A Vindication of the Surey Demoniack as no Impostor, &c.
I Said before that I am not accountable for every thing in the Book called the Surey Demoniack, so neither am I to answer all the Book called the ••urey Impostor, Mr. T. hath engaged Hands enough besides: now I add that, through the Grace of God, I shall not deal with Mr. T. in the way and manner he hath dealt with me. Indeed I must now deal with him in a publick way; but as he the first Printing Aggressor might have saved the trouble of so speedy publishing the Surey Narrative, if he had in a Christian Brotherly private way sought an opportunity for satisfaction as to that case at first: so might he, it may be, have saved himself the pains of Preaching and Printing against us afterward, if he had when he was so near some of us sought to be satisfied in the said way, as to the said Narrative.
Mr. T. is very liberal in his Title Page and all along to bestow on us at random the Imputation of Fanaticism and Enthusiasm: But let him take heed lest he brands not the Experiences of God's special Grace, and the special assistance of his Spirit, (tho human Infirmities do ac∣company the same) with the odious Name of the Diabolical Enthu∣siasm of Heathenish Fanes: And so be found guilty of a Sin, if not the Sin against the Holy Ghost.
As to the manner of my dealing with him, I hope to deal with him in such a Spirit as becomes my Profession and Age, however he hath dealt with me.
Mr. T. chargeth me as declaring it to be as real a Possession as any in the Gospel; this he saith, without any Proof that I said it. Yet I shall be so ingenuous as to give it him now under my hand that it seems probable to me, according to all the Indications I meet with in approved Authors, on that Subject, that it was a Possession, or an Obsession, as commonly called: For what more probable signs thereof can any one assign? Yea may I not modestly say that there seem'd to be as many signs of Possession, or Obsession, as in most, if not in any, of those recorded in the Evangelick History? Indeed in the manner of dispossessing there is a vast difference.