this Proposition That the notion of a Spirit is absurd will be sad certainties and demonstrations And with such Assertors I would cease to discourse about Witches and Apparitions and address my self to obtain their assent to truths infinitely more Sacred AND yet 2 though it should be granted them that a substance immaterial is as much a contradiction as they can fancy yet why should they not believe that the Air and all the Regions above us may have their invisible intellectuall Agents of nature like unto our Souls be that what it will and some of them at least as much degenerate as the vilest and most mischievous among Men. This Hypothesis will be enough to secure the possibility of Witches and Apparitions and that all the upper Stories of the Universe are furnish'd with Inhabitants 't is infinitely reasonable to conclude from the analogy of Nature Since we see there is nothing so contemptible and vile in the world we reside in but hath its living creatures that dwell upon it the Earth the Water the inferiour Air the Bodies of Animals the flesh the skin the entrails the leaves the roots the stalks of Vegetables yea and all kinde of Minerals in the subterraneous Regions I say all these have their proper Inhabitants yea I suppose this Rule may hold in all distinct kindes of bodies in the world That they have their peculiar Animals The certainty of which I believe the improvement of microscopical observations will discover From whence I infer That since this little spot is so thickly peopled in every Atome of it 't is weakness to think that all the vast spaces above and hollows under ground are desert and uninhabited And if both the superiour and lower Continents of the Universe have their inhabitants also 't is exceedingly improbable arguing from the same analogy that they are all of the meer sensible nature but that there are at least some of the Rational and Intellectual Orders Which supposed there is good foundation for the belief of Witches and Apparitions though the notion of a Spirit should prove as absurd and unphilosophical as I judge the denyal of it And so this first Objection comes to nothing I descend then to the second Prejudice which may be thus formed in behalf of the Objectors II. II. THERE ARE Actions in most of those Relations ascribed to Witches which are ridiculous and impossible in the nature of things such are 1 their flying out of windows after they have anointed themselves to remote places 2 Their transformation into Cats Hares and other Creatures 3 Their feeling all the hurts in their own bodies which they have received in these 4 Their raising Tempests by muttering some nonsensical words or performing some little ridiculous ceremonies And 5 their being suck'd in a certain private place of their bodies by a Familiar These are presumed to be actions inconsistent with the nature of Spirits and above the powers of those poor and miserable Agents And therefore the Objection supposeth them performed only by the fancy and that the whole mystery of Witchcraft is but an illusion of crasie imagination BUT to this Objection I return 1 in the general The more absurd and unaccountable these actions seem the greater confirmations are they to me of the truth of those Relations and the reality of what the Objectors would destroy For these circumstances being exceeding unlikely judging by the measures of common belief 't is the greater probability they are not fictitious For the contrivers of Fictions use to form them as near as they can conformably to the most unsuspected realities endeavouring to make them look as like truth as is possible in the main supposals though withal they make them strange in the circumstance None but a fool or mad-man would relate with a purpose of having it believed that he saw in Ireland Men with hoofs on their heads and eyes in their breasts or if any should be so ridiculously vain as to be serious in such an incredible Romance it cannot be supposed that all Travellers that come into those parts after him should tell the same story There is large field in fiction and if all those Relations were arbitrary compositions doubtless the first Romancers would have framed them more agreeable to the common doctrine of Spirits at least after these supposed absurdities had been a thousand times laugh'd at people by this time would have learn'd to correct those obnoxious extravagancies and though they have not yet more veracity than the Ages of Ignorance and Superstition yet one would expect they should have got more cunning This suppos'd impossibility then of these performances seems to me a probable argument that they are not wilful and designed forgeries And if they are Fancies 't is somewhat strange that Imagination which is the most various thing in all the world should infinitely repeat the same conceit in all times and places BUT again 2 the strange Actions related of Witches and presumed impossible are not ascribed to their own powers but to the Agency of those wicked Confederates they imploy And to affirm that those evil spirits cannot do that which we conceit impossible is boldly to stint the powers of Creatures whose natures and faculties we know not and to measure the world of spirits by the narrow rules of our own impotent beings We see among our selves the performances of some out go the conceits and possibilities of others and we know many things may be done by the Mathematicks and Mechanick Artifice which common heads think impossible to be effected by the honest wayes of Art and Nature And doubtless the subtilties and powers of those mischievous Fiends are as much beyond the reach and activities of the most knowing Agents among us as theirs are beyond the wit and ability of the most rustick and illiterate So that the utmost that any mans reason in the world can amount to in this particular is only this that he cannot conceive how such things can be performed which only argues the weakness and imperfection of our knowledge and apprehensions not the impossibility of those performances and we can no more from hence form an argument against them than against the most ordinary effects in Nature We cannot conceive how the Foetus is form'd in the Womb nor as much as how a Plant springs from the Earth we tread on we know not how our Souls move the Body nor how these distant and extream natures are united And if we are ignorant of the most obvious things about us and the most considerable within our selves 't is then no wonder that we know not the constitution and powers of the Creatures to whom we are such strangers Briefly then matters of fact well proved ought not to be denied because we cannot conceive how they can be performed Nor is it a reasonable method of inference first to presume the thing impossible and thence to conclude that the fact cannot be proved On the contrary we should judge of
And this is perhaps a reason why there are so few Apparitions and why appearing spirits are commonly in such haste to be gone viz. that they may be deliver'd from the unnatural pressure of their tender vehicles which I confess holds more in the apparitions of good than of evil Spirits most Relations of this kinde describing their discoveries of themselves as very transient though for those the Holy Scripture records there may be peculiar reason why they are not so whereas the wicked ones are not altogether so quick and hasty in their Visits The reason of which probably is the great subtilty and tenuity of the bodies of the former which will require far greater degrees of compression and consequently of pain to make them visible whereas the latter are more foeculent and gross and so nearer allyed to palpable consistencies and more easily reduceable to appearance and visibility AT this turn Sir you may perceive that I have again made use of the Platonick Hypothesis That Spirits are embodied upon which indeed a great part of my Discourse is grounded And therefore I hold my self obliged to a short account of that supposal It seems then to me very probable from the Nature of Sense and Analogy of Nature For 1. We perceive in our selves that all Sense is caus'd and excited by motion made in matter and when those motions which convey sensible impressions to the Brain the Seat of Sense are intercepted Sense is lost So that if we suppose Spirits perfectly to be disjoyn'd from all matter 't is not conceivable how they can have the sense of any thing For how material Objects should any way be perceiv'd or felt without vital union with matter 't is not possible to imagine Nor doth it 2. seem suitable to the Analogy of Nature which useth not to make precipitious leaps from one thing to another but usually proceeds by orderly steps and gradations whereas were there no order of Beings between us who are so deeply plunged into the grossest matter and pure unbodied Spirits 't were a mighty jump in Nature Since then the greatest part of the world consists of the finer portions of matter and our own Souls are immediately united unto these 't is infinitely probable to conjecture that the nearer orders of Spirits are vitally joyn'd to such Bodies And so Nature by Degrees ascending still by the more refin'd and subtile matter gets at last to the pure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or immaterial minds which the Platonists made the highest Order of created Beings But of this I have discoursed elsewhere and have said thus much of it at present because it will enable me to adde another Reason of the unfrequency of Apparitions and Compacts viz. 3. BECAUSE 't is very likely that these Regions are very unsuitable and disproportion'd to the frame and temper of their Senses and Bodies so that perhaps the Courser Spirits can no more bear the Air of our World than Bats and Owls can the brightest beams of Day Nor can the Purer and Better any more endure the noysom steams and poysonous reeks of this Dunghil Earth than the Delicate can bear a confinement in nasty Dungeons and the foul squallid Caverns of uncomfortable Darkness So that 't is no more wonder that the better Spirits no oftner appear than that men are not more frequently in the Dark Hollows under ground Nor is 't any more strange that evil Spirits so rarely visit us than that Fishes do not ordinarily fly in the Air as 't is said one sort of them doth or that we see not the Batt daily fluttering in the beams of the Sun And now by the help of what I have spoken under this Head I am provided with some things wherewith to disable another Objection which I thus propose XI XI IF THERE be such an intercourse between Evil Spirits and the Wicked how comes it about that there is no correspondence between Good Spirits and the Vertuous since without doubt these are as desirous to propagate the Spirit and Designs of the upper and better World as those are to promote the Interest of the Kingdom of Darkness WHICH way of arguing is still from our Ignorance of the State and Government of the other World which must be confest and may without prejudice to the Proposition I defend But particularly I say 1 That we have ground enough to believe that Good Spirits do interpose in yea and govern our Affairs For that there is a Providence reaching from Heaven to Earth is generally acknowledg'd but that this supposeth all things to be order'd by the immediate influence and interposal of the Supreme Deity is not very Philosophical to suppose since if we judge by the Analogy of the Natural World all things we see are carried on by the Ministry of Second Causes and intermediate Agents And it doth not seem so Magnificent and Becoming an apprehension of the Supreme Numen to fancy His immediate Hand in every trivial Management But 't is exceeding likely to conjecture that much of the Government of us and our Affairs is committed to the better Spirits with a due subordination and subserviency to the Will of the chief Rector of the Universe And 't is not absurd to believe that there is a Government runs from Highest to Lowest the better and more perfect orders of Being still ruling the inferiour and less perfect So that some one would fancy that perhaps the Angels may manage us as we do the Creatures that God and Nature have placed under our Empire and Dominion But however that is That God rules the lower World by the Ministry of Angels is very consonant to the sacred Oracles Thus Deut. XXXII viii ix When the most High divided the Nations their inheritance when he separated the sons of Adam he set the bounds of the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the number of the Angels of God as the Septuagint renders it the Authority of which Translation is abundantly credited and asserted by its being quoted in the New Testament without notice of the Hâ—brew Text even there where it differs from it as learned men have observ'd We know also that Angels were very familiar with the Patriarchs of old and Jacob's Ladder is a Mystery which imports their ministring in the affairs of the Lower World Thus Origen and others understand that to be spoken by the Presidential Angels Jer LI. ix We would have healed BABYLON but she is not healed forsake her and let us go Like the Voice heard in the Temple before the taking of Jerusalem by Titus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And before Nebuchadnezzar was sent to learn Wisdom and Religion among the Beasts He sees a Watcher according to the 70. an Angel and an holy One come down from heaven Dan. IV. xiii who pronounceth the sad Decree against Him and calls it the Decree of the Watchers who very probably were the Guardian Genii of Himself and his Kingdom And that there are particular Angels that
in the fore-mention'd ferment which is infused into her by the Familiar So that I am apt to think there may be a power of real fascination in the Witches eyes and imagination by which for the most part she acts upon tender bodies Nescio quis teneros oculus For the pestilential spirits being darted by a sprightful and vigorous imagination from the eye and meeting with those that are weak and passive in the bodies which they enter will not fail to infect them with a noxious quality that makes dangerous and strange alterations in the person invaded by this poysonous influence which way of acting by subtil and invisible instruments is ordinary and familiar in all natural efficienties And 't is now past question that nature for the most part acts by subtil streams and aporhaea's of minute particles which pass from one body to another Or however that be this kinde of agency is as conceivable as any of those qualities ignorance hath call'd sympathy and antipathy the reality of which we doubt not though the manner of action be unknown Yea the thing I speak of is as easie to be apprehended as how infection should pass in certain tenuious streams through the air from one house to another or as how the biting of a mad Dog should fill all the blood and spirits with a venomous and malign ferment the application of the vertue doing the same in our case as that of contact doth in this Yea some kindes of fascination are perform'd in this grosser and more sensible way as by striking giving Apples and the like by which the contagious quality may be transmitted as we see diseases often are by the touch Now in this way of conjecture a good account may be given why Witches are most powerful upon Children and timorous persons viz. because their spirits and imaginations being weak and passive are not able to resist the fatal invasion whereas men of bold mindes who have plenty of strong and vigorous spirits are secure from the contagion as in pestilential Airs clean bodies are not so liable to infection as are other tempers Thus then we see 't is likely enough that very often the Sorceress her self doth the mischief and we know de facto that Providence doth not alwayes secure us from one anothers injuries And yet I must confess that many times also the evil spirit is the mischievous Agent though this confession draw on me another objection which I next propose V. V. THEN it may be said that if wicked spirits can hurt us by the direction and at the desire of a Witch one would think they should have the same power to do us injury without instigation or compact and if this be granted 't is a wonder that we are not alwayes annoy'd and infested by them To which I RETURN 1 That the laws liberties and restraints of the inhabitants of the other world are to us utterly unknown and this way we can only argue our selves into confessions of our ignorance which every man must acknowledge that is not as immodest as ignorant It must be granted by all that own the being power and malice of evil spirits that the security we enjoy is wonderful whether they act by Witches or not and by what Laws they are kept from making us a prey to speak like Philosophers we cannot tell yea why they should be permitted to tempt and ruine us in our Souls and restrain'd from touching or hurting us in our Bodies is a mystery not easily accountable But yet 2 though we acknowledge their power to vex and torment us in our bodies also yet a reason may be given why they are less frequent in this kind of mischief viz. because their main designs are levell'd against the interest and happiness of our Souls which they can best promote when their actions are most sly and secret whereas did they ordinarily persecute men in their bodies their agency and wicked influence would be discover'd and make a mighty noise in the world whereby men wonld be awaken'd to a more suitable and vigorous opposition by the use of such means as would engage Providence to rescue them from their rage and cruelties and at last defeat them in their great purposes of undoing us eternally Thus we may conceive that the security we enjoy may well enough consist with the power and malice of those evil spirits and upon this account we may suppose that Laws of their own may prohibit their unlicenc'd injuries not from any goodness there is in their Constitutions but in order to the more successful carrying on the projects of the dark Kingdom as Generals forbid plunder not out of love to their Enemies but in order to their own success And hence 3 we may suppose a Law of permission to hurt us at the instance of the Sorceress may well stand with the polity of Hell since by gratifying the wicked person they encourage her in malice and revenge and promote thereby the main ends of their black confederacy which are to propagate wickedness and to ruine us in our eternal interests And yet 4 't is clear to those that believe the History of the Gospel that wicked spirits have vexed the bodies of men without any instigation that we read of and at this day 't is very likely that many of the strange accidents and diseases that befall us may be the infliction of evil spirits prompted to hurt us only by the delight they take in mischief So that we cannot argue the improbability of their hurting Children and others by Witches from our own security and freedom from the effects of their malice which perhaps we feel in more instances than we are aware of VI. BUT VI another prejudice against the belief of Witches is a presumption upon the enormous force of melancholy and imagination which without doubt can do wonderful things and beget strange perswasions and to these causes some ascribe the presum'd effects of Sorcery and Witchcraft To which I reply briefly and yet I hope sufficiently 1 THAT to resolve all the clear circumstances of Fact which we finde in well attested and confirm'd Relations of this kinde into the power of deceivable imagination is to make fancy the greater prodigy and to suppose that it can do stranger feats than are believed of any other kinde of fascination And to think that Pins and Nails for instance can by the power of imagination be convey'd within the skin or that imagination should deceive so many as have been witnesses in objects of sense in all the circumstances of discovery this I say is to be infinitely more credulous than the assertors of Sorcery and Demoniack contracts And by the same reason it may be believ'd that all the Battels and strange events of the world which our selves have not seen are but dreams and fond imaginations and like those that are fought in the clouds when the brains of the deluded spectators are the only Theatre of those fancied transactions And 2 to
be imagin'd what design the Devil should have in making those solemn compacts since persons of such debauch'd and irreclaimable dispositions as those with whom he is supposed to confederate are pretty securely his antecedently to the bargain and cannot be more so by it since they cannot put their souls out of possibility of the Divine Grace but by the Sin that is unpardonable or if they could so dispose and give away themselves it will to some seem very unlikely that a great and mighty Spirit should oblige himself to such observances and keep such a-do to secure the soul of a silly body which 't were odds but it would be His though He put himself to no further trouble than that of his ordinary temptations TO WHICH suggestions 't were enough to say that 't is sufficient if the thing be well prov'd though the design be not known And to argue negatively à fine is very unconclusive in such matters The Laws and affairs of the other world as hath been intimated are vastly differing from those of our Regions and therefore 't is no wonder we cannot judge of their designs when we know nothing of their menages and so little of their natures The ignorant looker-on can't imagine what the Limner means by those seemingly rude lines and scrawls which he intends for the rudiments of a Picture and the Figures of Mathematick Operation are non-sense and dashes at a venture to one un-instructed in Mechanicks We are in the dark to one anothers purposes and intendments and there are a thousand intrigues in our little matters which will not presently confess their design even to sagacious inquisitors And therefore 't is folly and incogitancy to argue any thing one way or other from the designs of a sort of Beings with whom we so little communicate and possibly we can take no more aim or guess at their projects and designments than the gazing Beasts can do at ours when they see the Traps and Gins that are laid for them but understand nothing what they mean Thus in general BUT I attempt something more particularly in order to which I must premise that the Devil is a name for a Body Politick in which there are very different Orders and Degrees of Spirits and perhaps in as much variety of place and state as among our selves so that 't is not one and the same person that makes all the compacts with those abused and seduced Souls but they are divers and those 't is like of the meanest and basest quality in the Kingdom of darkness which being supposed I offer this account of the probable design of those wicked Agents viz. That having none to rule or tyrannize over within the Circle of their own nature and government they affect a proud Empire over us the desire of Dominion and Authority being largely spread through the whole circumference of degenerated nature especially among those whose pride was their original transgression every one of these then desires to get him Vassals to pay him homage and to be employed like Slaves in the services of his lusts and aptetites to gratifie which desire 't is like enough to be provided and allowed by the constitution of their State and Government that every wicked spirit shall have those Souls as his property and particular servants and attendants whom he can catch in such compacts as those wild Beasts that we can take in hunting are by the allowance of the Law our own and those Slaves that a man hath purchas'd are his peculiar goods and the vassals of his will Or rather those deluding Fiends are like the seducing fellows we call Spirits who inveigle Children by their false and flattering promises and carry them away to the Plantations of America to be servilly employed there in the works of their profit and advantage And as those base Agents will humour and flatter the simple unwary Youth till they are on Ship-board and without the reach of those that might rescue them from their hands In like manner the more mischievous Tempter studies to gratifie please and accommodate those he deals with in this kinde till death hath lanch'd them into the Deep and they are past the danger of Prayers Repentance and Endeavours and then He useth them as pleaseth Him This account I think is not unreasonable and 't will fully answer the Objection For though the matter be not as I have conjectur'd yet 't will suggest a way how it may be conceiv'd which nulls the pretence That the Design is inconceiveable X. BUT then X. We are still liable to be question'd how it comes about that those proud and insolent Designers practise in this kinde upon so few when one would expect that they should be still trading this way and every where be driving on the project which the vileness of men makes so feisable and would so much serve the interest of their lusts TO WHICH among other things that might be suggested I return 1 That we are never liable to be so betrayed and abused till by our vile dispositions and tendencies we have forfeited the tutelary care and oversight of the better Spirits which though generally they are our guard and defence against the malice and violence of evil Angels yet it may well enough be thought that sometimes they may take their leave of such as are swallowed up by malice envy and desire of revenge qualities most contrary to their Life and Nature and leave them exposed to the invasion and sollicitations of those wicked Spirits to whom such hateful Attributes make them very suitable And if there be particular guardian Angels as 't is not absurd to fancy it may then well be supposed that no man is obnoxious to those projects and attempts but only such whose vile and mischievous natures have driven from them their protecting Genius And against this dereliction to the power of evil spirits 't is likely enough what some affirm that the Royal Psalmist directs that Prayer Psal LXXI ix x. Cast me not off in the time of old age forsake me not when my strength faileth For They that keep my soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the LXX and the Vulgar Latin Qui custodiunt animam meam they take counsel together saying God hath forsaken him persecute him and take him for there is none to deliver him But I adde 2 That 't is very improbable that the state wherein they are will not easily permit palpable intercourses between the bad Genii and our nature since 't is like enough that their own Laws and Government do not allow their frequent excursions into this world Or it may with as great probability be supposed that 't is a very hard and painful thing for them to force their thin and tenuious bodies into a visible consistence and such shapes as are necessary for their designs in their correspondencies with Witches For in this action their bodies must needs be exceedingly compress'd which cannot be well supposed without a painful sense
have the special Rule and Government of particular Kingdoms Provinces Cities yea and of Persons I know nothing that can make improbable The instance is notorious in Daniel of the Angels of Fersia and Graecia that hindred the other that was engaged for the concerns of Judaea yea our Saviour himself tells us that Children have their Angels and the Congregation of Disciples supposed that St. Peter had his Which things if they be granted the good Spirits have not so little to do with us and our matters as is generally believed And perhaps it would not be absurd if we referr'd many of the strange thwarts and unexpected events the disappointments and lucky coincidences that befal us the unaccountable fortunes and successes that attend some lucky men and the unhappy fates that dog others that seem born to be miserable the Fame and Favour that still waits on some without any conceivable motive to allure it and the general neglect of others more deserving whose worth is not acknowledg'd I say these and such like odde things may with the greatest probability be resolv'd into the Conduct and Menages of those invisible supervisors that preside over and govern our affairs BUT if they so far concern themselves in our matters how is it that they appear not to maintain a visible and confest correspondence with some of the better Mortals who are most fitted for their Communications and their influence To which I have said some things already when I accounted for the unfrequency of Apparitions and I now adde what I intend for another return to the main Objection viz. 2. THAT the apparition of good Spirits is not needful for the Designs of the better world whatever such may be for the interest of the other For we have had the Appearance and Cohabitation of the Son of God we have Moses and the Prophets and the continued influence of the Spirit the greatest Arguments to strengthen Faith the most powerful Motives to excite our Love and the Noblest Encouragements to quicken and raise our desires and hopes any of which are more than the apparition of an Angel which would indeed be a great gratification of the Animal Life but 't would render our Faith less noble and less generous were it frequently so assisted Blessed are they that believe and yet have not seen Besides which the good Angels have no such ends to prosecute as the gaining any Vassals to serve them they being ministring Spirits for our good and no self-designers for a proud and insolent Dominion over us And it may be perhaps not impertinently added That they are not alwayes evil Spirits that appear as is I know not well upon what grounds generally imagined but that the extraordinary detections of Murders latent Treasures falsified and unfulfill'd Bequests which are sometimes made by Apparitions may be the courteous Discoveries of the better and more benign Genii Yea 't is not unlikely that those Warnings that the world sometimes hath of approaching Judgements and Calamities by Prodigies and sundry odde Phoenomena are the kind Informations of some of the Inhabitants of the upper world Thus was Jerusalem forewarned before its sacking by Antiochus by those Aiery Horsemen that were seen through all the City for almost forty dayes together 2 Mac. V. ii iii. And the other Prodigious Portents that fore-ran its Destruction by Titus which I mention because they are notorious instances And though for mine own part I scorn the ordinary Tales of Prodigies which proceed from superstitious fears and unacquaintance with Nature and have been used to bad purposes by the Zealous and the Ignorant Yet I think that the Arguments that are brought by a late very ingenious Author to conclude against such Warnings and Predictions in the whole kinde are short and inconsequent and built upon too narrow Hypotheseis For if it be supposed that there is a sort of Spirits over us and about us who can give a probable guess at the more remarkable futurities I know not why it may not be conjectured that the kindness they have for us and the appetite of fore-telling strange things and the putting the world upon expectation which we finde is very grateful to our own Natures may not incline them also to give us some general notice of those uncommon Events which they foresee And I yet perceive no reason we have to fancy that whatever is done in this kinde must needs be either immediately from Heaven or from the Angels by extraordinary commission and appointment But it seems to me not unreasonable to believe that those officious Spirits that oversee our affairs perceiving some mighty and sad alterations at hand in which their Charge is much concerned cannot chuse by reason of their affection to us but give us some seasonable hints of those approaching Calamities to which also their natural desire to foretell strange things to come may contribute to incline them And by this Hypothesis the fairest probabilities and strongest ratiocinations against Prodigies may be made unserviceable But this only by the way I proceed to the next objection which may be made to speak thus XII XII THE BELIEF of Witches and the wonderful things they are said to perform by the help of the Confederate Daemon weakens our Faith and exposeth the World to Infidelity in the great matters of our Religion For if They by Diabolical assistance can inflict and cure Diseases and do things so much beyond the comprehension of our Philosophy and activity of common Nature What assurance can we have that the Miracles that confirm our Gospel were not the effects of a Compact of like nature and that Devils were not cast out by Beelzebub If evil Spirits can assume Bodies and render themselves visible in humane likeness What security can we have of the reality of the Resurrection of Christ And if by their help Witches can enter Chambers invisibly through Key-holes and little unperceived Crannies and transform themselves at pleasure What Arguments of Divinity are there in our Saviour's shewing himself in the midst of his Disciples when the Doors were shut and his Transfiguration in the Mount Miracles are the great inducements of Belief and how shall we distinguish a Miracle from a Lying Wonder a Testimony from Heaven from a Trick of the Angels of Hell if they can perform things that astonish and confound our Reasons and are beyond all the Possibilities of Humane Nature This Objection is spiteful and mischievous but I thus endeavour to dispatch it 1. THE WONDERS done by Confederacy with wicked Spirits cannot derive a suspition upon the undoubted Miracles that were wrought by the Author and Promulgers of our Religion as if they were performed by Diabolical Compact since their Spirit Endeavours and Designs were notoriously contrary to all the Tendencies Aims and Interests of the Kingdom of Darkness For as to the Life and Temper of the Blessed and adorable JESUS we know there was an incomparable sweetness in his Nature Humility in his Manners