118 LIVES OF THE PURITANS. she pretended to have been possessed. Also, he wrote art account of these things at some length, and communicated copies of his performance to persons of distinction and, among others, to the excellent and pious Lady Bowes : " hoping hereby," says our author, " to obtain applause, and to accomplish other ends.". There is not, 'however, the least shadow of evidence, that Mr. Darrell sought after any human applause. This does not appear to have formed any part of his character, or at all to have entered into his designs. And what other ends he meant to accom- plish, we are left to conjecture. If the historian here designed to insinuate, that he intended to promote puri- tanism, and overthrow the church of England, it may be confidently affirmed, that his prospects were not the most flattering. In the year 1596, Mr. Darrell pretended to cast out many more devils. Among the persons who were on this account indebted to his piety, was one Thomas Darling, a boy about fourteen years of age, at Burton-upon-Trent. This occasioned a person of the town to publish an account of it, entitled " The Book of the Dispossession of the Boy of Burton." Thisgreatly increased his popularity ; and caused his fame to spread so much abroad, that he was sent for into Lancashire, and there cast out many other devils. Afterwards, upon his return to Nottingham, one of the ministers of the town, and several of its inhabitants, urged him to visit one William Somers, a boy who was so deeply afflicted with convulsive agonies, that they were thought to be preternatural. When Mr. Darrell had seen the boy, he concluded, with others, that he was certainly possessed, and, accordingly, recommended his friends to obtain the help of godly and learned ministers, with the view of promoting his recovery, but excused himself from being concerned ; lest, as he observed, if the devil should be dispossessed, the common people should attribute to him some special gift of casting out devils. At length, how- ever, by the urgent solicitation of the mayorof Nottingham, be complied ; and having agreed with Mr. Aldridge and two other ministers, together with about one hundred and fifty christian friends, they set apart a day of fasting and prayer, to entreat the Lord to cast out Satan, and deliver the young man from his present torments. Having con- tinued in their devotions for some time, the Lord is said to Strype's Annals, vol. iii. p. 432.
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