Page:Wonderful progidies (sic) of judgment and mercy.pdf/55

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divers Magicians and Witches.
55

the book, and there met with the bond; and reading of it, was much affrighted; and not knowing what to do, he went to Dr. Cramerus, profeſſor of divinity in that univerſity, to ask his advice; who wiſhed him to keep the bond; the other replied, He durſt not; then ſaid the doctor, Bring it to me, and I will keep it. Some few nights after, as the doctor was in his ſtudy, the devil came rapping at his ſtudy door, ſaying, Cramer, Cramer, Give me my bond, for it belongs to me, and thou haſt nothing to do with it; to whom the doctor anſwered, Satan, thou ſhalt not have the bond; thou haſt nothing to do with it; I have put t where thou canſt not fetch it; for it is in my Bible at the third chapter of Geneſis, where theſe words are, The ſeed of the woman ſhall break the ſerpent's head: upon which the devil went his way, taking the chamber window with him, and the young man never heard of him afterward.—Beard's Theatre.


XX. A young man at Wittenburg in Saxony, being kept ſhort of money by his father, was tempted by the devil to yield himſelf body and ſoul to him, upon condition to have his wiſhes ſatisfied, and his neceſſities ſupplied; which he, being pinched with want, conſented to, and confirmed it by a bond, written with his own blood: but preſently after he began to decay in his bodily health; and being thereupon brought to Martin Luther, and by him examined, he, at length, confeſſed the whole matter to him; which, when Luther heard, he aſſembled the whole congregation together; and all of them joined together, and prayed for him, whereby the devil at laſt was forced to bring the bond, and to throw it into the window amongſt them, bidding the young man to take it to him again. On a time, as Luther was walking in his garden, the devil appeared to him in the likeneſs of a black boar; but he