than _Mercies_, and in some other things the Entertainment did a little vary. _Sect._ 3. 'twas upon the _Lords Day_ the 10th of _September_, in the Year 1693. that _Margaret Rule_, after some hours of previous disturbance in the Publick Assembly, fell into odd _Fits_, which caused her Friends to carry her home, where her _Fits_ in a few hours grew into a Figure that satisfied the Spectators of their being preternatural; some of the Neighbours were forward enough to suspect the rise of this Mischief in an House hard-by, where lived a Miserable Woman, who had been formerly Imprisoned on the suspicion of _Witchcraft_, and who had frequently Cured very painfull Hurts by muttering over them certain _Charms_, which I shall not indanger the Poysoning of my Reader by repeating. This Woman had the Evening before _Margaret_ fell into her Calamities, very bitterly treated her, and threatn'd her; but the hazard of hurting a poor Woman that might be innocent, notwithstanding _Surmizes_ that might have been more strongly grounded than those, caus'd the pious People in the Vicinity to try rather whether incessant _Supplication_ to God [4] _alone_, might not procure a quicker and safer Ease to the _Afflicted_, than hasty Prosecution of any suppos'd Criminal, and accordingly that _unexceptionable course_ was all that was ever followed; yea, which I look'd on as a token for good, the Afflicted Family was as averse as any of us all to entertain thoughts of any other course. _Sect._ 4. The Young Woman was assaulted by Eight cruel _spectres_, whereof she imagin'd that she knew _three_ or _four_, but the rest came still with their _Faces cover'd_, so that she could never have a distinguishing view of the countenance of those whom she thought she knew; she was very careful of my reitterated charges _to forbear blazing the names_, lest any good Person should come to suffer any blast of Reputation thro' the cunning Malice of the great Accuser; nevertheless having since privately named _them_ to myself, I will venture to say _this_ of them, that they are a sort of _Wretches_, who for these many years have gone under as Violent _Presumptions_ of _Witchcraft_, as perhaps any creatures yet living upon earth; altho' I am farr from thinking that the Visions of this Young Woman were Evidence enough to prove them so. These cursed _Spectres_ now brought unto her a _Book_ about a _Cubet_ long, a _Book Red_ and _thick_, but not very broad, and they demanded of her that she would set _her Hand_ to that _Book_, or touch it at least with her _Hand_, as a Sign of her becoming a Servant of the _Devil_, upon her peremptory refusal _to do_ what they asked, they did not after renew the profers of the _Book_ unto her, but instead thereof, they fell to Tormenting of her in a manner too Hellish to be sufficiently described, in those Torments confining her to her _Bed_, for just _Six weeks_ together.