting out. [129] It is hardly to be inferred from the Sentiments here expressed, that the Author was among the most earnest of his blind Advocates for extreme Measures against those accused. [130] Not a good Translation, but the Sense is sufficiently apparent. Voltaire has the same in Substance in one of his "Letters concerning the English Nation." A Condition not peculiar to any Country. [131] The Time of Henry III was from 1574 to 1589. [132] Those who are familiar with the Works of Erasmus may verify the Story. He may have been, and probably was, like the Rest of the learned World, a Believer in such Nonsense. The great Poet who has contributed to his Immortality in the following Lines may not have heard of the above Story: "At length Erasmus, that great injured Name, (The Glory of the Priesthood and the Shame!) Stem'd the wild Torrent of a bar'brous Age, And drove those holy Vandals off the Stage." [133] There was about this Time a Society established in England expressly for the "Reformation of Manners," and a small octavo Volume was issued under its Auspices, setting forth the Objects and Necessity for such a Society. In it the Plantations are remembered.