for their Sins to wander in the World and to suffer Hunger and Thirst which they cannot satisfie but by the Alms that Men hand them Wherefore they often appear in a human shape to beg something from them but they have no power to hurt them Besides these there is another sort of Devils or Ratsiasias properly so called because they are the Children of Aditi and are very Malitious They have power to molest Men and even to cause much trouble and vexation to the Angels or Deuetas They may walk every where except save in the abode of Brama and in the Heavens They are described with huge frightful and stinking Bodies they are said to be Male and Female to procreate Children and to be subject to Death Sect. 14. There 's enough concerning the Demons of the Pagans of Asia but as most of those Nations are Pythagoreans and believe the Metempsychosis they also supply us with Heroes For says Baldaeius in his Book of the Idolatry of the East Indies the Modern Heathens believe that Man is happier in this Life than the Beasts by reason that he has a Body by which the Soul may exert her Operation but they agree not that a Man is more noble than a Beast nor that he has a Soul more excellent than it has And when they are ask'd why Beasts reason not they answer because they have not Bodies capable of exerting the qualities of a Soul as a Dumb Man who wants a proper Organ to utter Words and may be nevertheless very Wise or as some People who have a great deal of Knowledge and Learning but have no more readinesâ— to express themselves than Children who cannot do it He that shall Read this will be less surprised at what follows Sect. 15. Nothing certain can be said of the Japanders because the Jesuits who relate their Opinions agree not together It appears however that there are amongst that People three sorts of Opinions concerning human Souls and their Essence The first is That the Soul of Man differs not from that of Beasts The second That Men have a Soul of another Nature than that of Beasts but still Mortal The third That the Soul is Immortal They likewise believe the Metempsychosis and that the Soul going out of the Body is determined to enter into another Body either of Man or Beast by the conjunction that is then made of the Sun and Moon with other Stars Sect. 16. The Chinese are likewise Pythagoreans Martinius testifies it very plainly as to one of their Sects in these Words Chiquiao is a Sect which our People esteem to be the first introduced in China after the Birth of our Saviour They believe the exchanges of Souls inwardly and outwardly They Honour Images and imagine that the Soul after Death passes in punishment of her Sins from one body into another for which reason they abstain from what ever has had life That Narration is confirmed by Trigaltius who says That the Parents are not afraid of killing their Children to be discharged of them when they are incumbred with too many asserting that by that means they procure them a better Condition since instead of Poverty they afford them by Death the occasion of going into other Bodies and being Born again in the House of Richer People where they will live more at ease The Peguans seem to have the same Sentiment by the Relation Piuto when by the Tomb of their Rolym or High-Priest they let loose a great many Birds and Fishes which they kept Prisoners believing them to be as many human Souls who will keep company to their Rolym in his way to the other World Besides we read in Corolinus out of Artus in his Speculum Mundi That the Wise Men of China have invented three places for those that depart this Life Nachac is a place of Torment Schuum one of Delights such as the Paradise of Mahomet and Miba or Nibam signifies an entire privation of being or a full Destruction of Body and Soul All the Souls have their abode in the two first places or depart from thence to go to and fro through the World and often pass from one Body into another by new Birth until they deserve to enter into the Nibam that is to be annihilated Le Blanc speaks of it somewhat differently in a Relation extracted from a Franciscan Monk He says That the Chinese believe that Men become Gods at last after they have passed through the Bodies of several Beasts Birds and Fishes and that they imagine that the Souls after the course of many Ages having been well purified in some proper places and returned several times into new Worlds are at last introduced into Paradise cast down to Hell or reduced to nothing Sect. 18. As to the Opinion of the Siamese in this point we must learn it from the Relation of the Jesuits in their Journey to Siam in the years 1685. and 1686. because that Book is the newest and much credited Thus then writes Tachard p 297 298. Edit Amsteled Metempsychosis is one of the Fundamental Points of their Religion so that the Life of Man passes in continual Transmigrations untill he be sanctified and deserves to be God They admit of Spirits but such as are nothing else than Souls who always inform some Bodies until they have attained to Holiness or Deity Angels are Corporeal and of different Sexes and consequently may beget Sons and Daughters Those Angels are never Sanctified nor Deified but to them only belongs to watch over the Government of the World and the preservation of Men. They distribute them into seven Orders or Hierarchies some of which are more perfect and noble than the others all which they place in as many different Heavens Each part of the World has one of those Intelligences to preside over what is done there They likewise impart them to Stars to the Earth to Cities Mountains and Forests and even to the Winds and Rain And because they are perswaded that those Angels examine the conduct of Men and are witnesses of all their actions to reward those that are commendable by vertue of the merits of their God It is therefore to those Intelligences and not to their God that they use to apply themselves in their necessities and miseries and to thank them for the favours they suppose to have received from them Sect. 19. They acknowledge no other Demons but the Souls of the wicked who making their escape out of the Hell in which they were detained wander through the World a certain time and do as much hurt to Men as they can Amongst those unhappy Spirits they rank untimely Births Women dying in Childbed those that are killed in a Duel or guilty of some crime of that nature Sect. 20. The Heathens of Java believe likewise Metempsychosis as well as those of Sumatra the Malabars and the Inhabitants of the Coast of Cormandel All the Benjanes in the hither East-Indies agree upon no Article of Religion better than
more largely explains in the forementioned place Equity says he Eternally attends him which is the Avenger of those that forsake the Law of God but happy is he who sticks to it and follows it constantly Sect. 4. But how advantageously soever they may speak of the supream Deity it nevertheless appears that they do not ascribe to him Independency nor the immediate direction of all things since they divided the Government of the World betwixt several Gods to each of whom they assigned his particular share 'T is very probable that the Caldees and Persians observing how Human affairs were often here below obnoxious to considerable changes which proceeded from Heaven took occasion from thence to contrive two supream Deities proceeding from that First being one of whom they called Oromasdes and gave him the direction of Heaven to the other named Arimanius they ascribed that of the Earth The Romans afterwards gave them the Greek names viz. to the former that of Jupiter and to the latter that of Pluto whom they at First look't upon as the God of the Earth And because all the wise held for a certain Truth that the Heavens surpass the Earth in perfection they placed the supream Deity in Heaven and the other Gods under it each according to his Dignity And as they conceived that the Soveraign God could never cease from being good so Jupiter who had the Empire of the Heavens was in great credit amongst them but Pluto the God of Hell obtain'd but an ill name Sect. 5. It is here methinks the proper place to distinguish the Doctrines of the Pagans into such as had either Religion or Nature for their object In the latter they enquired after the First and Second Causes of all things of their Motion and Changes without any reference to Religion Thus came upon the Stage Plato with his Idea's and Aristotle with his Intelligencies Plato called Idea's the principles that flow from the Divine Nature that subsists with him and by which all things subsist each of them being as an Engraven Image of him from whom they all proceed so that they all partake of the Nature of their Original and are such as the principal from whence they flow When I confer the sentiment of Pythagoras contained in the words of Socrates related in the Parmenis with what Plutarch sayes in his First Book Chap. the 10th of the Opinions of Philosophers and Laertius in the Life of the same Pythagoras as also Cicero in the First Book of the Tusculan Questions Fifty Eight wherein he explains the meaning of that Philosopher it seems to me that nothing can be better nor more plainly expressed concerning this subject As for Aristotle his Opinion was that there are substances distinct and separate from matter who put the Heavens into Motions supposing Heaven it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Body in a continual and restless motion that the Stars are of an Eternal Nature and that whâ—t moveth must be more durable and precede that which is moved Thence he inferr'd that there are as many permanent and immoveable substances This is what he teaches in his Metaphysicks Book the 14th cap. 18. And what is called by his Latin Interpreters Intelligencies Sect. 6. But when they proceed to Religion there arise still among them more considerable differencies which may be plainly perceived in the Book of Plutarch Entituled The Opinions of Philosophers and elsewhere in the same Author as also in the Book which Apuleius a Platonist more Ancient than Plutarch has written of the Life of Socrates The sum of what he says comes to this that the Deitie is divided into Four as into some Degrees that descend from high to low and that the three last Degrees are again subdivided into several others which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods Demons and Heroes Plato sayes Apuleius has divided the whole Nature into three with relation to Spirits in particular believing that there are Gods Superior Middle and Inferior Of which Three sorts of Gods it is convenient to say somthing Sect. 7. As to the Superior or Celestial Gods he sayes that their habitation is in Heaven that they are Immaterial and Eternal of their own Nature but that there are some which are in some sort visible in the Stars though others cannot be perceived by corporal Eyes but only by those of the Understanding After he has distinguished those Deities into Sexes like Mankind that is into Gods and Goddesses he mentions these 12 viz. Jupiter Apollo Vulcan Mars Neptune Mercury who are Six Gods Juno Diana Venus Ceres Vesta Minerva who are as many Goddesses The dignity of these Celestial Gods notwithstanding the liberty which the Poets often took to contrive other Accounts of them 't was esteem'd too high that it should allow them to descend and converse with Men though they govern'd their affairs each in his Jurisdiction But the same Plato believes the Stars are but improperly called Gods and only in reference to the Divine and Immutable conduct that is observable in them The names of the fixed Stars which are reckon'd amongst the visible Gods are contain'd in this Verse Arcturum pluviasque Hyadas geminosque Triones But leaving those Gods to Plato of whose making they were the Stars which are called by Ignorance Planets or erring Stars were also accounted amongst the Gods the Sun was called Apollo and the Moon Diana to which these Five were joyned Saturn Jupiter Mars Venus called also the Morning and Evening Star and Mercury though they appear but ordinary Stars Another source of the Pagan Errors in their Divinity is the Conformity betwixt the name of some Stars and those of their invisible Gods they believed that there were Deities in the Stars who acted by them or that the Stars were Gods who having life in themselves communicated it to other Creatures as it was believed by Alomen whose Opinion is related in Clemens Alexandrinus Sect. 8. We may still perceive some Remains of that Opinion in the names of the Days of the Week in the English French and Dutch Tongues as well as in Latin for they still name by one of the Seven Planets that Day on which they believe them to have a particular Influence As Lunae Dies Lundi Munday Maanday Martis Dies Mardi Duigsday an Abbreviation of Dyssenday which is still in use in Zealand and Brabant Mercury Dies Mecred Wednesday Woonsdag from Wodensday the Day of Woden the name of Mercury amongst the Ancient Germans and Dutch because he was the God of Merchants and the Messenger of the Gods Jovis Dies Jeudi Thursday Donderdag because Jupiter was esteem'd the God of Thunder Veneris Dies Vandredi Friday Vrydag from Freda the Ancient name of Venus in the Dutch and Saxon Tongue whence it comes that the Frisons called that Day Freed and whence undoubtedly comes the Dutch word Vryen to Court a Woman Saturni Dies Samedi Saturday Saterdag Solis Dies Sunday Sondag but in the
that it might be done but the Frost continuing my Book thus imperfect was publisht and came without my knowledge into the hands of many People in Friezeland It was therefore only seen by piece-meal and without coherency which gave occasion to some of the Readers and others that had heard of it publickly to pass heard judgments upon it even some intended as I am informed to make me explain my self more precisely had I not done it in the Book it self For at last when they read it intire and in order they all agreed I had given all the explications that could be wisht either as to the Reasons that had moved me to write it or as to to the scope I proposed to my self which appears in the Preface and in the first Chapter of the Book or as to the necessity and usefulness of its publishing which I have shown in the same Chapter and the last but one They were just the places that were wanting for which Reason I wrote to the Bookseller of Leeuwarden and forbad him to give out any Copy of this Book until the whole was compleat Besides during the Frost I had time to add two Chapters to the end of the Second Book and to enlarge the Preface in order to inform the Reader of my Opinions and the purity of my intentions which has not proved altogether fruitless for I have heard that most of those that have read the Preface and the work afterwards have been satisfied as they have told one another and my self whereas those that had taken upon them to criticise it had read but some loose parcels of it or had not read it at all or perhaps had not so much as vouchsafed to read it Things remained a while in that state every one enquiring after the Reason that hindered the publishing of my Book and how it happened that I had none my self since it had been sold in Friezeland for some time The Thaw came at last and many Persons arrived with News of the Edition of my Book but brought no Copies along with them save some privately and as stolen goods then every body wondered a Book should have been put out in these Provinces and it should not be found in Holland where the Author lived and not only my Brother Pastors should not have seen it but I should say I had none my self to present them with At last I received 26 Copies of it from Leeuwarden but had scarce one for my self my friends came and took them away themselves as they were sowed and most of those that ask'd for them could not get 'em unless they came just when they were sow'd up So greedy Men are of Novelties especially when they can hardly get ' em Nitimur in vetitum semper cupimusque negata So much we love and seek what is deny'd However it be the Book could not be exposed to Sale before the 11th day of March A long time after I had sent the last Sheets to Leeuwarden to Mr. Nauta Bookseller who had had the Book perfect in his hands for a long time A Bookseller ask'd 50 Copies from him and thought to receive them speedily but had none sent to him In the mean while I find my self much perplext I was desir'd during two Months by my best Friends to communicate this Work to them which they had never seen and had heard commended for this reason I wrote to Mr. Nauta I would take all the Copies upon me and pay them at such reasonable rates that he would be satisfied with it he need but to send them to me without delay with the first Vessel Then I thought to consult with my Friends whether I should sell the two First Books that had already appear'd imperfect in Friesland and elsewhere or whether I should keep them until the whole Work was finished The first seem'd to be the best Advice to avoid the suspicion that I durst not publish my Book or that I was forced to suppress it because of many things that were spread abroad to discredit it however the last counsel suited better with my inclinations I conceived that a Work that was at first but a smal Treatise thô it had since been much enlarged would be more favourably received and prove of greater use if it were given compleat at the same time to the publick that the design and cohering of it might be better seen its Doctrines be more easily comprehended and the happy effects it was able to produce be more plainly perceived which is chiefly done by the last Part. But as the causes before alledged had already once smother'd this design so they did it again this time for perceiving by the Letters of Mr. Nauta it was impossible to agree with him as to the price and that it was unlikely he should ever do it I was at last forced to give up the Book to him that I might with the Blessing of God pursue my design So having altogether broken with that Bookseller I have agreed some Months since with another of this City Mr. Daniel Vanden Dalen to put divers Presses going upon it and re-print the whole Work revised and corrected that I might incessantly publish all the four Parts one after another in the form in wnich the Reader now sees them For as to the 750 Copies which Mr. Nauta had printed of the two First Books and are most of them still upon his hands they being an inconsiderble number that could not go very far and the hasty Edition of the Book being as yet imperfect seem'd to give room to a new Edition that the Pulick might be more speedily satisfied I therefore here present the Reader with the First Book enlarged with a new Chapter that I thought necessary to add at the end I hope with the Blessing of God that the three others shall successively appear every Month and I persuade my self that the reading of the First Parts will excite some Curiosities for the later and that altogether may invite the Reader to a serious consideration upon the Contents and capacitate him to judge more soundly of this matter than he did while this Treatise appear'd but in part and confusedly This is what I had to say as to this Edition that was made in such an extraordinary manner and publish'd without my knowledge I come now to treat of my scope and what has obliged me to embrace the Opinions I assert in this Book In all my Studies I was always inclin'd not to rest upon probabilities but to search into the whole matter and to get a clear and distinct knowledge of what I should know Besides many strange things had happen'd to me in Friesland upon the first Writings I had publish'd and experience had assured me how little one ought to relye upon the Judgment of Men especially when what they are accustomed to teach is call'd in question For is it not wonderful that my Book upon the Catechism should have been unanimously condemn'd in Friesland
thô amongst above 200 Ministers who consented to that Judgment none could alledge so much as one solid Reason against it and that afterwards it should have been twice unanimously approved of without any change as to the Doctrine and the controverted Points having been made in it This has confirm'd me in this persuasion that a true Christian especially a Doctor of Divinity ought groundedly himself to enquire into things without resting upon the Judgment of others that he may obtain a full certainty of the object of his Faith and the matter of his Precepts Since that time I resolved only to follow the Holy Scripture and Reason in such things in which it ought to supply the silence of the Sacred Writings and to assure my self by those two means of what I was to believe and to teach others without taking the trouble of following the steps of other Men never putting Pen to Paper but to write upon those subjects the importance of which I was convinced of or had not been sufficiently explain'd and examin'd I have therefore endeavour'd to free as much as possible our Holy Doctrine from such errors as most Men appear to me to be taken with or at least to set in order such things whic I conceive to be confused Whether I was the first that discover'd it or whether I needed only to promote what had been begun by others There are other Reasons that have engag'd me in that design For having sworn in the University of Franeker faithfully to maintain the pure Doctrine of the Reformed Church and defend it both by words and writings in all necessary occasions I may now say with Prudentius and as it becomes my Age. Per quinquennia jam decem Ni fallor fuimus septimus insuper Annum cardo rotat dum fruimur sole volubili Vicinum senio jam Deus applicat Quid nos utile tanti spatio tempor is egimus Two score years are past the third is running Since the Sun's light is upon me shining Old Age comes on What have I been doing But it would be too long to enter into particulars I shall only say that I intend to imploy the rest of my Life first to the Duties and Functions of my Ministry which the circumstances and largeness of this Town make more painful than in other places and than to make an exact enquiry after whatever is falsly believed in the World and the Erroneous Opinions that are entertained without any other ground then that they are every day told and heard of For my most earnest desire is to see Men become more wise and honest than they are thâ—ugh very few sincerely intend it or at least do their Endeavours to attain to that perfection most â—art choosing rather to believe and to do what is commonly believed and done than to be at the trouble of freeing themselves from Errors In the mean while what past in Freiseland when my first Book appear'd abroad ought to have taught me how dangerous it is to write upon such matters there being neither favour nor profit to be expected for such Authors as rid themselves from all prejudices and having no regard either for the Credit or Power of the Faction whose Sentiments they reject resolve to follow only what the Scripture teaches or Reason dictates to them and to embrace no Opinions but such as are founded upon those two Grounds Perhaps after my Death the usefulness of this Undertaking will be known and tho' I dare not hope that it will be done in my Life time yet I publish it my self to learn the Judgment of the publick to defend my Works and to enlarge or correct them according to the Light I may acquire a-new or that shall be communicated to me For methinks I am more able to do it and to be Interpreter of my own Words and Thoughts than those that may afterwards adopt my Opinions and have some regard for my Memory As for the rest though my intention and scope may be plainly perceived by the first Chapter yet I shall add that no Men in the World are more remote from any Atheistical Sentiments more persuaded of the Divinity of the Holy Writ and more disposed to render to God the Honour and Reverence due to him than those who as I am are opposed to the common Opinion of the Power and Vertue of the Devil Whoever shall read this Book with attention and without partiality will undoubtedly be persuaded of it at least I mean that there is enough to satisfie those that absolutely reject the Principles of Descartes concerning the use of Reason and at the same time such as give too much extent to those Principles and that those two Parties will equally approve of the manner in which I distinguish Spirits from Bodies and both from God without however establishing any thing as to their Operations that cannot be proved by plain and necessary Inferences So that I powerfully confute the foolish Errors of Spinosa who confounds God and Nature together I believe not that there is any Author who has more solidly establisht the infinite difference that there is betwixt God and the Creature and the inconsistency of the Properties of Bodies with those of Spirits then I do here as was necessary to be done to lay a firm foundation to this work that is wholly grounded upon that Principle at least as to those things that are the object of the Light of Reason Besides I have this internal satisfaction that I confirm by an evident proof the Doctrine of our Churches that tends still to diminish the Honour paid to the Creatures in order to increase that which is due to God This Book witnesses for me that I set up the Glory Power and Wisdom of the Soveraign Master of the World as much as they had been taken from him to be communicated to the Devil I banish from the Universe that abominable Creature to chain him in Hell that Jesus our Supream King may more powerfully and securely reign Though his Empire that is to endure to the last day is likewise to subsist in the midst of his Enemies that are here upon Earth that is amongst the People of the Devil or such in whom Sin keeps still imprinted the Image of the Devil With that intention I am not afraid to explain in my second Book several passages of the Hâ—ly Writ in another Sense than they have hitherto been taken But if by the publishing of such new explications one aimed not at the Honour of God and only sought to impair and stain the Reputation of those that are of contrary Opinion he should take more to heart his own Credit than the Glory of God As for me who have formerly been in Opinions contrary to those I speak of and which are still held by the greatest part of Men I willingly propose my present Sentiments but only with a sincere intention of glorifying God and bringing Truth to Light I think not therefore to be
who exclaim against my Second Book passing my First none has taken notice of my error in this point and declared it to me very few having done so much as reflected upon it But in vain they attack the Second if they admit the First They in no wise see the end I aim at nor the order I have followed as ought to be done in an exact search after the Truth But they undertake to confute my Second Book because it offers a larger field to their censures by different things expounded in an opposite Sense to that of the literal like those ignorant Disputants who let slip the antecedent Propositions and deny the consequence that is necessarily drawn from it I have reason to complain for passing an over-hasty judgment upon the halfe of my Work without staying till it appeared intire and they have seen the following Part and the Connexion no circumstance of time required that precipitation for I had not lost a moment to publish the two last Parts had they not hinder'd it by the disturbances they have given me I believe not that the whole extent of a project or its oeconomy may be perfectly seen while 't is but halfe done So 't is but at present that some judgement may be past upon this work since it begins but now to appear altogether and to be a perfect Body with all its Members The Second Book and the Third consist in the search after Truth and what of certainty may be had as to the Sentiments that have been upon this subject of Spirits and Men who have communication with them that is with evil Spirts I examine in the Second Book what concerns Spirits and in the Third what concerns these wicked People who seek to deal with them according to the division that I have proposed in the beginning of the First Book Chap. 1. Sect. 8. As to the Fourth I shall say hereafter what connection it has with the former and its usefulness Touching the method I take to make by degrees and in order this Search after Truth if whatever I have written upon this subject be attentively consider'd you will undoubtedly know the injustice of those who impute to me that I offer chiefly new Propositions of my own head that I take the greatest trouble imaginable to wrest the Scripture and my reasonings to accommodate them to it or that I make use of Reason as of a Rule with which I would measure Scripture and adapt it to the same On the contrary it is impossible not to see that I never had as yet the least thought of building upon such a foundation but that I have run through all the World and all times to discover where Men may have found the foundations of these Opinions which I have undertaken to find out For when one has attain'd to that knowledge he is in a condition to judge solidly whether those Opinions or Practices are grounded upon good or bad Reasons I declare then that I have not examined all the divers Opinions of the Pagans Jews Mahometans and Christians as well Ancient as Modern nor their Doctrines and Practices with an intent to give explanations of them nor to mainâ—aâ—n them or confute them but only to consider them in themselves and to expose them as they are without making any Judgment or producing any proofs to support or destroy them which is an extraordinary labour that none would ever undertake unless carry'd by the desire of truth So far I lay no foundation I that am a Christian and a Protestant and have no desire to become either Papist Jew or Pagan If I found nothing solid in the search I make I consent that they continue to say and believe concerning Spirits in general and Devils in particular all that is wont to be said and all that can be imagined But altho' I have not as yet found the bottom I seek and that neither Popery Judaism nor Paganism considered in themselves having there withal to furnish me I have notwithstanding a solid foundation which is common to me with those People And I have further another particular which I have in common but with part of them The first is reason which is the light of all men in general when it is found pure in them and neither perplexed nor obscured by prejudices or passions The other foundation upon which I rest is the Scripture inspireed by God which is equally pure in it self And and to the reading of which we ought also to apply our selves as if one had never read them that is to say with an entire disingagement of all humane prejudices and from those that may proceed from the versions of the Hebrew and the Greek which are the original languages in which it has been written he must meditate upon it without any regard to the interpretation which have been made by all sorts of Doctors either Ancient or Modern These two foundations are not Subordinate one to the other but subsist equally together Philo the Jew loving very much to search allegorical Sensâ—s in Scripture and not approving what St. Paul wrote upon the subject of Sarah and Agar Galatians Ch. 4. v. 2. has been the first that has applied to the Scripture and to reason the distinction of Mistress and Servant saying that you must thereby understand that Philosophy and humane understanding ought to be submitted to the holy writ This application is become so familiar to Divines that it has been received as an undeniable maxime since Philo took a fancy to propose it It is however a truth that reason ought to precede Scripture because the latter presupposes the former I understand sound reason to which the Scripture ought to present it self and make it self known as divine after that Reason comes to the help of Scripture teaching us things wherein Scripture is silent and the Scripture likewise comes to assist reason discovering to us things which are above it and above the reach of our understanding We must nevertheless confess that the Scripture is above reason not as mistress for they have every one their particular Empire and Direction But as being more noble and excellent because it is in this God manifests to us things which no humane understanding ever could comprehend 1 Corinthians 2.9 notwithstanding it happens sometimes that they meet both in the same way where they lodge together in the same house and by consequence they often lend one another the helping hand but they do it freely althô with this difference that reason as an inferiour alwayes shows a great respect for the Holy writ When therefore 't is said a Christian ought to submit his understanding to the word of God it must be understood the understanding such as it is in the Estate of corruption obscure by he Clouds that surround it and infected by the stâ—ins that dâ—â—â—â—gure it And such it is in respect of things which are above our reach which are only manifested to us in the word of
Romulus who frightfully imagined to see the Ghost of his Brother Remus after he had killed him If those Narrations were true such Spirits might be called terrifying Spirits Ovid in the Fifth Book of the Fasti plainly says what must be understood by that Name Mox etiam Lemures animas dixere silentum The Soul of the Dead had the Name of Lemures Sect. 16. The Lares or perhaps the Geniues are called by Macrobius in his Third Book of the Saturnalia Chap. 4. Penates that is Born together Quasi penes nos natos For as that Author pursues 't is by them that we breath by them that we have our Body and by them that our Soul subsists But 't is better to call them Gods and Governors of Countries to distinguish them from the Lares who were particular to each Family as they were both distinguished from the Geniuses and look'd upon as taking care of the exteriour of Man as the Geniuses did of the interior However it must be confess'd that there is but Confusion and Darkness to be met with in the Books of the Heathens concerning those Names and their pretended Signification they having not well known themselves what they Worshipped as Gods or as Spirits neither need we take much trouble in unravelling what they themselves knew not since the memory both of them and of their Daemons is long since extinguished upon Earth This being the Lot of the Heathens and of their Gods Jeremiah cap. 10. Sect. 17. Whether this last sort of Gods or Spirits were called Genii Manes Penates or Lemures it plainly appears that they believed the Immortality of the Soul which Opinion being confounded with that of Daemons gave occasion to contrive those sorts of Spirits Plato in his Book Of the Soul Entituled Phaedo induces Socrates speaking near his Death in these Words Above all the Soul must be immortal and unperishable and consequently it must go to live 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in invisible places or as others pretend to infer from the Etymology of the Word in agreeable Places Marcilius Ficinus has Translated it in Latin apud Manes by the surviving Spirits as I have named them above but a little after he Translates apud Inferos in the Subterraneous Places which proceed from that they placed the Soul of the Deceased under the Earth Cicero in the first Book of the Tusculan Questions Sect. 26. shows both in these Words We believe that the Souls survive because all our Reasonings lead us to that Opinion Reason ought also to teach us where they are whence Ignorance has taken occasion to invent subterraneous places because Bodies being put into the Earth and cover'd with Earth humo whence comes humari to be Buried thereof it has been believed that the Dead still live under the Earth Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the same word which the Interpreters of the New Testament sometimes Translate by that of Hell sometimes by that of Grave none of which agrees with the Sense of Socrates or that of Plato For at the end of the forementioned Book Socrates derides Crito who asked him how he would be buried He believes says he That I am that dead Body which he shall see anon signifying that they might indeed Bury his Dead Body but as to him that is his Soul he should pass 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the assur'd Felicity of the Blessed which very much differs from the Grave or Hell And therefore 't is certain that Socrates who spake so believed the Soul to be Immortal and that Plato who writ his Words was of the same persuasion Sect. 18. But there were others who tho' they were of the same opinion yet having not acquired so much insight into the State of Souls separated from their Bodies invented Transmigrations and Purifications The Druids so famous amongst the Ancient Gauls held together the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Transmigration of Souls with their Immortality For they unanimously taught according to the Testimony of Caesar Book 8. Chap. 18. Non interire animas sed ab aliis post mortem transire ad alios Souls die not but that after Death they pass from one to another The antient Egyptians were of the same Opinion and Herodotus writes that they were the first who taught the Immortality of the Soul For says he their sentiment is that the Soul being deprived of the Body passes into another Body which is then born and after she has thus walked through all sorts of Bodies upon Earth in the Sea and in the Air she at last returns into a human Body Thence it was that Pythagoras had his Doctrine which he brought over into Greece whence it passed into Italy Lactantius explains the Opinions of that Philisopher in his Seventh Book de Proemio Chap. 8. In these words Pythagoras as foolishly asserted that the Souls passed into other Bodies from the Bodies of Men into those of Beasts and from those of Beasts into those of Men again and that his own had formerly been that of Euphorbius Plato and several others have partly followed him which we shall be obliged frequently to mention hereafter Sect. 19. But Socrates as Plato relates in the forementioned Treatise which contains his last Words leads the Souls to some places where they shall be Blessed or Tormented without Bodies He sends those who shall have done Good into the Upper and Aetherial Regions where he believes the most pure part of this Orb to be and where the Soul shall Eternally live without the Body in an unexpressible Felicity Whereas he condemns those of the Wicked to the Tartarus which is a deep and frightful Abyss where they shall be punish'd according to their Deserts From that Gulf of Torments he draws four Rivers to which he gives as many Names very fit to express his Notion viz. Oceanus a precipitate Torrent Acheron a Torrent of Torments Pyriphlegeton Conflagration and Cocytus Bemoaning Here Sinners who have not been altogether incorrigible are to be purged with many Pains and Vexations more or less longer or shorter according to their Deserts There you have the original of Purgatory or of that purging Fire still believed by the Roman Church However Socrates gives out that Narration but for a Chimaera For before he begins it he calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a pretty Fable worth hearing and at the end he says But no Man of Sense ought to maintain that Opinion so as I have related though I esteem it rational and just to show that it goes very near so in reference to our Souls and their Habitations since it plainly appears that the Soul is immortal These Words of a Dying Man who exhorts those that were present to be at all times ready for Death persuade me more and more of what I have already said that the Heathens express'd themselves variously upon these Matters and that they speak otherwise when they consider them in reference to Religion than when they conceive them in relation
the Devil that the Christians have since he that knows not God after the manner of the Christians cannot also know the Devil and that is impossible that any rational Creature should know the Devil as he is and adore him For as to what is said by the Apostle concerning the Heathens that they offer their sacrifices to the Devils 1 Cor. 10.20 'T is not expresly said to the Devil as to the Chief of the wicked Angels no more then in St. Matth. 25.41 But to him as the Chief of the Demons of which we have formerly spoken And 't is observable that the Greek word used by St. Paul is not that of Devils but Demons which is the name the Heathens gave to a sort of inferior Gods as has been already said After that Observation let us see what conformity may be found betwixt the sentiments of the Ancient Pagans and that of the Modern Heathen as to Spirits we shall begin with Europe thence proceed to Asia and Africa and at last go over into America CHAP. VI. That this Conformity must be sought 1st in the remains of Paganism in Europe Sect. 1. IT has been already said that there are some Pagans in the extremity of Europe especially in the Northern parts but they are so brutish and wild that it is easier to see what they do than to conceive or guess what they believe They are Laplanders and Finlanders especially those Swedish Dominion with whom we are best acquainted by a description drawn from the best Authors which Scheffer has made in his Swedish Lapland and therefore I shall declare as much as I judge convenient for my design First what he says of these and afterwards what is added of the others yet without giving credit to whatever is written of which I scarce believe one halfe to be true This however is certain that those People tho' under the Dominion of Christian Princes viz. those of Swedeland Denmark and Muscovy are as fond of their Pagan Superstition and continue as zealously tho' secretly their antient practises as they have little knowledge of Christianity and inclination to embrace our Faith In the mean while Scheffer has made of late such an accurate description of Lapland and upon such certain information that one may methinks surely relye upon what he says and as he frequently intermixes in his Narrations other Laplanders and Finlanders it may be probably inferr'd that he esteems them all very near alike in Belief and Worship which may be confirm'd by this reason that what other Writers say of those other Nations is pretty agreeable with what Scheffer relates of Swedish Lapland And therefore I shall follow him only tho' I ought not to say him only since his Book contains whatever the others had written before him Let us then First â—ee which are the sentiments of those Pagans and afterwards we shall speak of their Magick Sect. 2. The objects of their Worship are divided into three sorts as into so many degrees the most sublime are Thor or Thordoen which is properly the Thunder Storjunkare or Stourra-passe which signifie Holy and Great and Baiwe that is the Sun The first has also the name of Tiermes which in the Laplandish Language is as much as the noise of the Thunder because that God is believed to be the Master of Thunder and seems therefore to be their Jupiter He is also named Aijeke that is Great Father The Laplanders ascribe co him an absolute Power over the Life and Death of Men over their Health and Diseases and over the wicked Demons who live on the top of the Rocks Mountains and Lakes They believe that he restrains those Demons when they vex Men too much that he chastises them that he sometimes Thunder-strikes 'em and puts 'em to death esteeming it to be the chief employment of the Thunder as the eminent Latins imagin'd that Jupiter cast his Thunderbolt upon the wicked and all other Criminals for that purpose they give him a Bow which they imagin'd to be the Iris or Rainbow that he might dart his Arrows wound and kill all the wicked Demons They call in their Tongue the Iris Aijeke dauge the great Fathers Bow that is the Bow of the Good and Beneficent God who preserves them as his Children and defends them against the Insults of those wicked Demons They imagine that God has likewise a Hammer which they call Aijewetchera with which he strikes on the Neck of the Demons and breaks their Head Storjunkare or Stourra-passe which signifies the Governor of the Country is amongst them as the Great Pan or as Diana having the Country and Woods under his directions Fishes and Birds are also at his disposal and all Animaâ—s and wâ—ld Beasts acknowledge his Empire 't is by him 〈◊〉 they are happy in hunting and without his leave they cannot catch any thing True it is that Aijeke or Tiermes governs Gods Demons and Men but Storjunkare in quality of Vicar of that God has the conduct of all those other things Barwe that signifies the Sun as Paiwe does the Day is adored by them for the good he does to the Earth but they particularly venetrate him in Summer time because they always see him that he has restored them his Light dissipated their Darkness brought Heat and expel'd Cold. Sect. 3. The Manes of the Romans mentioned before Chap. 2. Sect. 15. Are among the Laplanders Inferior Gods which they call Sitte They erect no Figures to their Honour and content themselves with offering Sarcifices to them we find in no writing what sentiments they have of the power of those Sitte nor for what reason they make them Offerings The last sort of those Inferiour Gods are the Juhles or Inhlaforket that are a Vagabond Crowd whom they believe to wander in the Air and through Forests and Mountains But I find also no where what good or hurt those Spirits may in their Opinion procure to Men only they believe them Inferior to the Sitte however they pay them also some Worship behind their Cottage at a Bow shot distance which Worship ends in a superstitious Sacrifice They consecrate to them neither Images nor Statues no more then to the Manes they have likewise no Image of Bawe or the Sun either because he is visible himself or because the most secret Science of their Mysteries accounts him but one God with Tiermes There is but Ayeke and Storjunkar who have Statues erected to their Honour those of Aijeke are of Wood and those of Storjunkare of Stone Sect. 4. 'T is upon those Opinions that their Divinations and Witchcraft are grounded and hereupon I can't but make this observation that by reading Scheffer and comparing what he fays of his own with what he has collected from other Authors it may easily be perceived that the Witchcraft of the Northern Nations extends not so far as is commonly reported But then we must credit what Scheffer assures us from his own experience in the following words Chap. 12. Tho
to this that Christ is acknowledged by the Mahometans for a great Prophet and honoured in that quality whereas he is horribly blasphemed by the Jews For these reasons I say that the Mahometans are halfe nearer to us than the modern Jews But what need we any farther proof since as to this matter it is plain that the Jews are less from Paganism than the Mahometans as shall appear by the proof I shall produce Sect. 2. As long as we have had to do with Heathens only we needed but to make an inquiry after their Opinions concerning their Gods the Spirits and the Souls But here the Question is not concerning the plurality of Gods for thô formerly the Jews have been extraordinarily inclined to Idolatry they have now such a great aversion for Polytheism ever since 2300 years that they are returned from the Babylonian Captivity that they will acknowledge but one Person in the Divine Unity They believe by the light of the Holy Writ that this only God is Almighty and sufficient to himself and to all things which he has created of nothing and governs and maintains alone Amongst his Creatures they reckon Angels and Men and think that the last have a Soul more excellent than that of Bruits tho' far inferior to the Angelical Perfection Such has been in all times the belief of the Jews and so farr is more agreeable to the Christian Faith then that of the Mahometans as we shall say hereafter Sect. 3. But the state of the Jewish Religion whilst the first Temple stood must be well distinguished from that into which it is insensibly fall'n The Jews of that time were Orthodox save only those who suffer'd themselves to be carried into Idolatry and undoubtedly they had no other Opinion of the Angels Demons and Souls of Men but what the Holy Writings still teach us so that if we still look upon them as different from us it is because we consider those of latter times when their State was in its fall and Christianity in its growth But tho' they be now divided into two Sects that of the Carraijim who only follow the Holy Writ and that of the Rabbanim who adhere to the Traditions of their Doctors there is yet but the latter which deserves to come into consideration the number of the former being altogether inconsiderable they being a remainder of the Sadduces which are hardly known in Europe whereas the other may be called the posterity of the Pharisees Sect. 4. Tho' we design only to insist upon the latter yet a more particular difference may be observed betwixt the Ancient Jews and the Modern By the Ancient Jews I understand here those that lived in the time of our Saviour of his Apostles or a little after Philo who was the Learnedst and Wisest is of an Opinion not far from that of Plato when he says that the Stars are animated and that they move circularly by their own intelligence Ben Maimon is in that point of his Sentiment of which he has made an abridgement in these words All the Stars and Celestial Orbs have a Soul Knowledge Vnderstanding and a lasting Life knowing him by whose Word the Vniverse was made Each of those â—reatures according to his Excellency and Dignity praisâ—s and glorifies his Author following the example of the Angels but as they know God so they understand what they are themselves as well as the Angels who however are above them Their Knowledge being inferior to that of the Angels and superior to that of Men This is to be read in the Book of that Author Entituled Of the Grounds of Faith Sect. 5. If we come more particularly to examine their Opinions as to the Spirits whether Angels or Human Souls we shall not find the Ancient and Modern Writers agree well together Philo who is amongst the former believes That the Air is full of Spirits the most perfect of whom never assumed Bodies but go to and fro ascend and descend from Heaven upon Earth for the service of the Great God That there are others inferior in Dignity to the first who take on Bodies of which they are deprived by death and into which some of them return But others being wearied of this life go up higher and live there in peace But there are others the most pure and excellent of all who have a sublime and Divine Vnderstanding despise Terrestrial and perishing things are the Ministers of the Almighty and as the Ears and Eyes of the Great God those see and hear everything The Philosophers call them Genii and the Holy Writ names them most properly Angels that is to say Messengers for they are really Messengers who carry to Children the Orders of their Father and to the Father the Prayers of his Children wherefore it is said of them that they ascend and descend This is contained in the Book of Dreams written by Philo. Sect. 6. If you now desire to hear the Jews of the latter times and their Opinions upon the Nature of Angels Vorstius will tell you most truly in his Annotations upon the Grounds of the Faith written by Maimonides that they do not perfectly agree together For some believe That those Spirits have been created of the most subtile Elements as Rabbi Juda relates it in his Book Entituled Cusri Chap. 4. Sect. 4. Others as the Author of the Book Jezira hold as the same Rabbi Juda assures us that the Angels proceeded from the Holy Ghost We find also in the Book Chagiga fol. 14. That by the word of God administring Angels are created every day But Maimonides speaks of his own more wisely upon this subject and generally upon all others The Angels says he in Chap. 2. Sect. 4 Have an Essence that subsists without Matter not having Bodies but being Essences distinguished from one another Sect. 7. Upon this difference of the Angels in the opinion of the Jews I think it better to propose what has been said by the same Author than to quote any other because there is none amongst them that may be compar'd to him either for Learning or Judgment as not intending to impute to them more foolish Doctrines than those that are admitted by their most authentick Writers Thus then Maimonides expresses this Opinion When the Prophets say that they have seen the Angels as a fire and with wings they speak after the manner of the Prophets and by a simile designing only to shew that they are neither corporeal nor heavy In this sense it is that God himself is called a Consuming fire viz. improperly thus likewise this passage must be understood he makes the Winds his Angels or as it is in some Translations The Spirits for the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ruach having those two significations of Spirits and of Winds And therefore the Angels being material are essentially distinguished betwixt themselves as by degrees the one being above the other to which the Author applies these words For a higher than that high takes
Names which the Administring Angels seeing said among themselves Let us consult together how we shall do to make Adam Sin against his Creator otherwise he is like to become our Master Sammael who was a great Prince in Heaven she has been before mentioned Ch. 12. S. 8. was present at this Council with the Saints of the first Order and the Seraphins of six Troops Sammael chose some of the twelve Orders to accoâ—â—â—â—ny him and came down below to visit all the Creatures whom God eternally Blessed had created He found none so cunning and so proper to deceive as the Serpent The Author comes afterwards to the Seduction and Fall of Man upon which he tells as many Stories as he has already done So was the Seduction of Man the cause of the fall of the Devil Afterwards he relates how God punished Adam Eve and the Serpent and imposed on each of them his proper Pain He call'd them all three before him charged by his Sentence Adam with nine Curses and condemn'd him to Death but he precipitated Sammael and his whole Troop from the Heavens the abode of his Holiness He cut off the Feet of the Serpent for it had before the shape of a Camel and Sammael rode upon him and he cursed it above all other Beasts and living Creatures That 's the Fall of the Devil according to the Opinion of the Jews for we must not charge this Story upon Eliezer alone The Targums that contain the most ordinary and received explications of their best Doctors mention this Fable in several places Sect. 14. They give yet another original to the Demon feigning him to be issued from Lilis That 's saith Manasse the Name of the Wife of the Devil who according to the Opinion of some had been the Wife of Adam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lilit Is a word to be found in the Holy Scripture Isa 34 14. which our Interpreters translate Satyr the French Lutin and the Dutch Duyuell but we must hear Rabbi Elisha who in his Thisbi has set up the whole Legend We find in some Writings that for one hunderd and thirty years during which Adam abstained from his Wife there came she Devils to him who grew big with Child and brought forth Devils Spirits Hobgoblins and Night Phantasms I find again in other places that the Devils have been brought forth by four Mothers Lilis Naome Ogera and Macholas We likewise read in the Book of Ben Syra Quest 60. that Nebuchadnezar asking him why most Children died within the eighth day of their Birth he answer'd because Lilis kill'd them of which matter there is more largely treated in the same place but I shall not write more of it because I dont credit it By that Narration may be seen how gross the Fictions of the Jewish Doctors are since there are Men amongst 'em who cannot believe them how apt soever that Nation may be to be imposed upon Sect. 15. But as if those four she Devils had not been sufficient to People the World with wicked Spirits they have invented a third sort from what is mention'd Gen. 6.2 That the Sons of God seeing the Daughters of Men that they were fair took for Wives such as they liked From very ancient times the Jews by those Sons of God understand the Angels Wherefore Josephus says in his first Book of the Jewish Antiquities Chap. 4. That several Angels of God mixing themselves with Women begot a very insolent Generation He even knows the Names of those Angels that were carried to that excess of Letchery Aza and Azael were the chiefest amongst them being both enamour'd with the Beauty of Naema Cain's Daughter Thence proceeded the Giants mention'd in the same place of the Holy Writ who as we may infer from that Narration must have been half Devils and half Men. Asmodee the wicked Spirit of Sara Daughter to Raguel of whom mention is made in the Book of Tobit was likewise issued from that Marriage but others affirm him to be Sammael If it be asked how Spirits have the faculty of Generating Eliezer explains that difficulty in his 22th Chapter When they were thrown down from their Holy abode their strength and shape became like to that of Men. Sect. 16. But not to fill up this Book with Tales they had rather imagine as some Heathens have done Chap. 2. S. 12. that those wicked Spirits are half Angels and half Men. Whereupon Vorstius in his Notes upon Rabbi Eliezer relates the following words taken from Rabbi Scheem Toob in that place where Rabi Nitron speaks of Lilis The power of the Devils Night Phantasms and Wicked Spirits which we sometimes see in a human shape proceeds from the concourse of that Chief of theirs and as to their state the Opinion of the Learned is that they resemble Men as much as they do Angels because on the one side they are not such a subtle substance as those of the other Spirits and on the other they are not composed of such a gross matter as that of Men. If we desire to know why those cursed Creatures are called by the Jewish Doctors sometimes Spirits and sometimes Male and Female as tho' they were Men the same Toob will tell us in his 5th Chapter as Vorstius relates in the 22th Chapter of Rabi Eliezer where he speaks of a second Order of Spirits consider'd as distinguished into ten Orders From that Order proceeds in the Universe two sorts of Spirits of Error or Satyrs who behave themselves like Men who appear to them in their Dreams in the shape of handsome Women transforming themselves now into Men then Women Sect. 17 'T is now time to learn their Opinion concerning human Souls at least if they understand themselves distinctly enough to inform us of it For it already appears from what I have quoted out of Philo Sect. 12. that the most Learned do not stick to an accurate distinction betwixt Angels and Souls And Josephus that famous Historian almost as ancient as that other Author says in his seventh Book of the Wars of the Jews Chap. 25. That the Spirits called Daemons are those of the worst of Men who fall upon the living and kill them if not hindred from it Thence it appears that he ascribes something Corporeal to those Spirits so much the more that he fancies that they may be expell'd by the Root Baaras or by some other formerly shewed by Solomon as the same Author intimates in his eighth Book of the Jewish Antiquities But I am to make a large mention of that sort of Enchantment in the following Chapter Sect. 18. The Book which the learned Hoornbeck has written against the Jews contains in short their Opinions as to the Nature and Original of Souls Their Opinion says he Pag. 319. is that the Souls were all created together with the Light the first day of the Creation and not only that they were Created together but by Couples the Soul of a Man and that of a Woman so that
and the Heavenly happiness Sect. 13. For the Sahins or Sahis of whom mention is made before scarce believe that the Soul is immortal Delavalle in his 4th Book Ch. 23. describes some Persians that are like them they are calied elh eltabquid that is People of truth or certainty They constitute the Essence of the Soul in the mixture and union of the 4 Elements as far as I can observe by the explication he gives of their belief The Soul returns to God in the same manner as she proceeded from him for she proceeds from him in as much as he is the Author of that complication of the 4 Elements and she returns to him in as much as he separates them That Sect is very numerous thô look'd upon as Heretical by other Persians Sect. 14. Every one of those various Opinions is discoverable by the practices of it's followers Delavalle relates Ch. 17. that the Persians have a great veneration for the greatest and eldest Trees because they perswade themselves that they are the abode of the Souls of the blessed for which Reason they call them Pir that is An Ancient Man or Scheich the Eldest or Iman Priest supposing that the Souls of the Priests and Old Men dwell in such Trees There are others who having learned from Pythagoras to enquire afrer the Virtue and Mystery of numbers are addicted to all sorts of Witchcraft as the Inhabitants of the Coast of Coromandel Ch. 8 Sect. 5. They boast says Marmol Book 2. Chap. 3. pag. 131. That the Celestial Spirits appear to them and communicate to them an entire knowledge of the affairs of this World They are much feared and reverenced in Africa as being great sorcerers The rule they keep was composed by one Boni named by the Arabs The Father of Enchantments and Witchcrafts the last of the three Books he has written is called The secret of the Divine Attributes and treats of the Virtue of 90 Names of God But 't is fit to mention here a sort of Cabala in great request with part of those Nations and like that of the Jews save that it is not drawn from the Holy writ for they name it a natural Science but say that he must be an Astrologer who presumes to put it in use Sect 15. The same Author adds That in Great Cairo and the Towns of Barbary there is a vast number of People that runs up and down and pretend to three sorts of Divination some divine by the black Art with Draughts and Figures some with a glass Vessel full of Water into which they power a drop of Oyl that becomes very thin and clear wherein they pretend to see Troops of Devils marching in order of Battle some by Water and others by Land as soon as they stop Queries are put to them and they answer by signs with the Eyes and Hands But to that Witchcraft little Children are required for the great ones see nothing whereas the others look into the Oyl and being asked whether they see the signs which the Devils make they answer yes which gives them great credit and gets them plenty of Money The Catoptromancy of the Ancients was somthing like that Chap. 3. Sect 10. That sort of People are called in Mauritania Moralcimines that is Enchanters because they boast of bewitching the Devils by words The third sort of those rambling Diviners are Women that make People believe they converse with Devils some of whom are white and others red or black When they are about to Divine they besmoke themselves with Sulphur and other stinking drugs after which the Demon as they say seizes upon them and they change their Voice as thô be spake by their Mouth then the enquirers approach and ask with great humbleness what they desire and having received an Answer go away leaving a present in the Witches House Sect. 16. The Bumicils are doubtless great forcecers too These fight against the Devils as they say and go all bruised and cover'd with blows in a great fright often at Noon day they counterfeit a Skirmish before the People two or three hours long with Spears or Zagaies until they fall down all loaden with blows but having rested a while they come to themselves again and walk I could not hitherto discover what rule they follow thô they are held to be Monks There are others in Barbary maimed exorcists who boast of expelling Devils and when they cannot compass their end they say that the party is credulous or that it is a Celestial Spirit These draw Circles or write some Characters and make marks on the Hand or Face of the possessed then they besmoke him with stinking smels and make their Conjuration They ask the Spirit how he is entered into that body whence he comes what he is how he is call'd and at last order him to be gone Sect. 17. I must yet relate somthing out of Ricaut concerning the Turbes There is a sort of Dervis called Mevelevi who turn with great skill and swiftness at the sound of the Flute affirming that it is by devotion and the example of their Patron Mevelava who always turned in that manner without taking in any nourishment during a fortnight whilst his friend Haraze was playing on the instrument at the end of which he fell into an extasie wherein he received from Heaven the rules of his order with many wonderful revelations Now his successors who are inclin'd to Laziness and yet cannot be quiet follow his example in this manner Some learn Legerdemains to amuse People and apply themselves to Magick and Conjurations by the help of familiar Spirits From this place in which the Author speaks of his own Head it appears that he acknowledges some such Spirits and argues about them according to his Opinion Afterwards he makes some quotations out of Busbeek that are very pertitent to our subject Sect. 18. There is says he in Egypt a Cloyster consecrated to a Saint called Kederlei the Dervis that dwell in it boast that by the Virtue of Kederlei they bewitch Serpents and Vipers and handle them at boldly as innocent Beasts Others are not afraid of the stings of Vipers or Asps and put them with the Hand into bags as we do worms where they keep them Others enchant Snakes by certain words and make them stop on a sudden when they are creeping on the banks of the Nile some of them pretend that power to be Hereditary in their Family and to pass from Father to Son and others boast that it is a gift of God in reward of Virtue and Holiness I have heard some Travellers say there are Men in Persia and the Indies whom our People look'd upon as great sorcerers because they made Serpents dance and stand upright in a box at the sound of their Voice at the winding of a Pipe or the playing of some other Musical Instrument This will be matter of examination hereafter Sect. 19. Whatever has been hitherto said of the Mahometans makes it
that some very exact Criticks believe not this work of Questions to be Athanasius's but there is no less controversie as to the true Author of the Confession ascribed to that Father However both must needs be very Antient and the former cannot be of much later Date than the age of Athanasius so that the proof drawn from thence to show what was the Doctrine of that time is still of the same force At least none doubts but St. Basil contemporary with St. Athanasius has written the three First Books against Eunomius and therefore his Testimony will be admitted with less difficulty After St. Athanasius or some other whoever he may be has descended from God through the several degrees of Angels to Men St. Basil comes to teach us how we are to consider the Holy Angels of God in their different Orders and Administrations He says at the beginning of his 3 Book against Eunomius That all the Angels have indeed the same name and are of the same nature but that some preside over whole Nations and others take care of every faithful person Now as much as a whole Nation is to be preferr'd before a single Man so much is the Dignity of an Angel committed over a whole Nation above that of another Another Angel who has only the keeping of a single person Sect. 18. However St. Austin who writ very near 50 years after St. Basil expresses not himself so freely upon this matter in his Manual Chap. 58. We cannot says he precisely tell what passes amongst those Blessed Societies above nor what difference there is betwixt persons c. And as to the signification of those four words in which the Apostles seem to comprehend all the Heavenly Societies saying either Thrones or Dominions Principalities or Powers they shall prove as they can what they assert for my part I freely confess I know nothing of it St. Jerom his contemporary for they both lived betwixt the 4th and 5th Century seems not to be so reserved but on the contrary undertakes to prove what St. Athanasius and St. Basil had asserted whereas St. Austin seems to doubt of the Truth of their Opinions saying in his Commentary on the 46th Chapter of Isaiah For many passages of the Holy Writ teach us that each of us has his Angel especially that of Matth. Chap. Ver. 10. Take care lest you despise one of these little ones for their Angels c There are therefore in his Opinion Angels for particular persons He likewise names in his Commentary on the 47th Chapter Pag. mihi 476. Tom. 5. Angelos praesides Judaeorum The Angels presiding over the Jews And upon Daniel Chap. 7. ver 2. he saith I hold the four Winds to be Angelical Powers to whom the principal Kingdoms have been entrusted according to what is written Chap. 32. ver 8. where instead of these words the most High established the bounds of Nations according to the number of the Children of Israel he reads according to the number of the Angels of God to ground his Opinion thereupon Sect. 19. St. Austin seems so modest upon the difference amongst the Angels is perhaps too reserved in what follows for immediately after what he says he speaks of the Stars in too dubious a manner saying I see likewise nothing certain upon that point whether the Sun Moon and other Stars must be comprehended in that Society tho' some hold them to be luminous Bodies without Knowledge and Sense He seems not inclinable to that last Opinion but is more apt to believe that the Stars are a kind of Angels or at least of living and understanding Creatures without daring to determine whether they are part of the four Orders to which he applies the names contained in St. Paul's passage before quoted whence 't is easy to infer that he was taken up with the Intelligences of Aristotle Sect. 20. St. Jerom explains himself openly as to the Ministery of the Angels upon the 9th Chap. of Daniel Angelorum duplex officium est aliorum qui justis praemia tribuunt aliorum qui singulis praesunt Cruciatibus The Angels discharge 2 sorts of functions some are established to distribute rewards to the just and others to inflict punishments on the Damned It appears by the series of his discourse and by the passage of the Holy Scripture at which he aims that he equally ascribes those 2 things to the good Angels according to that Opinion that there happens neither good nor evil without the Ministry of the Angels of God and consequently he attributes nothing to the Devil Sect. 21. Lactantius shows what were the Opinions of his time concerning the Devil of whom he makes a very large description in the 7th Book of his Institutions especially Sect. 8. which deserves I should give the short of here He says That God produced a Spirit altogether like him that was endued with the Virtues of his Father He seems that thereby he should understand our Lord Jesus Christ Afterwards he created another Alterum not Alium that preserved not the perfections of his Celestial Original because according to the meaning of â—actantius he envyed that first Spirit who remained faithful and obedient to God his Father Wherefore the latter bears the name of Diabolus Criminator Accuser and Slanderer The Author stops there and speaks no more of it but Sect. 14. He says that God for that Reason has granted to the Devil power over the Earth ab initio from the begining but to prevent the Devil from seducing Men he sent Angels to defend them advertising them withal not to stain themselves by their Conversation with Men but the Devil seduced the very Angels so far that they mixt with Women and were cast down from Heaven to Earth If it were so that old proverb would be verified That there would be no Devils if there were no handsom Women Sect. 22. One thing 's especially observable that Athanasius in his First and Second Book against the Arrians is the first Author as far as we know that applies to the fall of the Devil that passage of Isaiah Ch. 14. v. 12. How art thou fallen from Heaven O Morning Star which is undoubtedly said of the King of Babilon because of the great figure he made in the World Now the Morning Star is called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in Latin Lucifer which words are still to be read in the Greek and Hebrew Bibles whence several that have followed St. Athanasius have taken occasion to give the name of Lucifer to the Prince of the Devils which name he still bears If those who understand not the Latin Tongue knew that is the name of the Morning Star they would never bestow it upon Belial since it agrees so well to our Saviour who calls himself the bright and Morning Star Revel Ch. 22. v. 16. to which St. Peter undoubtedly alludes in his Second Epistle Ch. 1. v. 19. Where he says That the Morning Star must arise in our
out of it Upon the 10th Chapter he says again He that is Condemned and deliver'd to punishment by reason of his Sins and brought to the place of Execution has no longer hopes of Mercy or Forgiveness But this Pope does not always maintain this Thesis for he speaks thus in the 4th Book of his Dialogues Chap. 39. Sed samen de quibusdam levibus culpis esse Purgatorius Ignis credendus est However it must be believed that there is a Purging Fire for some small Faults Upon the Penitential Psalms he explains himself more at large Post mortem carnis alii aeternis deputantur suppliciis alii ad vitam per ignem transcunt Purgationis After the death of the Body some are condemned to endless Torments and others go to Life through a purging Fire CHAP. XVI That some of the first Christians derided the Conjurations of Spirits and others credited and practised them Sect. 1. WE are now to examine whether the practice of Divination and Witchcraft were in request in the first time of the Christian Church Both were equally rejected by those that were called Catholicks and Orthodox but we must enquire upon what ground for it was not so much because they believed 'em to he deceiving Arts the practice of which was impossible as that they judge 'em unlawful Besides they ackowledg'd so far the efficacy of Conjurations that they did not at most reject 'em but came in process of time to admit them in the Ceremony of Baptism which are still call'd Exorcisms generally us'd amongst the Papists and not entirely abolished amongst some Protestants Tho' this be not the place to treat at large of this matter yet it may be premisde that this is their most ancient Original as the Writings of some of their Doctors plainly testify But let us hear first how the Laws of the First Christians thunder'd against those that durst meddle with Exorcisms and Conjurations Sect. 2. Here is the Proclamation of the Emperor Constantine in the 9th Book of the Code Tit. 8. Book 5. De Divinatoribus Let no body presume to interrogate Diviners or to consult Mathematicians and Astrologers Silence is also enjoyn'd to Augurers and Fortune-tellers Caldees Magicians and those that are called Sorcerers because of the hainousness of their crime shall not be allowed to undertake or exercise their Art The curiosity of those that consult Oracles shall be repressed If any obey not our Orders he shall be punished by the Steel till he be dead Given at Milan January 25. 337. Here is another Proclamation of the Emperors Valentinianus Theodosius and Arcadius If any be found guilty of Magick he shall be arrested add deliver'd to Justice as an enemy of Mankind c. Given at Rome Aug. 17. 389. The rest may be seen in those Laws and is sufficiently known to Civilians Constantine in the beginning of his Reign in 312. had ordained the pain of Fire for such as should be convicted of that Crime and promised a Reward to the Informers Law the 3d. Tit. 8. de Maleficis comprehendendis ad publicum pertrahendis Sect. 3. In the mean while those pains were not inflicted upon that sort of people so much because of their Cheats as has been already said as especially by reason of their Crimes and the hurt they were believed to procure to Men and Beasts by mixing and perturbating the Elements by their Witchcraft which made them worthy of the most cruel punishments This plainly appears by the 6th Law made by Constantine and Julian Anno 357. There are several who are not afraid of confounding the Elements by Witchcraft and assaulting the Life of Man who cannot defend himself against them of conjuring up Ghosts and asking their advice to destroy their Enemies by wicked ways Whence it appears a double Power was attributed to Sorcerers and Inchanters First of confounding the Elements and Secondly of Conjuring up Ghosts making them appear and discoursing with them It was therefore believed that the Crime of that People consisted in their converse with the Spirits whose Power and malice they made use of to torment other Men. So that 't is no doubt but that Opinion was then general among the Christians and even amongst the Mob of the Heathens or at least of the greatest part amongst them who lived and conversed with the Christians so that either of them addicting themselves to that Converse whether they were perswaded of the Power of Spirits or not made themselves equally guilty and obnoxious to the severity of the Law Sest 4. The chief Doctors of that time teach us the same but I shall quote only a few that will afford us sufficient proofs I shall begin with Justin Martyr who lived in the 2d Age and shows in his 2d Apology that he acknowledged the efficacy and virtue of the Heathen Witchcraft In the new Edition of Cologne Pag. 65. The Predictions themselves that are made by the means of the dead by young innocent Children that see Objects in a mirror by the calling up of the Souls of the deceased and by those that are call'd by the Magicians Expounders of Dreams Paredri Assessores Assessors In short whatever is operated by those that are skilful in those practices must perswade you says he to the Heathens that the Souls have still some Sense after death What he writes in his Dialogue against Tripho the Jew differs not much from that First passage ib. Pag. 311. That the Demons may be overcome by Conjurations in the name of Jesus Christ but that no Jew can do the same in the name of any King Prophet or Patriarch not even perhaps in the name of the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. He nevertheless believes that the Demons by means of that sort of Diviners that were called Ventriloqui gave real Oracles to those that Conjur'd them as may be gather'd from his 33th Question and from the Answer to it Sect. 5. Proceeding farther whatever is needful for our design is to learn the Sentiments of the Fathers as to the power and efficacy of the Conjurations that were practised both by the Heathens and Christians St. Cyprian in the 3d Century sufficiently Declares that in the Christian Religion Baptism has power by the Blessing of Christ to expel wicked Spirits which gives occasion to believe that they were possess'd of Men before their being cast out by that Holy Sacrament And indeed he writes in his 7th Letter of the 1st Book That as Pharaoh after much resistance was at last drowned in the water so the Devil is yet now a-days abused and tormented by the Exorcists whose voice is indeed only human but attended by the Virtue of God For a little farther he says when by the Saving water we receive the Sanctification of Baptism we may be sure that the power of the Devil is overcome and the person consecrated to God freed by his mercy It happens at the same time according to him that Scorpions and Serpents cannot abide water
to reveal it to the Rector or other Priest commission'd by the Bishop never fail to fall into the possession of the Devil to whom the Monitory delivers them after it 's being thunder'd out and that the Devil transforms them most or all the Nights into Dogs Cats Wolves Goats and other Animals which is called to whurry as a Wolf If one meet in the night some Wild-Beast or a Domestick straying he fancies to have met the Wolf-man and is ready to swear it Some of the most thinking and less superstitious part at least believe that the Excommunication contained in those Monitories cuts off from the Communion of their Church and delivers to the Demons those that have not submitted to it by revealing such things as 't is often very convenient and useful to conceal Sect. 18. As all these things are said in general concerning the power of wicked Spirits so certain places are assigned to them where they usually produce their Effects The coâ—mon Opinion is that there are familiar Spirits Domestick and Mountanous Devils 1. The familiar Spirits Spiritus Familiares are those who always keep by a Man even when he calls not for them whether they do it of their own accord or that they have been hired very cheap for that purpose They serve him faithfully at least outwardly whether or no he calls for them They suffer themselves to be shut up in Rings Chrystals Chests and the like and to be carried away whither soever one pleases These are the very words of Schottus pag. 134. Those Demons in Glass or Rings are according to the common Opinion shut in or fastned to them with some certain ceremonies used in that case and not by the virtue of any Conjurations or Exorcisms nor by the power of him that carries them as 't is believed by some but they undergo this willingly or by the absolute order of the Prince of the Devils whom they blindly obey or lastly to deceive Men more easily When they are in those sorts of Prisons and have been carried through several places questions are put to them and sometimes they are forced to speak Then they discover to Men hidden Things and foretell those that are to come It is believed that in our days a great and victorious Prince carried one of these Spirits with him in his Ring and that he lost his sight in a Battle a little after the Stone that was in the Ring was broken into two pieces pag. 143. Sect. 19. Schottus and Dâ—â—â—io relate out of Meletius what is ordinarily said concerning Domestick Devils They withdraw into the most hidden places of the house upon piles of Wood where they are kept with the most delicious Meat because they carry to their Masters Corn that they have stolen from other People's Barns When those Spirits intend to settle in any House they make it known by leaping up sticks of Wood or throwing Dung into Pails of Milk If the Master of the House taking notice of it le ts alone those Sticks and the Dung in the Milk or even if he drinks of the Milk into which the Dung hat been thrown the Spirit appears to him and lives with him Those sorts of Spirits are called by the French Gobelins by the Dutch Guldelkens and Kabautermannekens and by the English Hobgoblins They appear in the shape of Men and Women as little as Dwarfs or such as Pigmies were formerly imagin'd to be Schottus says That it was usual in former times to see many of those Spirits in Houses where they did whatever was necessary They dr essed Horses they swept the House carried Wood and Water and did all sorts of Service pag. 145. he did well by saying 't was formerly done left he should be put to a proof in this curious Age. Sect. 20. He has taken from Georgius Agricola the description he makes of Mountanous Devils saying That they dwell in the Mines under the Mountains that they are cruel and frightful that they make uneasie and perpetually vex those that work in the Mines Some call them the little Hollanders because they ordinarily appear little scarce three foot high with an old wrinckled Face and in the same shape with the Miners clothed with a Wastecoat and Apron Nevertheless he says that they are not so wicked as they love to play Tricks and to be merrily Roguish especially when they will persuade that they do the greatest part of the work in the Mines When all 's done his Opinion comes at last to this that there are two sorts of that kind of Spirits some are good and the other bad The latter are feared and detested by the Workmen whereas they look with pleasure upon the former believing them to be of good Augury But Schottus being willing to grant that they are of a mean Order betwixt Men and Spirits holds them for bad Spirits what good soever they may do believing that when it happens so they are forced to it by God or that they do it Craftily to delude Men Pag. 114. and 149. Sect. 21. There is still more illusions made in relation to the shapes the Devils take on than in the other occasions above-mention'd I will not now speak of whole Armies that are believed frequently to appear in order of Battle of which Schottus treats at large in the addition to his second Book p. 336. but of those that are called Hobgoblins and Fairies Formally our People speak almost of nothing else Schottus writes thereupon p. 339. Delrio says That there is a sort of Spectres that appear as Women all in white in Woods and Meadows Some are seen in Stables with Wax Candles lighted some drops of which they let fall upon the Mains of Horses combing and twisting them very neatly those white Women are also call'd Sybils and 't is said that one of 'em named Haband is as the Queen of the others and commands them People believe their Apparitions to be of good Omen but the Doctors look on such presages as old Womens Tales acknowledging in the mean while that the thing is true or at least possible And Schottus relating p. 215. what Cornelius of Kempen says assures us that in the time of the Emperor Lotarius that is about 830. several of those Fairies were to be found in Friseland where they dwelt in Grotes or on the tops of Hills and Mountains whence they descended at night to carry away Shepherds from their Flocks Children from their Cradles and slip both into their Caverns CHAP. XX. What is the Doctrine of Popery concerning Apparitions of Spirits and how they torment Men either by themselves or by the Ministry of other Men. Sect. 1. IN speaking of this last kind of Demons we are descended by degrees even to Specters and Phantasms But First we have observed that there were yet two things to treat of touching Spirits that is their Apparitions to Men and their Operations in the same It is upon this subject of Apparitions that there is room to speak of
the application of natural Causes but by the assistanc of tha Devil by virtue of an agreement made with him Mag. Vniverse Pag. 1. Lib. 1. in Proleg Chap. 7. he establishes these sorts of Covenants as certain distinguishing them into two kinds those which are made expresly with intention and of deliberated purpose And those which are tacitely made But we shall hereafter hear Sennertus explaining himself more at large upon this subject However we find in the same place as well as in Schotus's Books this Maxime established as certain Quod Magicae hujus vis omnis nititur pacto vel tacite vel expresso cum Demone ut probat Delrius c. That all the force of this Magick depends on an agreement made tacitely or expresly with the Devil as Delrius proves it c. Sect. 16. This Author says further That from the consideration of the ends the Magicians have viz. to act marvelous things by the Devils power chiefly proceed three sorts of Witchcraft for they have sometimes no other end but to acquire the Art and Industry of producing miraculous effects for their proper advantage or pleasure or that of others they sometimes endeavour to discover things to come or to know things past and such present at are secret and hidden and cannot be discovered by any human power sometimes they have no other end but to acquire the Power the Art and the Means to hurt Men. This is not the place to tell what the Papists believe Magicians are able to do and what in effect they do because in the preceding Chapter one has seen what is the power that Popery attributes to the Devil who are likewise capable to effect by the Ministry of Men that is to say of Wizards and Witches according to the conditions of their Leagues all that they effect themselves Sect. 17. It will not be however besides the purpose to cite Bodin who tells you in very precise terms the Second Book Chap. 4. how Men expresly make Leagues with the Devil And I grant that if it be true that they are such as he says I am obliged to hold with him these People for the most execrable of all Men since they renounce God and his worship if they are in the Communion of the Church or that they abjure their Faith if they acknowledge not the true God or if they are of some particular Sect and ingaged in Superstitions which is done in an express Covenant to acknowledge the Devil and to adore none but him He adds a little after Sometimes the express Obligation is but verbal and without any writing but sometimes it is also confirmed by writing for the Devil resolving to be sure of them who seek him before he proposes any Covenant between him and them he makes them give a promise in writing if they can write and sign it with their own Blood He adds further that this obligation is made either for two years or for a longer time And as if the Devil feared that those that are wholly obliged to him should come to retract this he is not contented to make them renounce God in terms very precise but besides he makes an impression upon them CHAP. XXI That several means are practised against Attacks and the Illusions of the Devil and Magicians Sect. 1. I Know not whether I must put the rest I have to say upon the account of the Papists only there being but very few of our Profession who do not believe it as they do as I shall shew in the next Chapter I shall report only in this what means Popery affords to avoid all sorts of Devils and Specters and to divert them from us The First means consists in the resistance which is sufficient against their Malice The Second consists in the finding out of those that are guilty of these Abominations And the Third in the Punishments that these People are thought to deserve Schottus shall furnish me with that which I have to say touching the first of these means And I shall take from other Writings what I am to relate concerning the second and third to which I shall joyn that which may be learned by experience Sect. 2. Our Author who warrants that which he says rejects divers means and establishes many others we must hear him as well upon those which he rejects as those he establishes See these he rejects 1. Malignant Injuries and Outrages never drive away Spirits but some insulting terms that are made use of in Exorcisms which have been introduced into the Church contribute very much to expel them pag. 304. 2. Neither Pike nor Sword nor any other sort of Arms will oblige them to retire pag. 305. 3. Neither Fire nor Light that are not Consecrated have any virtue for this purpose p. 308. 4. Neither will they withdraw though they find the Doors and Windows open before them p. 308. 5. Though 't is the Opinion of many People who are of the Author's Profession that Spirits may be driven away by Smoak by Perfumes by certain Herbs and by Blows with Stones they hold nevertheless That no natural Virtue that may be in material Subjects can act directly upon Spirits and that by consequence there are no sensible subjects such as those as have been just now mentioned which may always expel Spirits from the places where they are nor drive them far from Men pag. 308. and 312. Sect. 3. On the contrary he holds that the means following are absolutely effective 1. At first he stablishes two against which there is nothing to say which are a stedfast Faith and an ardent Prayer p. 214 215. for they are conform to the Maxims of Scripture This sort of Devils cannot be cast out but by Prayers and Fastings St. Matth. 17.20 21. 2. But he establishes five others which are invented purely by Popery First The Relicks of Holy Bodies or to say better of those who are taken for such Secondly The Sign of the Cross Thirdly Holy Water Fourthly Agnus Dei that is the Lamb of God imprinted upon a little round figure of Wax and consecrated by the Pope They have says Schottus a ready virtue and efficacious virtutem praestantissimam to put the Devil to flight p. 322. Fifth To pronounce the name of Jesus and to call upon the Virgin Mary his Mother p. 324. All these means are explained every one in particular in the same place They are also described but a little more abridged although in the same sense by John Davidi Jesuit in his Book Intituled the Buckler printed at Balduc in the year 1619. I shall report his own Words lest the Roman Catholicks should accuse me of imposing upon them See what he writes in the 10th Chapter Amongst the Consecrated things which have power against the ambushes of the Enemy we must rank these here Holy Water which is every Sunday consecrated in the Church and has its name from that Consecration The Baptismal Water that is Consecrated on the Vigils of Easter and
Great Brittain which is King James the Sixth King of Scotland and First King of England of that name and the other to one of his Scotch Subjects a Scot by birth as by name being call'd Reynard Scot the King held the affirmative as to the popular Opinion of Witchcraft and Apparition of Spirits which his subject had already confuted John Wierus who lived in the begining of the Reformation made by means of Luther and Calvin had from that time published his Opinion upon the delusion of Spirits and upon the impostures of Witches and he had taken a part which held in the middle between those two Opinions so King James in his Book of Demonology contested with these two Authors according to his express Declaration in the Preface Sect. 8. What is most important in his Book comes very near to this In the sixth Chapter of the first Book there are descriptions so exact of leagues that Magicians make with the Devil that it seems as if the King himself had seen the Original or that they had been reported in the Council In the fourth Chapter of the second Book the King puts for certain that evil Spirits may carry Men through the Air or assume divers forms to visit the Magicians when they are in Prison In the seventh Chapter he says that in the time of Popery and Paganism there was a great many more Apparitions but that it was observed that since this last Reformation of the Christian Church there have been fewer Apparitions and a great many more Witchcrafts Concerning the apparitions of Hobgoblins and Phantoms of which he treats in the Third Book there are scarce any kind to which this Prince gives not credit even to Incubusses and Succubusses which are Spirits who as Men mix themselves carnally with Women and as Women with Men. In reference to the possest the King agrees that the Popish Priest may drive out the Devil but upon the proofs that he has to convince one of the crime of Magick he only says there must be no less than twelve witnesses amongst which may be admitted Infants infamous People and even those that are taken to be Magicians Sect. 9. Now althô the learned as I have already said extol not so much all these things nor teach them so expresly and that by consequence they credit not so much what is ordinarily believed and said touching the power and Operations of the Devil upon Men and concerning that which they effect by the means of Men we must however observe that they give so much extent to his power and actions that not only they help not to destroy the general Opinion that is had of him but also maintain it by different expressions they make use of and by the instructions they give It is what is seen especially in the works of two English Authors who explain themselves more plainly and precisely than all others upon this matter which they treat from the foundation whereas others keep the same language only by occasion and when treating of other subjects they are obliged to speak of them The first of these Authors is William Gurnal in his great Book upon the Ephesians 6.11.18 entituled The Christian in compleat Armour the first Edition is in the Year 1655. And since there has been Printed at London in folio in 1679. the sixth Edition He says That the Devil being a spiritual being extreamly evil these two considerations ought to cause a great deal of fear to a Christian p. 94. Because he is a great Prince who surpasses Man very much in power and craft that his craft is observed by his marvelous knowledge first in spying proper occasions to tempt Men p. 36. Secondly in his subtle and artificial conduct and in all the vices he makes use of for this effect p. 37. Thirdly in the care he takes to make all the preparations necessary to attack us to his advantage every time he finds opportunity to do it p. 43. Fourthly In the trouble that he stirs up in our Consciences in reproaching us with our Sins and in the artifices that he uses and the ambushes he lays p. 44. As to what concerns the power and Virtue of the Devil the Author holds in the first place That he has power not only on the Elements and corporeal senses but also upon spiritual substances of the World and upon the Souls of Men p. 74. Afterwards he declares what is the time and place of his Empire over his subjects viz. the time in this life over people of Darkness the place in the World for as much as it is plung'd into impiety p. 79. Sect. 10. The other English Author is Joseph Glanvill the title of which Book is Saducismus Triumphatus Saducism defeated a Book wherein he imploys a great deal of Learning to prove that Witchcrafts Inchantments Apparitions and Phantoms are possible and afterwards that they are things practised and which actually happen The first Edition of it has been also in English at London in 1661. after the death of the Author He pretends that what he establishes as a certain Truth is grounded upon Reasons and Examples And I grant that as to the force of Reasoning I do not know any Writer who has better succeeded than he has Here are his supposed Truths That among other effects which are attributed to Magicians of both Sexes First Being anointed with certain Magical Ointments they pass through the Chimney and are transported into very distant places Secondly That they are turned into Cats Hares and divers other Creatures and Figures Thirdly That they feel in their own Bodies the same wounds that are made in the Bodies they borrow Fourthly That in muttering certain unintelligible Words and in making certain Gestures extraordinary and ridiculous they raise Tempests Fifthly That they are sucked by familiar Spirits in the most secret parts of their Bodies The Author believes that the more these things are incredible and ridiculous the more certain they are I shall examine his Reasons in my second and third Book and his Instances in my last with more exactness than what other Authors have written upon this Subject for the consideration I have already alledged that he carries it above all others as to the force of his Reasoning Sect. 11. All that has hitherto been saâ—d respects first the Devil and afterwards Men that are believed to have Commerce with him considered distinctly and separately from him But an union must be made betwixt them For which effect the Leagues already mention'd were invented Sect 5. of this Chapter and heretofore Chap. 20. Sect. 13. Moreover the Opinions which have been reported having passed from Popery amongst us and been admitted by many Doctors of our Communion yet I know not any who has taken their part so much as Daneus which is chiefly observed in two Points in his Description of the Leagues and in the effects he attributes to Sorcerers and Witches for these two things are found very amply treated of in his
little Book De Sortiariis Of Witches but especially the first is described with more circumstances than I have read in any Popish Author So seeing this Doctor has been one of the most considerable among us and that having lived a little after the time of Calvin and Luther his Book which was written 116 years ago has not been attacked nor contradicted that I know of by any Protestant Writer but only by Schottus from thence may be inferr'd that these Doctrines are not unknown to us nor rejected by the Protestant Churches I am going to relate in short the contents of this Author's Writings Sect. 12. See what he sets down in his fourth Chapter Nullum non Sortiarum cum Satana foedus iniisse seque ei devovisse That there is no Sorcerer but he has made agreement with the Devil and devoted himself to him See the description he makes of these contracts First To secure the Person of the Magician the Devil imprints a mark either under the Eye-lids or between the Buttocks or the Pallat of the Mouth that it may not be perceived in those places The Author believes that there are none exempt from carrying it It is for this Reason that the Judges order the whole Body of those that are accused of this Crime to be shaved to know the place that is marked as I have told you Secondly The Conditions of these Contracts imply that they shall renounce God and acknowledge Satan and adore him for their God and in Recompence he shall assist them and shall come to their succour as oft as they apply themselves to him which he will never fail to do no more than the Witches on their part fail to obey all his Commands Thirdly After the Covenant has been thus mutually agreed upon the Magician the morrow after sacrifices to the Devil a Dog a Cat or a Hen that belongs to him by which means the Contract is confirmed a new Fourthly Afterwards the Devil causes in proper time and place all the Magicians to assemble where ever he prescribes there he makes every one of them give an account of the Mischiefs he has done by his Power and Means Fifthly He sometimes takes the trouble to get them together assuming a human shape for that purpose and making himself known to the Magicians only At other times he imploys some of them to go and Convene the Assembly shewing them the time and place This Assembly is not always general sometimes there are but a certain number which he has chosen to please himself Sixthly If there are some who through weakness of Body cannot go he gives them a Stick or a Horse of some Oyntment to anoint themselves by the virtue of which being become invisible he transports them through the Air. Seventhly He appears himself as Master of the Club in shape of a Man or in some ugly He-Goat or in whatever Form he pleases Eightly There they repeat their Oaths made to him after which they sing and dance in honour of their new God Ninthly Afterwards he furnishes them with such means as they desire to do mischief to such as they please He teaches them to make up their Poisons and promises them to continue his assistance to them and his service for their occasions Tenthly By virtue of these Agreements Satan fails not to work wonders in favour of his Magicians as oft as they make the sign that he has taught them and ordered them to do in which sign consists not the operative and active faculty as the Magicians believe but it resides in the Devil who operates when warned by the sign Sect. 13. There is already a great deal but however there are more things which the Author ascribes to the Devil and which may be gathered and inferred from divers places of this Book where they are expressly contained as First That he often appears in human shape Secondly That he sometimes troubles and casts such a Mist over the Senses of those that are ingaged with him that they fancy to have been in certain places and to have acted several things though there is no truth or reality in these Imaginations Thirdly But he really carries them through the Air whither he pleases Fourthly That by the Ministry of Wizzards and Witches he can Poison Men secretly from far without touching them Fifthly That the Devil or the Magicians by his means may raise Tempests and cause Rain Sixthly He rejects the Opinion of those who believe the power of the Devil has no longer any effect upon the Magicians nor can act in their behalf as soon as they are in the Hands and Power of Justice on the contrary he supposes that the virtue of Witchcraft may be exerted even in Prisons and that oftentimes the Devil breaks there the Necks of those who belong to him These are Daneus's his Doctrines Sect. 12. Furthermore the most common Opinion of the Doctors of our Communion is That the Devil does not know things to come but only of himself he forms conjectures that nevertheless the greatest part of Divines consult him for their Predictions That it is from him they learn what they discover to other Men of things present things hidden as when there has been something stoll'n or some body bewitch'd they declare the Thief or Magician They likewise ascribe to him some knowledge of the Thoughts of Men since they fancy that he disturbs and seduces them and that he incites them to mischief For that is properly what we understand when we pray in our Churches for those that are tempted and troubled in their Consciences There are no errors produced there arises no Heresies in the Church it is not afflicted with any persecution but the Devil has contributed thereto All the places of Scripture that speak of the Devil are understood with relation to these Ideas And it is upon these interpretations that these Opinions are grounded It is also by the same reason that not only the Protestants but almost all the Christian Writers assert That it is not allow'd to consult the Devil who is the enemy of God and of Men nor to seek his help They however agree that the Pagan Oracles have not always been given by the Devil but that often they have been the effect of the impostures of Priests which has so often appear'd that it is impossible not to know it Sect. 13. The power of the Devil is extreamlv boasted of for there are very few Doctors who doubt but he can assume a Body and possess the Bodies of Men and transport and torment them several ways as effectively as he had actually the impudence to do these things to our Saviour Jesus Christ himself and to a great many people of which the Gospel tell us that being possest by evil Spirits they were delivered by our Saviour They also suppose that the opinion of the apparitions of Specters is confirmed by Scripture and that it was theâ— Devil at least according to the opinion of some who appeared
alledged but to set off with some likelihood the private Opinions with which we are taken up Sect. 9. I hope that what I have just now said will easily be credited if attention be given to what follows I say that the Character of Philosophy such as is learned in the Schools pours it self upon all the Interpretations and Translations that are of the Holy Writ It was the Opinion of Aristotle that the four Elements Earth Water Air and Fire were included within one another as by Circles reaching from the Center to the highest place of the Universe So as that the Earth was the lowest being mixed with Water in its Superficies and the Air above it surrounding the Terraqueous Globe These Propositions are granted by all But that Philosopher also believes that Fire surrounds the Air as the Celestial Heavens divided into several Vaults do Fire These Vaults to which the Sun Moon and Stars are fastned and are of a subtile and incorruptible matter in themselves surround one another and turn about us every year every month and every day by the vertue of some certain Spirits call'd Assisting Forms Those that hold that Opinion for probable are very apt to be persuaded that the wicked Spirits dwell in the Air because the superiour Spheres are too pure for them When therefore those sort of Men hear St. Paul mentioning the Prince of the Power of the Air Ephes 2.1 Or the Spiritual Wickedness in high Places Ch. 6.12 they doubt not but St. Paul was of the Opinion of Aristotle and that by these words of the Holy Scripture the wicked Spirits must be understood Thus those who by reading Plato have fill'd their heads with his Demons fancy that tâ—is word is used in the Scripture in a Platonick Sense without considering that this Philosopher lived not in the time that the Holy Writ was published in which the former signification of these Terms might be chang'd as it daily happens and without so much as examining in what Sense they were taken by other Authors contemporary with the Sacred Writers whether 't is probable that other Authors whose Books are lost understood 'em in the same Sense or lastly whether the Jews in whose Tongue the Holy Scripture was written and who consequently ought to understand it best put the same signification upon them Sect. 10. What I say of the ill use made of Philosophy as to this Point must not appear strange for it extends to every thing When Copernicus began to assert by Reasons that seem'd very strong to him that the Sun is fast and unmoveable and that the Terraqueous Globe moves Those that held the Hypothesis of Ptolomey pretended to explode that Opinion by clear and formal Texts of the Holy Scripture but those that maintained it contrived Explications to those passages and wanted not plausible Reasons to set them off Thus those that after Descartes believe Man has an Idea of God in his Understanding found the same Doctrine in St. Paul and understood in that Sense these Words of his Epistle to the Romans Ch. 1.19 That which may be known of God is manifest in them for God has shewed it unto them Even some of Descartes's Followers have explained the History of the Creation in the first Chapter of Genesis according to the principles of that Philosopher that is quite contrary to the right meaning of this Narration as the Author himself confesses in his little Book Intituled Cartesius Mosaisans Sect. 11. It is the same with Divinity as with Philosophy Those that are call'd the Fathers of the Church that is her First or chief Doctors in the Primitive times the Authority of whom the Papists equal to that of the Word of God having been at first imbued with that false Philosophy did not so much as think upon freeing themselves of their prejudices by a true Interpretation and Translation of the Holy Scripture On the contrary they have pour'd their preventions over whatever they have writ for whether they treated of such Articles of Faith as were most controverted or whether they interpreted passages of the Holy Writ they have adher'd to bare speculations and apply'd them to subjects quite different from those the Sacred Writing aimed at St. Austin in the 4th and 5th Century has been fruitful in speculations and Origen in the 3d has surpass'd all the others in mis-applications remote from the scope of the Holy Pen-men as may have been observed by what has been alleag'd from them and several others concerning Spirits in the 15th Chapter Their Homilies that is their Sermons contain but few Expositions of the Holy Scripture and still fewer Translations 'T is true that Origen and St. Jerom have taken more pains than the others and been also more puzled having translated the Sacred Writings in those Ages in which the knowledge of Tongues was not much look'd after nor improv'd In the mean while what those Doctors hape propos'd upon many separate passages dispers'd thro' their Writings upon which instead of a serious examination they have put the Sense that was most favourable to their private Opinions has ever been received and taught afterwards Thus 't is happen'd long after the knowlege of Tongues not being better improv'd that their Interpretations have been admitted without contradiction only upon their own credit and look'd upon with that veneration that is commonly paid to Antiquity as tho' the World in process of time was grown younger than before By these means it is that their Doctrines concerning Spirits and especially the bad have insensibly been bequeathed as an inheritance to posterity Sect. 12. Since therefore every one is so much taken up with this Sect and pays so great a deference to those that are call'd the eminent Fathers 't is no wonder that the Papists who above all others put a high value upon them should use their Language and consecrate all their Expressions And 't is long since the Protestants have observ'd that these their Adversaries have founded the Prayers for the dead the worshiping of Saints and the like Doctrines upon some expressions of the Fathers that seem to favour them When afterwards they were compell'd to give some proof out of the Holy Scripture they found the first together with Purgatory in the 1st Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians Chap. 3.13 That fire shall try every Man's work 'T is almost the same with those that are bred amongst the Lutherans how great a Philosopher and how learned soever any one may be he will find no reason and much less a necessity to believe that Christ is locally and visibly ascended to Heaven but it will appear to him a necessary proposition that our Lord after his Resurrection penetrated thro' doors shut up and that his Humanity is omnipotent How learned soever one may be in the Tongues there are however frequent occasions in which it can neither be seen or conjectur'd upon what ground the learned have given to some certain words a signification that favours the
propositions they maintain rather than their true natural Sense such as 't is found in other Authors and in ordinary use of a Tongue that is so familiar to them Of these I might recite a thousand proofs if it were necessary and time would allow me Sect. 13. Besides as much as Man has taken pains to acquire uncertain and corrupted Sciences so much has he been negligent of informing himself in the best the finest and at the same time the smallest part of Sciences with which he is ordinarily less acquainted for as I have already said the Youth in the Schools run over all the Countries of the Ancient Heathens only to make a booty of Latin and Greek before they do so much as visit Christianity which is only shewn to them as at a distance they are yet of too tender a constitution to be loaden with such solid meat and too young to be mixed with such important Affairs so that they are taught almost nothing of that matter It is not thought convenient for them to know what Soul and Body are wherein consists the Essence of the Soul or that of the Angels and Devils and what knowledge and operations those Spirits are capable of and what share and administration they take here below in human Affairs No light is afforded to them that may dissipate the darkness that has been spread over their understandings in their youth nor blot out the impressions that have been made upon them as to this point by the means already mention'd so that this darkness and these impressions destitute of Antidotes do still penetrate farther Even those that follow the Principles of Descartes tho' they distinguish better than others the nature of Soul and Body as will be shown in my Second Book Chap. 1. Sect. 12 13 14. yet when they come to the operations of such Spirits as are not joyned to a Body either Angels or Devils and undertake to explain how they can act upon other Bodies either of Men or other matter they take as much freedom as they can and go as far as they can be carried by the prejudices they have imbibed with all others before they studied Scripture and Philosophy Sect. 14. That which may adorn the Human Mind with Light and form its Judgment is what is less intended to be acquired in Universities tho' they seem to be the place where such a rare thing should be gotten which most unhappily affords not the means to grow rich I mean Mathematicks and that part of natural Philosophy that discovers the nature and course of the Heavens not because they treat of our present subject but for two other reasons I shall add The first is that more certainty is to be found in Mathematicks than in all other Sciences because they are grounded upon infallible Principles such Students as are used to the certainty of these Principles will not acknowledge for truth such as are not attended with a full and entire conviction and put a little value upon such Sciences as have not the same certainty But the Second Reason is still more particular viz. That Mathematicks especially that part that treats of the knowledge of Stars manifestly discovers several things that undeniably shew the Sacred Writers accommodated themselves to the stile and capacity of the Vulgar and speak of the Heavens Earth Sun Moon and Stars not according to their own nature and as they are in themselves but according to the common notions of Men. And therefore those that are somewhat addicted to that Science credit not so easily the discourses of other Men and are not satisfied with probabilites They are not disposed to fill the Air with Spirits nor to fix them to Stars nor to confound Spirits and Stars together But the mischief is as I have already hinted that few Learned give up themselves to that part of the Sciences tho' it is the most useful and beautiful of all Sect. 15. All these prejudices with which we have been once fill'd which have been rooted in us more and more by the ways already alleag'd which have grown by the new nourishment they daily received and which have neither been banished nor weaken'd by the endeavours of a better informed Judgment all these prejudices I say are no where more sensible than in the subject we treat of And therefore we have destin'd this First Book to establish this Truth and make it very plain to the end it might be clearly perceived that all those Opinions concerning the Devils Divinations and Witchcraft draw their first Original from the Heathens who communicated them to the Jews during the Babilonian Captivity where they had more conversation with the Philosophers than in the Land of Canaan whilst they liv'd separated from all other Nations of the Earth There they insensibly took the tincture of the Heathen Doctrines and Practices at least of such as seem'd not directly opposed to their Law The first Christians springing from the middle of the Jews and Heathens kept likewise most part of the same Doctrines and intended to gain the Heathens by too great and easie a compliance with their Opinions Thus was insensibly laid the foundation on which the great aedifice of Popery is now founded and rais'd Sect. 16. Another Judgment may be pass'd upon that matter if Popery were put in parallel with Heathenism and not esteem'd the worse of these two For why should not they be held for Heathen Legends what the Pagans have published of their Miracles Oracles Gods Aërial Spectres Dreams and the like prodigies That is why do we not call 'em Lies as we rightly so name the Roman Legends Have we more reason to look upon as suspitious those wonders the relations of which are inserted almost in all the Books of the chief Roman writers and to look upon them as a branch of superstition then to deal in the same manner with those of the Heathens Whence comes it that we publickly laugh at both in our discourses and writings the sham miracles of the former as being meer delusions and trifles and that we approve both by our words and our Books the narrations that the latter make of the wonders seen amongst them and that we quote them as true thô they be of the same matter and weight with the others The antiquity of those Authors and of the times in which they have written has it so much power and efficacy and must we more easily credit stories because they are said to have happen'd a long while ago and in far remote Countries But what 's that to the main point Truth fits not it self in this manner to the inclinations of Men. Lies were anciently told as well as they are now and as well in Foreign Countries as in our own Sect. 17. It is methinks sufficiently proved by all the quotations of this Book that there are no Miracles Oracles purging Fires Apparitions of Hobgoblins or Souls Witchcraft by Letters and â—â—aracters or choice of Days either in