Strange News
from Kent.
A true narrative of a young maid who was possess'd with several devils or evil spirits, one of which, by the prayers of a pious and religious doctor who came to visit her, was fetch'd out of her body, and appear'd in the room in the likeness of a large snake and twisted itself about the doctor's neck whilst he was at his devotion.
With an account also of other devils which yet remain in her, and reveal several strange things, the like never heard before, of which the contents within will give you a particular account.
This narrative is attested by several persons of credit, but amonst many others by one Mrs. Hopper, a person of worth and good reputation, whom you may speak with at the sign of the Bell and Dragon in White's Alley, in Chancery Lane, who was there present whilst this accident happened.
London.
Printed for R.G.,
1679.
WHAT scope and power the Almighty is pleas'd to alot
the Prince of Darkness and his evil spirits,
would be more becoming the business of a large volume
than a little sheet.
SOME divines have indeed endeavoured to guess at it,
but none of them ever perfectly desided it.
I shall not therefore trouble my Reader
with any tedious harangue
of several men's opinions
in this particular,
but presently fall on the strange circumstances
of this wonderful narrative,
the particulars whereof
are of sufficient validity
to confirm the most staggering and unresolved Christian,
and to convert the most impudent and incredulous Atheist
in the whole world.
THE person nominated in the title page,
who attests the verity of this relation,
happening to have some near relations
who lived very near the place
where this occurrence happened,
chanced some time since
to give them a visit,
and hearing
- as soon as she arrived there -
a general wonder,
and seeing a universal consternation
appearing almost in everyone's countenance,
at this young maid's being possess'd
with the Devil or evil spirits,
which for some time were heardto talk and shriek within her.
SHE had a great curiosity
to become an eye-witness
of what everyone reported to be so miraculous,
partly to satisfy her own incredulity,
and partly that she might credibly inform others
of what had been so often told herself.
CONTRIVING in this resolution,
she made farther inquiry after this business,
whereby she understood
that those Devils or evil spirits
which inhabited in this miserable creature,
like those which possess'd Saul,
were not at all times injurious alike,
but sometimes suffer'd her a little freedom
from their unruly and incompassionate rage.
SHE was farther informed
that an eminant doctor,
whom she had long known,
was the maid's greatest visitant.
He,
by the double assistance
of his devotion and physick
had been much more effectual
than all other means
used towards the mitigating
or assuaging
of her violent fits.
SO the attestor hereof,
because she would see the utmost,
chose out such an opportunity
to go visit this possessed creature
as these fits were come upon her,
and her friend the doctor was there.
THE place
where this distressed creature lay
was at a town known
by the name of Arpington,
above three miles distant
from Bexley,
a market town in Kent,
and it was on Monday
the fifth day of this instant May
when this attestor went to see her.
WHEN she she first entered the room,
she found the maid
in the very height of one of her dreadful fits.
Dreadful I may well call them,
since those envious spirits within her
still retain their devilish natures,
had contracted her nerves,
joints and sinews,
after so wonderful a manner,
that they had almost drawn her
out of human form.
She appeared almost
a heap with a face,
though comely and well favour'd before,
yet in this fit so squeez'd
and drawn out of shape
that her nearest relations,
had not they been acquainted
with what happened before,
could not have known her.
Her teeth were set,
as at the approach of death,
and her strained eye-string
had pulled her eye-balls
an incredible way into her head.
In this dreadful posture she appear'd
when the attestor came into the room,
and found her acquaintance
Doctor Boreman
earnestly at his prayers by her,
so that all the spectators remain'd
in a great silence
and expectation
of what would be the event
of so unusual an accident.
BUT no curiosity
could be large enough to expect
what immediately happened,
for as this worthy doctor
was in the midst of his devotion,
notwithstanding the maid's teeth were so set,
and her lips as aforesaid,
yet at the very juncture
all the people might hear
these infernal spirits groan
as it were in her belly.
And whether
it were through the extreme fervency
of him who prayed,
or any other supernatural cause,
heaven only knows,
but at length,
one of these spirits
or devils
was heard
by all the spectators,
and particularly by Mrs. Hopper,
who then stood very near her,
in a dreadful tone
to speak these words
very distinctly,
Weaker and weaker!
Weaker and weaker!
which exclamation
it repeated four times over,
and then ceased.
WHAT horror,
what consternation
and amazement
did this,
or rather
did it not,
work
in the wondering autdiotrs.
SOME of them
clapp'd their hands on their hearts,
and with elevated eyes
seemed to tell the rest
that amazement
had made them lose,
or at least forget,
the use of their tongues.
Others stood still
as if they had been
metamorphised
into statues.
Others ran out the room
almost senseless,
and were sometime
before they could declare
the reason
of so sudden a surprisal.
BUT
this gentlewoman
being of an undaunted courage
was resolved to stay
and see the last
of what would happen
and therefore
stirred not out of the room
till the doctor had done,
and a little after
both she
and all that were left in the room
might again hear one of the same spirits
within her,
which had got possession
of the maid,
to bark
like a little dogg
twice together.
THIS was all
that was heard
or seen worthy
of publick remark
at this time.
BUT
on another day
wherein this poor creature
was seized in by these lamentable fits,
the same person was earnestly at prayer
on his knees by her,
when behold a far greater wonder
than we have before related
happened in the sight
of a great number of spectators
who then came to see her.
I KNOW
too many will seem incredulous,
for I know there are some people
which will not believe
there are any such things
as witches or spirits,
because they then know
they must in all reason
be induced to believe there is a God,
which by reason of a constant course
and habit of sin,
a usual custom
of flyring and laughing
at the news of a heaven or a hell,
or an eternal being in the world to come.
These would not willingly
that the substance of a deity
should be found to be true.
BUT since no reasons nor examples
will convince such obstinate humorists,
let them persist irrefractory
till startling death
with its train of terrors
open their blind eyes,
and in spite of all their unwillingness
to the contrary,
presents them with a landskip
of those infernal territories,
the gloomy habitations
of the devils
or damned souls,
where they are likely to remain
for all eternity.
IN the interim,
good Christians
will believe their eyes and senses,
and when creditably and unanimously related,
as this,
will credit the attestation of others,
and therefore
I shall boldly divulge this
as an undoubted truth:
that as the aforesaid doctor
was praying again for this distressed creature,
a live and seeming substance
forc'd its way out of her mouth
in likeness of a large serpent,
and flew to the doctor,
winding itself,
in the presence of the whole auditory,
about his neck,
where it for some time remain'd
till some of the standers by
were going to pluck it off,
at which
it immediately vanished,
and was never seen since.
THIS I say
was done before a multitude of people,
all of which are ready
to confirm it under their hands
to be a visible truth.
THERE yet remains
another of these spirits in this maid,
which many times distorts her
in the manner above mentione.
The noise of it is heard
as she goes or moves.
It will
at other times
make a hideous murmuring,
as if it disliked its present habitation,
which unparalleled wonder
people come far and near to see,
and all return with the same acknowledgement,
that they never saw nor heard
of the like all their lives.
The gentlewoman who gives her attestation to the truth of this narrative returned up to London, but on Monday last she spoke with both the maid - when her fit was mitigated - and the doctor under whose tuition she still remains, and from charitable endeavours we hope to hear of farther success, of which you may have a further relation, and the unquestionable truth of that and this, attested by several substantial witnesses.
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