And it is good for men to concern themselves with them as little as may be.
I think there is weight in Dr. _Cotta's_[70] Argument, _viz._
_That the Gift of healing the Sick and Possessed, was a special Grace and Favour of God, for the Confirmation of the Truth of the Gospel, but that such a Gift should be annexed to the Touch of Wicked Witches, as an infallible sign of their guilt, is not easie to be believed._ It is a thing well known, that if a person possessed by an Evil Spirit, is (as oft it so happens) never so outragious whilst a good man is Praying with and for the Afflicted, let him lay his hand on them, and the Evil Spirit is quiet. I hope this is no evidence of any Covenant, or voluntary Communion between the Good Man that is Praying and the Evil Spirit; no more does the Case before us evince any such thing.
4. _There are that Question the Lawfulness of the Experiment._ For if this healing power in the Witch is not a Divine but a Diabolical Gift, it may be dangerous to meddle too much with it. If the Witch may be ordered to touch afflicted Persons in order to their healing 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. Dæmon. Cap. 6._) have required suspected Witches to pronounce over the afflicted persons, these words, _I bless thee in the Name of the Father, &c._ upon which they have immediately recovered; but is the dark day come upon us, that such Superstitions as these shall be practised in _New-England_: The Lord Jesus forbid it. See _Baldwin's_ Testimony against the Practice of the _Camera Imperialis_, Cas. Consc. L. 3. c. 3. p. 634.