HKB
a crime punishable by law, those persons who were accused of witchcraft were tortured, in order to compel them to own that they had attended the Sabbath of the Devil.
Another fact will now be stated, to show what ideas of the Devil's influence prevailed in England and Scotland, in the days of Elizabeth. James the First, of England, who, succeeding Elizabeth, was born in 1566, was the only direct heir to the Crown of Scotland, and had a prospect of succeeding Elizabeth in England, which he did on the death of the Queen. James had witnessed a great number of prosecutions for witchcraft, in Scotland, in the reign of Mary; and he, as might be expected, most firmly believed that the Devil was very active in the country of his birth; so that, when he came to the Crown of England, his mind was di-rected to put a stop to the prevailing crime of witchcraft and to break up the Devil's Sabbath, he believing that numbers of his English subjects were visitors to those unholy meetings. A circumstance will now be mentioned which will fully prove what views the people of England and Scotland had of the activity of the Devil in drawing persons into his service and kingdom; for it is impossible to evade the truth, that the existence and opposition of the Devil against the progress of the Gospel, was strengthened by what had been recorded of the Devil in the New Testament.
James the First, of England, is here cited to show what was then the prevailing opinion of the existence of witchcraft in that kingdom. And although it is painful to reflect on the sufferings of thousands, it may, by its recital, assist those who are still somewhat in darkness, to discover how the human race have been deluded. James the First had fixed his mind on a daughter of the King of Denmark. A splendid embassy was sent from England to conclude the treaty of marriage, and to bring home James's royal consort; but the ships met with violent storms, and instead of arriving at the capital of Scotland, the news came that the ship in which the Princess had taken passage, was driven back on the coast of Norway; nothing uncommon m these seas at that, season of the year. The King, being disappointed, sailed to the place where the shattered ships lay, and the marriage was consummated; and the King and Queen remained at Copenhagen, and did not arrive at Edinburgh until the first of May, 1590. The storm was, after their return, considered to be the result of some supernatural interference.