. kands, thus governing the world? none. Surely this will make us either fecretly to think that there is no God at all in the world, if he must needs be fuch, or elfe to with heartily there were But doubtlefs God will at laft confute all these our mifapprehenfions of him; he will unmask our hypocritical pretences, and clearly caft the fhame of all our finful deficiencies upon ourfelves, and vindicate his own glory from receiving the leaft ftain or blemish by them. In the mean time, let us know that the gofpel now requireth far more of us than the law did; for it requireth a new creature; a divine nature; Chrift formed in us: but yet withal it beftoweth a quickening fpirit, an enlivening power to enable us to exprefs that which is required. Whofoever therefore truly knows. Chrift, the fame alfo keepeth his commandments. But he that faith I know him, and keepeth not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. [To be continued.] མག་རིག་འགའི་བབ་ཅེབ་རའི་ལུ་གུ་བ་བདེན་པ་ཤེབ A true Relation of the chief things which an evil Spirit did and faid at Mafcon, in Burgundy. [Continued from page 371.] HE next day I gave notice to the Elders of the Church. THE Yea, I thought fit to make it known to Mr. Francis Tornus, a Royal Notary, of Mafcon, although he was a Roman Catholic, and very jealous of his religion. Since that time, both he and all the others to whom I had imparted it, did not fail to vifit me every evening, either together or by turns, as long as it continued, fitting up with me till midnight, and fometimes longer. The first and fome following nights, the wicked fpirit kept himfelf from making a noife in their prefence, as not willing to to be known to them. But upon the 20th of September, about nine o'clock, in prefence of us all, he began to whistle. three or four times with a very loud and fhrill tone, and prefently to frame an articulate voice, though fomewhat hoarfe, which feemed to be about three or four fteps from us. He pronounced these words, finging vingt & deux deniers, that is, two and twenty-pence, a little tune of five notes which whistling birds are taught to fing. After that, he repeated many times this word, Minifler, Minifter. Becaufe that voice was very terrible to us, at the first, I was long before I would anfwer any thing to that word, but only, Get thee from me Satan: the Lord rebuke thee. But as he was repeating very often the word Minifter, I was provoked to tell him, Yes indeed I am a Minifter, a fervant of the living God, before whofe Majesty thou trembleft. To which he answered, I fay nothing to the contrary. And, I replied, I have no need of thy teftimony. Yet he continued to fay the fame, as if he would win us to a favourable opinion of him. Then he would offer to transform himfelf into an angel of light, faying of his own accord, and very loud, the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, the morning and evening Prayers, and the ten Commandments. It is true that he did always clip and leave out fome part of it, He fung alfo with a loud voice, part of the 81ft Pfalm. Then faid many things which might be true, as fome particular paffages belonging to my family and among other things, that my father had been poifoned; naming the man that did it, and why, and fpecifying the place, and the manner of the poison, That very night, he faid he came from Pais de Vaux; that he had paffed through the village of Allagmone; which is in Ballioge de Goz, at the door of my eldest brother's house, where he had feen him, with M. Du Pan, Minifter of Thoiry. That they were ready to go to fupper together at my brother's houfe. That they were neighbours and dear friends, That he had faluted them, and asked whether they had any thing to command him to deliver to me, because he was going to to Mafcon. That they had fhewed themselves very kind to him and defired him to remember their love to me; yea, and had invited him to drink with them. Thou wicked fiend (faid I to the fpirit) had they known thee, they would not have been fo kind to thee. Some truth there was in his flory, for M. Du Pan hath fince told me and many others, that he remembered very well how at that very time a man of fuch a shape, riding on a very lean horfe, who hung down his head, had spoken with them, and that such difcourfes paft between them. The Demon told us alfo of another brother of mine living in the vale of the Lake de Joux, in the country of Vaux, laying, that one day when fome of our near kindred were come to visit him, he, to give them fome recreation, made them go upon the lake without a boat, upon floating wood tied together: and that they being far on the lake a stormy wind arofe, which conftrained them to return in hafte to the shore. Not far from which all that floating wood was overturned, and they all well-nigh drowned. Which form he affirmed to be of his raifing. The relation of that paffage being very true, it may be true alfo that he had raifed that wind, as we read in the book of Job, that Satan raised a great wind that made the houfe fall Another night the Demon fpeaking to Claude Repay, a bleacher of linen cloth, one of them that used to come to me at night, afked him whether he remembered not that upon such a day, after he had fet in order fome pieces of cloth and fkeins of yarn, he found them awhile after removed out of that place and out of order, and then said, that it was his doing. He afked another bleacher called Philbert Guillermin, who was alfo in the company, whether he remembered not that one day as he was flooping to turn fome pieces of cloth and fkeins of yarn, lying upon the grafs, fomething pulled him by the fkirts of his doublet, and made him go back two or three fteps, and that next even ing as he lay in his bleaching houfe, his hat which he had hanged hanged on a nail by his bed-fide was flung at his face, and made him flart out of his fleep. That (faid he) was of my doing. Both Repay and Guillermin acknowledged that thefe things happened to them. Philbert Guillermin's brother, a merchant of Lavan, coming from Lyons, lodged in his brother's houfe, and had a mind to vifit me the firft night: but his brother would not let him. The Demon failed not to tell us of it, faying, I know why M. Philbert came not last night. His brother had a good mind to have beflowed a vifit upon us, but Philbert diffuaded him, because he would not that his brother fhould hear what noife we keep in this houfe. He fpake alfo of a late quarrel betwixt one James Berard; a cutler of Mafcon, and one Samuel du Mont, who had for beaten the faid Berard that he had brought him to death's door, which was true, and told many particulars of that quarrel, which were not known. He told us how at the late fair of St. Laurence, upon which the citizens of Mafcon march in arms under their feveral colours, one Francis Chick yard had been hurt in the leg, which afterwards being gangrened was cut off. And he named the man that had fhot him, and he had done it to be revenged of Chickyard, to whom he bore a malice. Another night the Demon fpeaking to one of our company, told him fuch fecret things that the man who affirmed never to have told them to any perfon, came to believe that the Devil knew his thoughts. Then he began to mock God and all Religion, and faying Gloria Patri he skipt over the fecond perfon, and upon the' third perfon he made a foul and deteftible equivocation. Whereupon I being incenfed, told the wicked Spirit, he fhould have faid, Glory be to the Father, Creator of heaven' and earth, and to his Son Jefus Chrift, who hath destroyed the works of the devil. He then defired us with great earneftnefs, that we fhould fend for M. Du Chaffin, the Popish Parfon Parfon of St. Stephen's Parish to whom he would confefs himfelf, and that he would not fail to bring holy water with him: for that (faid he) would send me packing presently. We wondered that the dog of the house who used to bark at the least noife, yet never barked at the loud speaking and hideous noife of the Demon. He faid of his own accord, You wonder that the dog barketh not, it is because I made the fign of the cross upon his head. Then he fell a fcoffing, and among other things faid that he was one of those that scaled the walls of Geneva, and that the ladder being broken he fell from the wall into the ditch, where he had been near to be eaten of the frogs, whese croaking he perfectly imitated. [To be concluded in our next.] Mr. BEDFORD's Account of THOMAS PERKS: in a Letter to the Bishop of GLOUCESTER. My Lord, BE Briftol, Aug. 2, 1703. EING informed by Mr. Shute of your Lordship's defire, that I fhould communicate to you what I had known concerning a certain person, who lately lived near this city, I have made bold to give you the trouble of this Letter, hoping my defire to gratify your Lordship in every particular, may be an apology for the length hereof. About thirteen years ago, whilft I was Curate to Dr. Read, Rector of St. Nicholas, in this city, I began to be acquainted with one Thomas Perks, a man about twenty years of age; who lived with his father at Mangotsfield, by trade a Gunfmith, and contracted an intimate acquaintance with him, he being not only a very good tempered man, but extremely well skilled in Mathematical Studies. His conftant delight was in Arithmetic, Geometry, Gauging, Surveying, AstroVOL. V. nomy Fff |