for the truth of them which I think is the main business I durst undertake For though I have many things out of my private Papers and Note-books or Adversaria which for the reasons before alledged I could not now revise in the Authors themselves out of which I had them yet out of the originals I had them I am sure and not out of other mens quotations which I never trusted so far as to enter them without examination If for want of the Originals I have taken any thing upon trust I have acquainted the Reader and so discharged my self So far I can undertake but that in perusing the Original Authors either formerly or now again I have mistaken in none this I dare not undertake who confess that in the reading of one passage sometimes once or twice when I made no question of the sense yet in a third reading I have found sometimes I say not very often perchance that I was in an error And if I might advise I would not have any man take upon him the name of a Scholar that will trust any quotations if he may go to the Originals nor trust any translation if he can understand the Authors in their own tongue which if more practised good books would be in more request That I had such a subject in my thoughts many years ago may appear by somewhat I did write in the Preface to Doctor Dee's book and then indeed I was big with it had time and opportunity served But after that I was once fixed upon other things or cares occasioned by that miraculous revolution of affairs in this Kingdom which soon after hapned I may sincerely protest that I never thought of it any more except some chance brought it into my mind but never as thinking I should ever meddle with it further than I had done Not that I ever promised any thing which I had not then when promised some probable hopes I should and always since a willingness to perform but because I have been always taken up so far as my health and other necessary occasions would give me leave with somewhat that I thought more seasonable or necessary And so I thought now of this subject as I have handled it For Credulity and Incredulity in general being my Theme which left me to a liberty of chusing fit instances where I would so that upon them I might but ground such rules and directions for either as might be proper to my undertaking I have endeavoured to pitch upon such as might afford somewhat against the crying evils of these times contempt of good learning and Atheism And whereas I mention sometimes three Parts as intended two only being here exhibited true it is that three were intended in case my health had afforded it But it did not And indeed I wonder it hath done so much the little time considered that hath been bestowed upon it Yet is not the work imperfect therefore which might have been finished in the First but that as the Second hath afforded more instances and of another kind than are in the First Part so might the Third also than in either First or Second if I live to do that also It cannot be very soon I am sure because what spare time I have from sickness till this Summer be over is otherwise destinated And though I am much weaker already than I was when I began yet whilest I live I shall despair of nothing who have had so much experience what God can do beyond all expectation or in mans judgement credibility Farewel CANTERBURY 1. June 1668. ERRATA with some Additions at the end of the Book which they that read the Book are desired to be mindful of To which let this be added PAge 275. line 16. I believe allow it but a hundred thousand spectators a very small proportion for Vniversus Populus Rom. which we know hath been censed Citizens inhabitants of Rome at one time four millions and above at another time six millions and above could not therefore I believe yet with submission to better judgments inclose or cover less than fourscore or a hundred Acres of ground a thing nevertheless scarce credible I doubt to best Ingineers or Architects later ages have afforded However though we may be mistaken in the casting of particulars yet that Pliny could mistake in his report or the account he doth give us of a thing so publick and yet of fresh memory when he wrote no rational man can believe A man would think this could not c. OF CREDULITY AND INCREDULITY In things Natural and Civil The First Part. AMONG other errors of our Life to which that Caligo mentium or darkness of our understanding by some Ancient wise Heathens who knew not the true cause so much wondred at doth expose us there 's scarce any thing wherein men either more frequently erre or with more danger than in unadvised belâ—ef or unbelief IN Civil affairs as rash belief hath been and daily is the undoing of many so obstinate unbelief of as many if not of more Credere non Credere to believe and not to believe that Elegant fabulator who lived in Augustus his time and was a Servant of his well deserving to be better known unto good Schools than he is commonly hath made it the argument of one of his morals shewing by pregnant instances the danger of each as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 belief and unbelief is the argument of two Orations in Dio Chrysostomus whose very sirname Chrysostome doth testifie what account the age he lived in made of his wit and language BUT again easie belief hath contaminated and obscured the History of Nature with many ridiculous fables and fictions but unbelief with no less prejudice to truth which according to Plato most properly nay only he saith doth belong unto such things and withal to mans nature hath bereav'd it of its more noble function the contemplation of things spiritual and eternal not discernable with bodily eyes but by the light of faith upon Divine revelation chiefly but upon sound reason and certain experience also A little portion of which knowledge and contemplation though but little is even by Aristotle that incomparable Naturalist preferr'd before the most perfect knowledge of nature that man is capable of De part anim lib. 1. cap. 5. FROM ungrounded belief gross superstition by which true Religion is not a little infected and adulterated hath proceeded but from the contrary right down Atheism whether openly professed or palliated as the fashion is by which all sense of piety all sense of immortality being taken away and nothing left to man but what is common unto bruits since that reason confined to things sensible and perishable is little better than sense and sense in bruits is by many deemed and called reason man may truly be said to be metamorphosed into another creature LASTLY if we appeal unto the Judgments of men on the one side
know what times we live in we may thank these late confusions the fruit of Rebellion and a pretended Reformation for a great part of it But they that are true Christians need no other proof I am sure Others if rational and not too far ingaged into Atheism have somewhat also to consider of if they please I THINK I have spoken of most of those general heads under the Mathematicks as by the rest many particulars which I do not mention comprehending the Opticks and all manner of glasses by which strange things are performed most of those general heads I say natural and supernatural which usually cause admiration among men and thereby become objects of credulity and incredulity Civil and Divine only which we refer to their proper places excepted I shall now in the next place give some Instances first in things meerly natural as generally understood then in things supernatural or in Trallianus and other ancient Physicians their sense and notion which we have followed in the Title natural too but as natural is opposed to rational which things intended for instances shall be such which I upon grounds of reason as I conceive profess to believe though by many who suspect the relations not credited or thought impossible After which instances I shall annex some directions or observations with some examples of some things which but lately generally credited have proved false which I think may be useful MY first Instance shall be concerning those men and women who have been reported to have lived some years without either meat or drink except air should be accounted meat as to Chamelions and some other creatures it is generally though denied by some I know supposed to be The truth is that having had occasion sometimes not otherwise very forward to tell strange things though never so true in ordinary discourse yet upon occasion supposing this to be no such strange thing because I had read so much of it but might be believed I did once adventure in very good company a learned Physician being then present to mention such a thing but I perceived it was entertained as a thing not credible especially after the Physician in very deed an able man whom I did not desire to oppose in a thing more properly belonging to his cognizance had passed his verdict upon it that it could not be Yet now I will say upon the credit of so many good Authors and the particular relations of so many examples delivered with so many circumstances wherein no mistake or imposture can rationally be suspected that I do believe it that divers men and women but more women than men have lived divers years some to their lives end others for some years only and then returned to eating without any bodily food ordinary or extraordinary liquid or solid yea I believe it as I believe that I my self with ordinary food and Gods blessing have so many years above 60. lived hitherto BUT here before I proceed lest any now that mocking and scoffing at Religion and the Scriptures is so much in fashion should take any advantage to slight and deride Religious or miraculous fasts such as are recorded in the Scripture I must profess and declare in the first place that I never met with any relation true or false of any man or woman that ever did or could by any art or study though by the Devil I think such a thing might God permitting without any prejudice to religious and miraculous fasts bring their bodies to any such thing But so many as I have read of were such who either after some great and tedious disease or some natural operation of a proper temperament or constitution of body not voluntarily but against their wills came to this strange pass The want of which right information might make some whom Joubertus doth mention and stile men for their simplicity and piety except he speak it ironically venerable to discredit what otherwise upon such evidences they would have believed I remember well that when I was a young Student in the University of Oxford I had often a book in Quarto as we call them in my hands which also had the picture of the party cut to the life which did contain a very particular relation of one of these which because I never did meet with since it was in one of the Booksellers shops not in any Library I make this mention of it here so far as I can remember But divers others have written of it among others Joubertus before mentioned a French Physician against whom one Harvy appeared to shew the impossibility in point of nature who by more than one I believe for Raphael Thorius Doctor of Physick whom I may not mention without honour both for his worth and for particular obligations lent me a little French book in defence of this subject which he accounted a very solid piece by which this secret of nature came first to my knowledge by more therefore than one I believe but by one who was most taken notice of Franciscus Citesius the then French King and Cardinal Richelâ—w's Physician a very learned man was answered who also wrote the story of one of these foodless or if we may so call them Aerial Spiritual creatures which he calls Abstinans Consolontanea the book Printed in Paris 1639. But besides him I have also one Paulus Lentulus a learned Professor he was then Bernae Helvetiorum who hath written the History of one himself and collected several relations most by men of note as Langius Hildanus and others not omitting Citesius before spoken of but contracted concerning others not a few in other Countries This book hath the attestation and Encomium's of many learned men prefixed and hath the picture of one of them also yet I cannot believe that it is the book I saw in Oxford which as I remember gave account of one only and was I think a thicker book Truly it would be hard if not proud and insolent Saint Augustine in the like case saith impudent to question the faith or judgment of so many credible men some of eminent fame of divers Nations and professions But that which makes the case indisputable is that some of these whose story is exhibited have been long or long enough to find the truth kept and observed by Divines Physicians Magistrates one by Maximilian the Emperor his great care and particular appointment whose story is written by more than one to see whether there could be any fraud or imposture And besides the very sight of some of them might have converted or silenced at least the most incredulous obstinate creature in the world their stomack and bellies whereof nature had no further use being found so shrunk that it was impossible to think that meat and drink could there find a receptacle I WAS once kindly entertained at a place in England but where or by whom except I had the consent of them to whom I profess to owe much respect for their kindness
should be exempted and they only perish that have not the fear of God before their eyes known unto themselves and others for such by their lives and conversations They only but not all that are such for then the world would soon be destitute of inhabitants that is apparent Well they only but if not all would not this give ground to them that escape to think themselves though nothing less perchance righteous and godly and in the favour of God And so harden them in their wicked courses as justified by God himself in their preservation Certainly besides profest or secret Atheism and infidelity there is not among them that profess to believe there is not I say any greater cause of miscarrying than presumption so prone we are if we keep not a very strict watch and make it our daily business over our actions to think better of our selves than we are or God doth think and know What then would it be if we had this further inducement of presumption of our goodness and Gods favour that when others perished we escaped But again would it not if none but such perished give ground to them that are really godly and upright in their lives and conversations even to them to think better of themselves than they are and as men out of danger to grow proud and secure highly conceited of themselves despisers of others witness the late Saints as they did call themselves than which no greater misery can befal a godly man And then how can it stand with that grand mystery of our faith that we must be saved by faith if this present world apparently were a place of reward to good and evil Or a place where good and evil are discriminated and discerned by such apparent as I may call it partiality How can St. Paul's inference be justified and verified that the prosperity of wicked men in this world is a sure evidence unto us of a day of Judgment because we know which even ordinary reason doth prompt if we believe there is a God that God is just HAD these things been well considered of and much more though not able to give an account of we may think our selves in duty bound to believe some both ancient and late might have written more warily than they have done Of the Ancients I could name some that write suspitiously but none that I remember more peremptorily than Lactantius a profest Rhetoritian and an elegant writer but a raw Christian who maintaineth that it is not possible that either at Sea by tempest or at Land by war or Pestilence he intended also certainly though he doth not express it any just man should perish but that either God for his sake will preserve the rest or when all the rest perish that are not what he is he alone shall be preserved So he the more excusable because as I said before but a raw Christian I am much deceived if among the Protestant Commentators on the Psalms some one might not be found who doth maintain the very same opinion Bodinus I am sure whether a Protestant or a Papist saith little less concerning the power of Magicians and Witches when he saith that they cannot delude or blind the eyes an ordinary thing with them of them that fear God to represent things unto them as true and real which are not so but in appearance only which if true we may upon the same ground conclude they have no power at all upon their bodies to annoy them which indeed without Gods permission we know they have not but that is not to the purpose for neither have they upon the bodies of others till God permit and give them leave so that in that there is no difference But to believe that none are possessed or otherwise annoyed by the Devil but wicked men is a very uncharitable and erroneous opinion easily confuted by the Scriptures besides what hath been said before of Godly men being subject to publick calamities as well as other men They that desire further satisfaction in this point may if they please and be able read St. Chrysostome his large discourse in three several books to one of his time that was possest and had already been so when he wrote for the space of three years whom he accounted and so describeth as an exemplary man for his holy life and conversation THERE was a tradition anciently so ancient that Gregory Nazianzen and Prudentius were and many more since have been deceived by it that S. Cyprian had been a great Magician before he was converted to the Christian faith The occasion of his conversion some say was that being passionately in love of a chast Christian Virgin and out of all hopes to speed any other way he had recourse to his Master the Devil that by his means he might obtain his desire I find it in Vair that the Devil should presently reply unto him that against them that did truly and sincerely worship Jesus Christ no power or art he had could prevail at which Cyprian being surprised with great astonishment resolved presently to become a Christian But this part of the story I do not find either in Prudentius or Nazianzen but in Prudentius only this that whilest he was of that profession among other things he made use of Magick to compass his lustful desires and in Nazianzen thus that the Devil having done what he could to work upon the Virgin in vain at last he hath done so upon like occasions more than once as later stories bear witness did acknowledge so much to Cyprian and put him out of all hopes of obtaining his desire at which Cyprian was so troubled that he made bold to revile the Devil there be too many that will revile God himself when they miss of their ends who in revenge entered into him and grievously tormented him which forced him to apply himself to Christ for help which having found that so he became a Christian The best is if this be not true of our St. Cyprian whose learned and pious works are extant it may be sure and probably is very true of another somewhat later Cyprian who died a Martyr too so that it is probably but a mistake of the name BUT if Vair were mistaken in his account as to the particular we are upon grounded upon St. Cyprian's authority to prove that a good Christian is exempted from the stroak and smart of the Devil's persecution in general and personal possession particularly yet it may be supplied partly out of Celsus in Origen and partly out of Origen himself Out of Celsus in Origen lib. 6. pag. 312. where Celsus doth declare that he had learned from an Aegyptian Musician 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Printed and so translated Musicum by the Latin interpreter But I propose it to the consideration of them that are more at leisure whether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be not the more likely word there being so much affinity between Macus and Aegyptius in
and tranquillity of either Church or Estates is disturbed and infested And so in Epicurus his case Atque his fine sentences of Epicurus and his Mates capiuntur imperiti propter hujusmodi sententias istorum hominum est multitudo Cicero's true judgment and observation in a place NEITHER is it impossible or improbable that Epicurus and others of his company either by fits through meer mutability of mind which is observed of many or of certain deliberation and purpose after great debauches and surfeitings of pleasures did betake themselves to more than ordinary temperance and frugality for a-while not out of any love to vertue which he doth absolutely deny in his writings to have any real being or existence but that they might return to their wallowing more fresh and vigorous and as before said that they might hold out the longer So that as his writings observed by some Ancients were full of contradictions so might Epicurus his life be and thence proceed that variety of judgments concerning it which Gassendus but very partially hath set out To this purpose Lactantius his words De Div. Inst lib. 3. c. 17. having first proved the effect of them by sundry particulars of Epicurus his doctrine are very pertinent Hic homo aestutus ex variis diversisque moribus circulum colligit dum studet placere omnibus majore discordia secum ipse pugnavit quam inter se universi that is Epicurus being crafty out of several and different manners or dispositions of men he did gather unto himself the Congregational way as I take it a number or company and whilest he doth endeavour to please all men he did dissent from himself no less or more than his promiscuous company did from one another THERE is a Letter of one of his whores yet extant which doth set out his abominable leachery and jealousie withal even in his old age What saith Gassendus to that That certainly if Laertius had seen it he would have said of that also that it was a counterfeit Letter So he takes it for granted that whatsoever Laertius the Epicuraean hath said or might have said as he doth surmise to defend Epicurus must be true and indeed deny him that and all his book doth come to nothing But to do him no wrong he saith moreover that that whore was dead before Epicurus died What is this to the purpose Might not she write as she doth of him and yet die before him But she makes Epicurus eighty years old when she wrote and he was not so old true or not I do not enquire at this time I need not when he died As though it were not ordinary in such exprobrations of unnatural lust to make a man somewhat elder than naturally and in exactness of computation he is But the style of the Letter is affected and studied The more likely to be hers For she was Epicurus not his whore only one of them but also disciple and mentioned by others as a piece of a Philosopher Let any man read it it is a prety long Letter If he find so much affectation in the whole Letter as may be found in three or four lines of Epicurus acknowledged to be his I must acknowledge that my judgment in such things is very small However this Letter though acknowledged for a true Letter by two learned men who have written upon Diogenes Laertius yet were it the worst thing that can be objected to Epicurus I should not speak of him with so much confidence as I do because I do not remember any thing of it in Cicero nor any other Ancient which to me is a greater argument to suspect it than any thing that Gassendus doth object against it But though I remember nothing of this particular Letter in any ancient Author however he that shall read what Plutarch that incomparable man as Gassendus doth style him out of Epicurus his own books doth record of ways devised and commended by Epicurus to prolong and maintain lust and leachery that is happiness in their sense in old age when nature is spent he will either believe this Letter probably a true Letter or that they that made that strumpet of Epicurus as she doth did Epicurus no great wrong Plut. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as before not very far from the beginning Edit Gr. in 8. pag. 2008. BUT that which in my judgment is beyond all exaggeration of words wicked and impious is that not content to clear Epicurus so well as he could from the imputation of an Atheist he doth endeavour to make him a very religious man yea so religious as I doubt few Christians were it true as it is most false can be compared unto him For saith he ordinary men serve God either for fear or for a reward which is a servile worship But Epicurus did not fear God that is believe that God could or would do him any hurt nor yet expect any reward at his hands if therefore he did nevertheless honour and worship God meerly for the excellency of his nature as he would have us to believe it doth follow that his service did proceed from meer filial love and affection which is the truest and noblest worship But before we speak of the impiety let us observe a little the absurdity and incongruity of this assertion Was not Epicurus the man who peremptorily maintained that a wise man loved no body but himself did nothing but for his own sake his own profit and interest What more frequent than that in his writings Insomuch that he would not allow of any love or friendship between man and man but such as was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Laertius hath it that is such as is grounded upon meer profit and utility How probable then nay possible that he should love God for his bare conceited excellency who professed to love nothing and so taught others but for his profit He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how should he love God whom he hath not seen He that could not believe that God could be so good as to take any care of men because men could not do any thing for God by way of requital witness Lucretius that perfect Epicuraean and such an admirer of his doctrine Quid enim immortalibus atque beatis Gratia nostra queat largirier emolumenti Vt tantum nostra causa gerere aggrediantur could he be so good and ingenuous himself as to honour love and serve God for nothing This therefore was a great over-sight in a learned man a great soloecism as I may call it or incongruity And whereas he doth quote some words of Seneca and is very proud of them and well he might in so uncouth hidious and paradoxical an opinion as though Seneca had been of the same opinion let the whole passage be read and if the contrary do not appear that what Seneca saith of Epicurus his piety or voluntary worship he speaks it ironically in derision both
acquainted and in dealings with another man often go to his house eat and drink with him and yet not know not so much as dare to enquire whether he have a wife or no he may acquit the Author of that false report from any intention of either lying or slandering if he were a stranger and bred in one of those Countries only blame his simplicity or want of judgment that he would judge of other Countries which he did not know by those that he knew and was acquainted with who might himself have known if a Scholar or a piece of a Scholar that somewhat much more strange than such ordinary salutation used in England and some other Countries had been once in use even among Christians when I believe chastity and continency was not less in request than it is now in any place but indeed so unhandsom and uncivil otherwise in my judgment worthily condemned both by the laws of sundry Heathen Princes and by the Canons of the Church that I will not so much as name it BUT if this man have done England wrong against his will upon a false supposition I know not how to excuse them English-men born I believe who have endeavoured to perswade the world that English men were born with tails such as brutes have naturally or indeed how to excuse him who though he would not seem to give credit to it yet speaks somewhat doubtfully of it Novit Deus c. when he could not but know that it was a base ridiculous untruth the device of some Popish Fanaticks much like the calumnies of our Protestant Fanaticks and of late wicked Atheists against the Church and the Clergy which no sober man would give the hearing to True it is that Polydore Virgil who long lived in England in his History of England as Delrio doth observe did write something of the people of one Parish in Kent which he would have to have hapned unto them as a miraculous judgment for some affront offered by them to Thomas of Becket his Horse as he passed by and it is possible that the publick reproach of Kentish-long-tails raised upon another occasion mentioned in the Histories of England might be some occasion of that foolish report or to speak more properly tale But Polydore doth add that they had been all gone long and extinct to whom this hapned Delrio makes a doubt whether he speaks this of a truth or in favour to the Nation God knows saith he and adds The reproach is passed upon the whole Nation and doth yet continue among bold people who will adventure to say any thing whether true or false But if true Delrio goes on will Tooker might have done well to ascribe to his Queen that vertue also c. a base scurrilous jeer for which the Jesuit deserved to lose his ears to teach him and others to make so bold with persons so sacred as Kings and Queens are But the quarrel is This Will Tooker wrote a book it seems I have it not De Strumis whereby he doth ascribe to Kings and Queens of England a power derived unto them by lawful succession of Healing c. If he deny it to the Kings of France as Laurentius doth lay it to his charge or derive their power from England I think he was too blame And Laurentius and some others Sennertus among others too blame also who writing of that subject would appropriate it to the Kings of France I remember well that when I was in the Isle of Weight being earnestly invited thither by some of the chiefest of the Island though then under a cloud for their Loyalty I was told of some extraordinary cures done by Charles the First since a Martyr whilest he was a Prisoner there not only upon some that had the Kings Evil as we call it but upon some others also who laboured of other diseases Which if true and certain as because told me by persons of quality I am apt to believe it is pity it should not be more known if not more known if I say because of late since I left off going to London by reason of sickness such a stranger to new books and so little conversant with those that I have than I know it is But I say if true and certain We need no counterfeit miracles his death and his book are sufficient miracles to canonize him and they that could not cannot yet be converted from their rebellion and schism I may now add Atheism by either I think I may say of them that though one rose from the dead or an Angel did appear unto them from Heaven they would not be converted or believe HITHERTO since the examination of Epicurus his late Saintship or Canonization tending to the undermining of all piety and godliness our chief business hath been by sundry instances rationally discussed to rectifie the incredulity of many all tending to the vindication of truth wherein the happiness of man and the honour of God is so much concerned Now though the clearing of one of the two contraries must needs as before said imply the illustration of the other also yet the better to acquit our selves let us consider of rash belief also and so what means or cautions some instances of that also will afford us to prevent it Not that we may never be deceived for which I know no remedy whilest we continue men but to believe nothing a remedy much worse and more pernicious than the disease but to prevent as I said before rash belief which is all that humane prudence doth pretend unto What I observed in the First Part upon those words of St. Augustine that Multa credibilia falsa c. must here be remembred also That all men are lyars is the speech of one who could not lye or be deceived in what he delivered absolutely in the authority of a Prophet or a man inspired by God It may be answered that it was in his haste his own confession that he said it in the same haste or impatiency that made him to utter those words I am cut off from before thine eyes though he lived and reigned many years after that This might be said had not St. Paul the Apostle made a general application of the words to all men But granted that all men in some sense or other are lyars yet that some men accounted otherwise sober serious should with much labour devise and study lyes not for any profit they hope to reap by it but only for the pleasure of deceiving others and to triumph as it were in their error and ignorance or rather in the common calamity of mankind this would hardly be believed by them especially who are more ingenuous themselves had not all ages afforded some pregnant examples But though some might do it so meerly as we have said yet other considerations might move others to do the same thing besides what we have said or what is most common and ordinary gain or profit If a man
believe was heresie to which some others may be added But in this particular how impertinent such allegations are who doth not see For it is one thing by some authority of man or probability of reason to be misled into an opinion determinable more by speculation than experience or if by experience yet rare and difficult and wherein few men are concerned as to matter of life In such a case if the error be never so general it is no wonder But in a case of this nature as Witches to which we add Spirits in general and supernatural operations which doth mostly depend especially where learning is not of daily experience and wherein mens lives and fortunes are so much concerned to be misled in this and from age to age to continue in the error is a strange thing indeed if not a meer impossibility The world is much wider now as to Knowledge than it hath been formerly and therefore the consent of it so much the more considerable I have as all men I think have that are any thing curious read several relations of all the known parts of the world written by men of several Nations and Professions learned and unlearned in divers languages by men of several ages ancient and late I do scarce remember any short or long but doth afford somewhat to the confirmation of this truth but in most I remember well to have met with very particular accounts and relations of Witches and Sorcerers strange divinations predictions operations whereof the relators many of them men of several Nations and professions Papists and Protestants who probably never heard of one another profess themselves to have been eye-witnesses NOW if we confine our selves to this one part of the world which we call Europe to which one part all learning seemeth now to be in a manner confined which within this hundred or two hundred years hath produced so many able men of all professions Divines Lawyers Physicians and Philosophers Papists and Protestants those few men excepted who may soon be named all known by their writing to have dissented Who is there among them all who hath not pro re nata and as occasion served born testimony to this truth or cause But how many are there of most Kingdoms Germanes High and Low French English Spanish not to seek further of all professions that have written of this subject pleaded it by reason and experience and all kind of proofs answered all objections and pretensions some whereof learned and grave have had the examination of persons men and women accused for those wicked practices in great number Nicholaus Remigius a man both pious and learned I wish covetous Printers had not bereaved us of his excellent Poetry in many Editions in his books of Demonolatrie doth profess within the space of sixteen years to have had the examination of near 2000 whereof 900 were condemned to death We may say the same or there-abouts I think of Grillandus not to mention others That so many wise and discreet well versed in that subject could be so horribly deceived against their wills or so impious so cruel as wilfully to have a hand in the condemnation of so many Innocents or again wilfully in the face of the Sun and in defiance to God by so many false relations to abuse all men present and future what man can believe Their chiefest evasion who are or would seem to be of a contrary opinion is what a strange thing a depraved fancy or imagination is how easily it may represent to it self Devils and Spirits Sorceries and inchantments and God knows what which things commonly talked of among ordinary people especially as many other things are though they have no real being yet may make great impressions in the brain and offer themselves in sleep or when the brain is sick and out of temper by melancholy especially Or if they be of Wierius his opinion what advantage the Devil may make of a sick brain to make silly poor women believe that they have done things which they never did nor could And this when they have proved by two or three examples or say twenty or more for it is no hard business they think they have done much But what reason have they to think this such a mystery that none of those that have had to do with Witches and Sorcerers ever heard of any such thing and would not well consider it before they passed any judgment But what if more than one ten or twenty perchance it hath been so sometimes have been actors or accessories in some one execrable business and upon suspition being severally examined are found to agree in one tale to have been thus and thus incouraged assisted by Spirits to have acted such and such things met in such places at such times which things accompanied with notable circumstances are found upon examination to be true in all points and particulars What if others men and women be convicted by the deposition of sundry creditable witnesses upon some sudden quarrel or old grudge To have cursed and threatned thus and thus men or cattle and that it hath happened accordingly Strange deaths strange diseases strange unnatural unusual accidents have ensued can all this be the effects of a depraved fancy Or what when such a house such a parish hath been troubled with such unusual accidents if all those accidents immediately cease upon the arraignment and execution of some that are suspected and have confessed though it doth not always so fall out that they confess which may be some argument of their repentance which I fear is not very usual shall we impute all this to a depraved fancy or imagination or say with Wierius that all this is done by the Devil only to bring poor innocent women to destruction And that God doth suffer these things to punish but more of that by and by the credulity of men Truly as I can believe that some men innocently for want of experience and good information may hold such an opinion which of the two they conceive most charitable so that any man of ordinary capacity that hath taken pains to inform himself can really without some great and secret judgment of God persist in it is to me almost incredible or not less strange than any of these supernatural operations which ordinarily cause most admiration THEN if a man consider what kind of men for the most part they have been who have taken upon them to oppose the belief of mankind or universality of men concerning Witches c. some notorious Atheists as Pomponatius Vaninius c. others confident illiterate wretches as one of this Country Reginald Scot and the like he will think certainly that if the cause be no better than the Patrons it cannot be very good nor see any reason at all to embrace it But I must not let Reginald Scot pass so without a further account for their sakes if any that have a better opinion of him though otherwise
a very inconsiderable man His book I must confess I never had nor ever read but as I have found it by chance where I have been in friends houses or Book-sellers shops and as the manner is cast my eyes here and there by which persunctory kind of taste I am sure I had no temptation to read much of him I do not therefore take upon me to judge of him by what I have read of him my self which being so little might deceive me but by what I have read of him in others whom I know to have been learned and judicious and of great moderation and candor in judging even of enemies This I hope I may speak without offence or contradiction of one whose surname notwithstanding the vast difference of their worth comes somewhat near for I know that observations have been made even upon names to the others christian-name and that is Doctor Râ—ynolds when he lived as I take it Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Oxford who it seems upon the report the man had got among the vulgar had the curiosity a right helluo librorum as any was in his time to read him He doth mention him more than once or twice in those learned and elaborate Praelectiones of his upon the Apocrypha and not only name him but takes notice of many particular passages and confutes them or rather makes himself and his Auditors now Readers sport with them but always admiring the unparallel'd boldness and impertinence of the man Of all the books he doth mention in those large and elaborate Prelections I do not remember any whom he doth censure with more scorn and indignation Neither is Dr. Reynolds the only man I have read that doth censure him I could name two or three more if it were tanti or worth the while And what might not we expect from a man who reckons Plutarch and Pliny so I find him quoted among the Fathers of the Church and Leonardum Vairum a late Spaniard who hath written three books De fascino or Incantatione I have him not but in French and stiles himself Beneventanum Ordinis Sancti Benedictini Priorem Abbatiae ejusdem in Italia makes him I say either a Protestant or an ancient Father But these things we may laugh at if these were his greatest errors concerning which they that desire to know more may find enough in that learned piece before mentioned AS I was upon this and had even written or rather for I had ended this first part and was now writing it out as fast as my weak condition would give me leave written out so far a worthy learned friend whose judgment and communication in all kind of literature wherein he is very expert I much value brought me a book entituled A Philosophical endeavour in the defence of the being of Witches and Apparitions against Drollery Atheism 1668. Glad was I to see the book who am a stranger to all new books except it be by some chance these many years and I was not long before I had run it over I was glad to find that we agree so well in our account both in this particular of Reginald Scots and of Witches in general though in different ways He Philosophically and subtilly I more popularly and plainly yet I hope not less usefully As for his particular opinions or conjectures we may take further time to consider of them His zeal against the Scoffers and Drollers of the time as he doth call them that is against Atheism which now passeth commonly but most falsely and among them only who want true wit and solidity for wit and gallantry I do much applaud So much of it the book I mean if not to satisfie others yet my friend who did help me to the sight of it BUT Wierius was a learned man a Physician by his profession who neither wanted wit nor experience They that have read his other book De lamiis which I never saw lay to his charge that he is not constant in his opinion sure I am in his book De praestigiis c. he doth shew much inconsistency and sometimes no small conflict and repugnancy as a man that is much put to it and doth not know what to say For example where he doth argue whether men or women Sorcerers and Witches may become unsensible to any torments inflicted by Magistrates at first he doth deliver it affirmatively that they may and wickedly or unadvisedly as elsewhere frequently for which he is much condemned and censured by some to have written more in favour of Spirits than women doth set down some charms that he saith or may be so understood will do it But then immediately he doth propose some things to the end that what he hath delivered before as true and certain might be questioned and deemed rather ridiculous and false than true or credible For saith he as though any man acquainted with the world or the Scriptures could not have answered it all powers are of God it is not likely that God will give so much power to Devils as to hinder the course of Justice A great argument indeed of Gods power and providence over the world that though he doth it sometimes to make us the more sensible and thankful yet he doth it not often Secondly because God as he is just will not have wicked actions a great and invincible argument that there is a time and place of rewards besides this present world to pass unpunished Yet for all this his conclusion at last is Sed tamen hominum impietate sic merente saepius haec accidisse fateor that it is so nevertheless there be Charms and Spells which with the Devils help through the wickedness of men will make men and women unsensible of any torments be they never so great This puts me in mind of what I have heard from Sir Theâ—dore Mayerne though dead many years ago yet his memory I hope is yet fresh and living I shall need to say no more whereof he had been he said an eye witness and what course was then held in Geneva which then abounded with such creatures for the prevention or redress of such Diabolical unsensibleness in Witches and Magicians I could say more from him but I will not now he is dead give any man occasion to question the truth either of his or my relation But to return to Wierius So much was the man himself unsatisfied in his own opinion that it is no easie thing for any man else that reads him to know what he would have For that horrible things are done really according to the confession of women accounted Witches that he doth not deny That divers things by the confession of these women of the time and place and manner and complices come to be known which before were not known and which upon diligent examination are found punctually true in every circumstance according to their confession he doth not only acknowledge but doth tell many
will acknowledge himself satisfied that he was in the wrong if he did think so really NOW as I have hitherto argued against Incredulity in this particular so will I also give some examples of too much Credulity in the same business as I conceive and why I think so A learned man that hath written De Idololatria Magica Photius saith he in Olympiodoro narrat No not so but Olympiodorus in Pholio it is not Photius that is the Author of the tale he saith nothing of it but Olympiodorus barely whose words about that and divers other things he doth as out of other Authors only transcribe Well what saith Olympiodorus That in Rhegium over against Sicily there was a Magick-Statue or a Statue made by Art Magick to avert the burnings of Mount Aetna in Sicily and to keep the Islands from the invasion of barbarous Nations which Statue being broken by one Aesculapius Governor of it under Constantius the Emperor the Island was grievously annoyed by both those burnings and the Barbares As much is said by the same Author of three other Statues to secure the Empire from the eruption of the Barbares That the said learned man gave some credit to this as that such Statues were made and that they were effectual to that end may be gathered by his words Postea Diabolus c. But I will not much stand upon that it may be he did not intend it Before I pass my judgment concerning the thing as to the efficacy of such Statues I must acknowledge that I easily grant that such Statues made by Art Magick and to such ends have been anciently For besides what is here related by Olympiodorus Gregorius Turonensis Bishop of the same Town in his History lib. 8. Cap. 33. where he describes a general conflagration of the City of Paris but not comparable to that of the City of London of fresh and horrible memory which happened in his time at the end of that Chapter he hath these words Aiebant hanc urbem consecratam fuisse antiquitus c. that is It was reported that this Town had formerly been consecrated that no fire should prevail in it no serpent no glis a Dormouse properly but I take it here for a Rat I have some reason for it but I will not stand upon it should be seen But now lately when a Vault belonging to the Bridge was cleansed and the sullage that filled it was carried away a brass Serpent and a brass Rat were found in it which being taken away both Serpents and Rats without number have appeared neither hath it been free from the violence of fire So he besides Leo Affricanus in his Ninth book of the description of Africa where he treats of the River Nilus out of ancient writers of those parts doth relate that in such a year of the Hegira such and such being Governours there was in the rubbish of an Aegyptian Temple found a Statue of Lead of the bigness and form I suppose of a Crocodile graven with Hieroglyphick letters and by certain constellations contrived against Crocodiles which being broken in pieces by command of the Governour Crocodiles began to lay wait for men But again the Author of the Geography commonly known by the name of Geographia Nubiensis in high credit with all men that are studious of the Arabick-tongue in his fifth part of the third Climat for so he doth divide his book Of the Country Hems saith he the Metropolitan Town is Hems whether Emissa or Hemesa of the Ancients I am not now at leisure to consider which by witchcraft and inchantment is so fenced that no Serpents or Scorpions can have entrance and in case any be brought to the Gates they die presently Then he tells us of a horse-mans Statue set upon a high arch in the middle of the Town turning every way according to the wind and of the picture of a Scorpion in one of the stones of the arch to which painted or carved Scorpion if any man bitten by a Scorpion or Serpent apply dirt or morter and afterwards that dirt or morter to his wound or bitten place he is presently cured But this is beyond my scope as well as my belief But of the horse-mans Statue or picture of Scorpion in the wall being so confirmed by other parallel stories I think it may be believed Had we any certainty of the Ancient Palladium of Troy I should have begun there But out of all question we may conclude that such Magical Statues have been found in more than one place and not improbable that the Devil as he is a great emulator of Gods works but not his holiness might have a respect to the brazen-Serpent set up in the wilderness by Gods appointment But of the efficacy of those Statues according to relations we may very well make a question neither will History make good if well examined all that is written of them Neither is it probable that the Devil who can do nothing to annoy or protect men without permission can warrant any such things as are reported for the time to come except he could beforehand by some natural or supernatural observations of his own as in many prophesies of his concerning things to come find out the mind or counsel of God in those particulars or that God or some good Angels subordinate to God and privy to his will and determination in those things had revealed it unto him neither of which is very likely And that which makes it more unlikely is that even those who to become invulnerable have had recourse to the Devil or his agents and have enjoyed the benefit of their purchase for some time even to admiration yet have found themselves on a sudden destitute of it to their great astonishment and have miserably perished in their confidence as is observed by more than one who have written of that subject How then should he be able to warrant any Town or City and make his promise good for many ages WHAT I intended to wit a full consideration or refutation rather of Philostratus his assertion is I hope sufficiently performed OUR next instance shall be from Josephus the Jewish Historian highly esteemed both by Romans and Grecians and by one that could judge of good books as well as any man of this or former ages stiled Diligentissimus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 omnium Scriptorum The most diligent and greatest lover of truth of all writers sacred always excepted we must understand This Josephus in his Eight book of Jewish Antiquities and second Chapter where he treats of Solomon's wisdom and exquisite knowledge of Nature following the tradition of the Jews of those days who because they were great exorcists themselves and dealed much in Spells and Charms of all kinds so that from them the Heathens received divers extant in their books to this day to countenance their unlawful practices did perswade men that Solomon was the founder of what they falsly called Natural Magick to
superstition whereof examples are so obvious in great Towns as London especially as no man needs to wonder at it BUT yet let us see what may be said even for that not altogether improbable perchance so they that are not so much experienced will the better know by this example how to examine the truth of things and to distinguish between certainty and probability or possibility Do not we to this day find things which they call Empirica and Specifica in the writings of very sober Physicians that may seem as strange As for example The rindes of the root of Elder pull'd off from the upper part shall purge by vomit from the lower by stools The brain of a Ram with some other ingredients a good medicine against madness provided that the Ram be a virgin Ram virginity an ordinary caution in diabolical exploits to blind the world as afterwards shall be observed and that his head be cut off at one blow I find this in Sennertus the other in Anatomia Sambuci printed in London where the Author thinks but doth not affirm that this happily may be ascribed to some Idiosyncracy either of the body of the patient or of the humor that causeth the disease or perchance to the strength of imagination And even Galen such an hater of all that resented of any superstition and rigid exacter of reason he recanted afterwards we shall shew but even whilest he was so in his Tenth book De compositione Pharmacorum where among others he doth set down a remedy against the stone in the bladder This remedy saith he must be prepared with a kind of religious observation For the ingredients must be beaten or bruised in a wooden-morter with a woodden-pestle and he that beats must not have any Iron about him either in his fingers or shooes And this he calls a mystery which he saith he learned from a Rustick But should I here take notice of those strange things and wonderful effects of herbs which no less a man than Matthiolus tells of in his Dedicatory Epistle to his Herbal for truth what hath been written of the herb Baaras would be acknowledged very credible in comparison I dare say Yet I believe our modern Herbarists that experience doth teach them the contrary Well but doth it follow necessarily that if it be not found so now therefore it was never so Yes if we stick to the true reall nature or natural effects of the Herb. But who knows but that the Devil might abuse the Magicians of those days in that kind making them believe that those strange effects for of that I make no question did proceed from the natural properties of the very herb thus and thus observed which doth not hold at this day as I dare say there be many superstitions about Herbs and Plants now in force among men of that wicked profession which were not known in former times There is nothing in all this but is very possible and if I said probable it might be justified But considering how many things in this kind are to be found in the books of old Magicians as Democritus and others which upon trial even in those days were found false and because we would not multiply wonders where there is no necessity that when there is as we conceive we may speak with more authority and be believed I shall rather stick to my former judgment that it was but a fiction of the Magicians of those days to add credit and reverence to their art BUT now I turn to the men of these times the wits as they call themselves and by some others for want of real wit and good learning are so called who because they believe nothing but what is palpable and visible deny therefore Spirits and all supernatural effects and consequently the truth of all relations wherein supernatural causes are ingaged what will these men say to this of Josephus That he did invent what he recordeth to have been done before such witnesses What reason can they give for such a senseless supposition Or that the eyes of so many were deceived who thought they saw what was not truly and really to be seen But then how deceived by what means natural or supernatural It poseth me to think what they can pretend why we should not believe Yet I will suppose that somewhat they will say if nothing else yet this that it is an old story and therefore they are not bound to believe it A worthy answer for men that pretend to reason But I will see if I can fit them with a later to the same purpose and as irrefragable as I account that old ANDREAS Laurentius a late and learned Physician well known to the world by his writings in his book De Strumis or Kings Evil printed in Paris Anno Dom. 1609 and dedicated to Henry the Fourth of late Glorious memory in his first book ninth Chap. where he treateth of the power of the Devil to cause or to heal diseases at large he hath there this story The most Christian King saith he the very same to whom the book is dedicated did see a Rustick or Country Clown who by the incense or smoak of a certain herb in a moment as it were would cure all that were sick of the Kings Evil. He made them vomit so that they did cast much pituitous stuff and with it certain little creatures which he said were the germina buddings or seminaries perchance of the disease This I have heard more than once from the Kings own mouth when he did enquire the reason from me Besides the King Monsieur de Lominie one of the Kings Privy Council Monsieur de Frontenae Francis Martell chief Chyrurgion to the King and divers others of the Kings bed Chamber did see the same I always was of opinion that it was done by the Devil Neither was I deceived in it for this Rustick some few days after vanished and from that time though by his friends and those of his house sought far and near was never heard of So he Good and unquestionable witnesses I hope the King and so many others of his Court men of credit and of all men the Chyrurgion at least best able to judge LET this be compared with Josephus his relation which shall we sâ—y is the strangest This I think What then shall we say is there any such thing in the world as Truth or such a thing in the Heavens Firmament as a Sun If so then let us account though strange yet not prodâ—gious those things which are known so often to happen but those men not so strange as prodigious who what all men see would make us believe they do not see or though they see yet will not believe BUT now we are upon it I will run through some other instances I shall not be long upon them but they shall be chosen instances that nothing may be left for the cure of those men a hard cure I must confess who love
more in their Athiesm and other wickedness or an act of his providence perchance to prevent the mischief that they would do had they such an assistant Whereof we have a notable example in that monster Nero who as Pliny relateth having with care and great longing applied himself to the best Magicians of his time yet God would not permit Pliny was not so well perswaded of the gods of his time as to say so but would not I say permit that they could do any thing before him for the credit of their profession whereby Nero grew very confident and upon that very ground many were then and have been since that there is no such thing as Magick and that all that professed it were but cheaters and impostors We might also say somewhat of Julian the Apostate one of the greatest followers of Magicians when Magick and Nâ—cromancy was in highest request that ever was as all writers Christians and others acknowledge Yet for all that how long he reigned and how he died we know But yet more particularly we have heard of one Bishop who sped as to this world wretched man in the hands or by the hands of a Witch But Bodinus will tell us of another Bishop whom he names with all his titles and dignities and he saith he was present with one Faber a learned Physician when one of that profession did take upon him to cure him of a Quartan Ague which nevertheless for all his confidence he could not do But this is but one for another because it offered it self so opportunely but I believe as I said before that many more without number miscarry either seeking to no purpose or when they have found whom to treat with finding themselves cheated and frustrated BUT to return to the relation it self wherein I would leave nothing disputable I observe in it an Image or picture of the party to be tormented made of wax I observe it because I know some who question not the power of Devils or Witches yet in this particular are not satisfied how such a thing can be For there is no relation or sympathy in nature saith one who hath written not many years ago between a man and his effigies that upon the pricking of the one the other should grow sick It is upon another occasion that he speaks it but his exception reacheth this example equally A wonder to me he should so argue who in many things hath very well confuted the incredulity of others though in some things too credulous himself If we must believe nothing but what we can reduce to natural or to speak more properly for I my self believe the Devil doth very little but by nature though to us unknown manifest causes he doth overthrow his own grounds and leaves us but very little of magical operations to believe But of all men Cardan had least reason to except against this kind of Magick as ridiculous or incredible who himself is so full of incredible stories in that kind upon his own credit alone that they had need to be of very easie belief that believe him especially when they know whereof more afterwards what manner of man he was But I dare say that from Plato's time who among other appurtenances of Magick doth mention these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is as Ovid doth call them Simulachra cerea or as Horace cereas imagines who also in another place more particularly describes them there is not any particular rite belonging to that art more fully attested by Histories of all ages than that is Besides who doth not know that it is the Devils fashion we shall meet with it afterwards again to amuse his servants and vassals with many rites and ceremonies which have certainly no ground in nature no relation or sympathy to the thing as for other reasons so to make them believe they have a great hand in the production of such and such effects when God knows many times all that they do though taught and instructed by him is nothing at all to the purpose and he in very deed is the only agent by means which he doth give them no account of Bodinus in his Preface to his Daemonology relateth that three waxen Images whereof one of Queen Elizabeths of glorious memory and two other Reginae proximorum of two Courtiers of greatest authority under the Queen were found in the house of a Priest at Islington a Magician or so reputed to take away their lives This he doth repeat again in his second book Chap. 8. but more particularly that it was in the year of the Lord 1578. and that Legatus Angliae and many French-men did divulge it so but withal in both places he doth add that the business was then under trial not yet perfectly known I do not trust my memory I know my age and my infirmities Cambden I am sure I have read and read again but neither in him nor in Bishop Carletons thankful remembrancer do I remember any such thing Others may perchance Yet in the year 1576. I read in both of some pictures representing some that would have kill'd that glorious Queen with a Motto Quorsum haec alio properantibus which pictures were made by some of the conspiracy for their incouragement but intercepted and shewed they say to the Queen Did the time agree it is possible these pictures might be the ground of those mistaken if mistaken waxen Images which I desire to be taught by others who can give a better account MY next and last instance in this kind or matter of Cures shall be out of the Observationes Medicae of Henricus ab Heer 's Domestick Physician not many years ago to the Elector of Colen a man of no small credit in those parts among the better sort especially but no friend to Empericks among whom he reckoned Van Helmont as one of the chief But I shall not interpose my judgment in that Of Heer 's I dare say in general not to meddle with those things that properly belong unto a Physician to judge of that he doth write as a sober learned and which is the Crown of all pious man The subject of his eighth observation is a very strange story of a young maid that was bewitched by one of that wicked crew which being found by the consequents of the presence or absence of the Witch she was laid hold of arraigned and convicted and for that and many other things of the same nature done by her as she confessed deservedly put to death But with the Witch as she her self at her death had foretold it would be the pains of the miserable girle did not expire but continued at least one year after So long is expressed how much longer I know not Heer 's had the keeping of her a good part of the time In the mean time such strange things happened unto her and such strange things came out of her that her keeper did verily believe and did endeavour to perswade
they had taken them and strangled them So learned Masius Some Reader it may be that is not incredulous for want of due consideration will be astonished at these things that such power should be given unto man or Devil But they should rather make this use of it that if such power even Spirits have that are Gods creatures and servants which both good and bad are though against their wills what may his power be who is the Creator of all things and how inexcusable they who in some articles of our faith stick at some things as impossible to God And if they believe they do if true Christians that one Angel at Gods command destroyed in one night one hundred fourscore and five thousand men why a wonder unto any that a man by the help of the Devil who is a rebel-Angel should have such power God not hindring upon dumb creatures whether fierce or tame The German Piper I think there be but few but sometime or other have heard of who having agreed with the Town or Village at a certain rate to destroy all the Rats which did much annoy the place and after performance was denied and laughed at drew by his musick all or most Children of the Parish or place after him who if a true tale were never heard of It is related by many for a truth and said by some to be left upon the records of the place or Country But I will not trouble my self to seek my books or papers for it at this time Enough hath been produced of later times which I think unquestionable and I have yet more to the same purpose I remember well that many years ago Sir Henry Wootton being then Provost of Eaton-Colledge he did tell me that some body whether English or Outlandish did offer unto him to destroy all the Moles of the Country for I know not what compass of ground but this not by any charm or incantation he said but by a secret of nature because the Moles at a certain time of the year it was their nature and custom to gather together in one place and then what to be done I know not he told me more but this is all I remember But I have a story of a later date which though for some reasons I am somewhat shye to come to Yet because in two several places in my Notes and Observations upon Diogenes Laertius lately set out and in those Observations upon the Psalms and Proverbs the importunity of Printers when I was not very well furnished either with books or leisure but worst of all of will when nothing could be expected to be acceptable and welcome but what relished of schism and rebellion extorted from me but because in those two several places I have touched upon it I desire I may have the liberty to relate it here at large IN the year of our Lord 1648. I then lived in Sussex some three miles from Chichester under the protection not out of any love to me who was looked upon as a desperate malignant but out of a respect to my wife between whom and his wife there was some relation of kindred but under his protection whom I dare not name but a man of very great power at that time I wish he had made better use of it than generally he did though I never heard that he did much inrich himself by it which many others did who had less power but were more covetous I must acknowledge not knowing at that time where to dispose my self more commodiously I was much beholding to him and it did much conduce to my peace and quietness as being of that profession and party then sufficiently hated and persecuted that he would do me the favour and honour sometimes as to come to my house One time I can tell the very day it was the 11. of February he came and brought with him a Gentleman his wives own father and of kin to mine who had been not long before Sheriff as I remember of Sommerset-shire and suffered much by the times for his loyalty They came on horseback with divers servants among whom because the chiefest of the company had lately bought a Barbary-horse to whom he did not think convenient as yet altogether to trust himself was one John Young a known horse-courser of that Country Whilest we were above in the best Room I had and the Servants in the Kitchin by the fire my son the only I then had or since have had some 12. or 13. years of age comes in with his Mastiff which he was very fond of as the Mastiff was of him John Young to make himself and the company sport What will you say Sir saith he if I make your dog without touching of him lie down that he shall not stir Or to that effect My son for it was a Mastiff of great strength and courage which he was not a little proud of defied him He presently to pipe and the Mastiff at a distance to reel which when the boy saw astonished and amazed he began to cry out But the man fearing some disturbance in the house changed his tune or forbare further piping I know not which and the dog suddenly became as well and as vigorous as before Of this I knew nothing till the company was gone Then a maid of the house observing that I much wondred at it and wished I had seen it O Master said she do you wonder at it This man doth it familiarly and more than that the fiercest horse or bull that is if he speak but a word or two in their ears they become presently tame so that they may be led with a string and he doth use to ride them in the sight of all people This made me the more impatient and so it was that being invited thither to dinner against the next day I thought long till the time was come and had not the next day been long there but told the Master of the house before much company that were then present what I had heard of the man and how desirous I was to be further satisfied That shall you soon be replied he and presently sent one for him But answer was brought he was gone abroad but they thought he would not be long away This very delay though but for so short a time troubled me which whether observed or no Well well saith the Master of the house I will give you some satisfaction in the mean time by one story I shall tell you This man said he was once in company and being in the mood or to that effect began to brag what he could do to any dog were he never so great or so fierce It hapned that a Tanner who had a very fierce Mastiff who all the day was kept in chains or musled was in the company who presently not without an oath perchance it is too usual good laws against it and well executed would well become a Christian Common-wealth offered to lay with
affection I bear unto these stones which seem to me to promise somewhat more than ordinary and worthy to be enquired after As old as I am I could be content to be carried a good way for go I cannot I am sure to learn somewhat of them not so much of their vertues as of their production which to me seems a great secret of nature Yet when I consider that nature doth seem to take some pleasure in those kind of figures which consist of five divisions as by the Stella marina not to speak of five fingers and five toes in man besides what in divers other creatures is answerable to either five senses c. is another thing because not apparent externally a Sea-fish stella Solis c. described and figured by Bâ—llâ—nius and others and by those prety stones ordinarily known and so described by Gesner de fig. lap p. 37. c. under the name of asteriae astroitae c. as also by the pentaphyllum whereof there be many kinds and the like to all or any of which whether the Pythagoreans by their mystical quinary by them called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which consisted of three triangles joyned or interlaced into five points or angles described by Lucian had any reference I shall not now inquire and again that some Naturalists by many pregnant instances do maintain that neither Sea nor Land doth produce any thing but is imitated and represented in some kind by some kind of fossile in the bowels of the Earth whence so many bones of Fishes yea whole Fishes imperfect as to the form but perfect stone are found and digged up out of the Earth even upon high hills far from the Sea some my self have and look upon when occasion offers its self with pleasure and admiration these things considered I think it is possible these stones may be nothing else but even so well deserving some kind of admiration but some kind of fossiles nature aiming by them at the representation of somewhat that doth live or grow either in the Sea or upon the Land But I forget my self BUT now to return to our Wells Thunder the additional of the relation which I have promised is more strange to me than any thing in the said relation if it be true For since no mention of it is made in the exhibited relation I cannot absolutely satisfie my self that it is true much less can I warrant it to others This premised that which came to me whilest I lived in that Country from some others who pretended perfect knowledge of the thing is this A certain man they said had been not long before inducted into a Benefice in that Country of whom there was a report but no proof that he was addicted to the black Art This man being summoned as the fashion is by authority to Preach in the Cathedral took his Text Thou God of Spirits I was told no more as I remember out of Numb 16.22 or 17.16 and whilest he was in his discourse about Spirits of purpose it may be to confirm the opinion of some that he had to do with them thinking thereby to be looked upon as an extraordinary man though perchance no such thing really this storm of Thunder hapned Concerning which I have now besides the relation delivered bona fide what my memory afforded unto me which perchance may receive some illustration from what not out of my memory but out of my book whereof I keep such things which I have by the relation of others and would not forget I have yet to say However if there be any mistake rather than his name should suffer from whom I had it I will take it upon me He was one of the Clergy and a frequent Preacher in this Cathedral to their very good liking that could distinguish which few do or can between sense and sound solid good matter I mean and a plausible voice and delivery which hath been treated of at large by me with an accurate examination of the natural causes in another book I shall not conceal his name to any that have known him to others it is needless The account of my book is this 17. lul Anno Dom. 1638. of Mr. c. That about some thirty years ago when he was a young Scholar in Trinity Colledge in Cambridge as they were in the Hall at the Greek Lecture the Reader then reading upon Aristophanes his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he thinks and perticularly treating of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Thunder there came a sudden clap of Thunder that struck them all down and some a good space from the place where they stood astonished all and deaded one for the space of six hours who also continued lame of it for three months after and split one of the main rafters of the roof in two c. there being no appearance of any Rain or Thunder before THUS verbatim as I entred it in my book how long after I know not but probably not long after However I cannot promise I have exhibited his own words and therefore if there be any impropriety or mistake in the exposition I desire that may be imputed unto me Now supposing this as I believe it true I do not propose it as a matter of great admiration but well worthy of consideration and which may give some light to such accidents For among so many daily events or accidents which have nothing in them but what is ordinary what wonder is it if by meer chance as in the casting of many stones at random something happen that is not ordinary It is possible a blind man if he shoot often may hit the mark when an expert shooter may miss if he shoot but once or twice Such a Thunder I am sure was nothing but usual enough especially if at a seasonable time of the year as this probably because nothing observed to the contrary And that at such a time when such a Lecture was read which treated of or mentioned Thunder if there were no more in it than I have heard that is that not the person reading nor any then present were justly suspected such a thing should happen might be a chance Neither should I make much more of the former relation if the second part of it whereof I have no certainty be not as true NOW to enchantments again the validity whereof because of old so controverted that Pliny as before observed thought no age would or could decide it and of late there have not wanted learned sober men who have maintained the contrary opinion though I have been long upon it from men to beasts not Serpents only justified by the Scriptures but horses dogs bulls and all this by certain undeniable instances sufficiently proved I will yet before I end this subject instance in some other kind not yet spoken of which as the humors of men are may perchance affect some Readers as much or more than any of the former instances THE hunting
strange or so ridiculous but by the Devil's intervention to whom what rites or ceremonies are used or whether some or none but only to amuse is altogether indifferent is available sometimes and yet none as to mans judgment so plausible and so probable but is fallible and doth often deceive BUT that which in this matter of Divination most poseth my reason which also posed Aristotle so much that he could neither believe nor yet absolutely deny is that there be men and women but women especially in whom resteth a spirit of divination so expressed Acts 16.16 by which they foresee and foretel strange things and seldom miss All Histories afford notable examples so that even some that believe no Spirits whether a God or no I know not yet acknowledg There be such that foretel they say very certainly for the most part They impute it to a proper temperament an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any thing so neither God nor Devil be in it What great occasion they had to fear him should they grant him an existence I know not But one example every where obvious and well attested for in this also as in all things there is frequent mistaking and imposture I will instance in Innocentius the Eighth Pope of Rome who sent a man into England or Scotland rather named Adrianus famous for his singular wisdom judgment in matters of the world which soon after brought him unto Henry the Seventh King of England his favour and his favour to the Bishopprick of Bath and Wells in Sommersetshire Returned to Rome and in great imployment under Alexander the sixth he was made a Cardinal and after Alexander flourished under more than one but under Pope Leo the Tenth particularly It was his ill luck if not occasioned by any impiety and unthankfulness to God to grow acquainted with a woman in whom such a Spirit was Among many things which she foretold both publick and private which in all points and circumstances fell out accordingly she also foretold that one Adrian by name born of mean parentage preferred meerly by and for his worth should be Pope after Leo. This exactly agreeing with his case and having had he thought sufficient proof of the truth of her predictions he confidently applied it unto himself and made no question but he was the man that should succeed Pope Leo. In this confidence he began such a bewitching thing is Authority notwithstanding the sad examples every Age and Country when too eagerly coveted doth afford to think the time long before the Pope died and to hasten it with some others conspired against his life and though prevented and pardoned lived afterwards and ended his days miserably or if he had so much grace as to think so and to make a right use more happily because obscurely and never heard of more than before But Adrianus is not our business The womans prediction was verified by the event For Adrianus the sixth a man of mean parentage of excellent worth being then absent was chosen of purpose a man would think for no such thing was intended scarce believed when it was done to verifie the prediction But God forbid we should so think seriously but it fell out strangely that cannot be denied Now were it so that this Spirit of Divination were found in men and women such only who by their life and conversation did shew somewhat of either worth or godliness more than ordinary it is Aristotle's objection it would not be so strange or incredible But for the most part if not always true prophets excepted it falls out quite contrary And therefore by the law of God such were to be put to death Lev. 20.27 And happy is that Kingdom for there God hath promised a blessing where no such who take upon them to prophesie whether their predictions prove true or no are suffered to live But Credulity and Incredulity is the thing we have to do with What then shall we say First that Aristotle's objection is very plausible and worthy of Aristotle and the same objection lieth against the Salutators of Spain who for the most part are ignorant people of a leud conversation and yet are believed generally to do strange cures Franciscus à Victoria of whom besides Grotius divers Protestants speak with good respect is so put to it in this case that he doth not know what to pitch upon as himself doth ingenuously acknowledge Of four opinions which he doth propose he doth leave us free to chuse which we will Either that they cheat and impose or that what they do they do it by the Devil or perchance by a special grace for reasons best known unto God or lastly that it may be a secret of a proper natural temperament So still we are left in uncertainty But against manifest experience besides the authority from the word of God there is no arguing as to matter of fact It is not any part of our task to examine the reason But were the nature and divisions or kinds of Spirits better known unto us than they are or should be ambitious to know whilest we live it is likely we might say more to it than now we can I shall conclude that as I account great Incredulity not to believe that there be such predictions so to believe them before the event have confirmed them to enquire after them to regard them is little less than Apostacy from God and from the true faith If true sometimes yet false often but always dangerous if not pernicious to them that hunt after them SAINT Augustin in one of his books contra Academicos under the name of Licentius one of the Collocutors in that Dialogue doth tell us of one Albicerius a notable Diviner in his time well known unto him in his younger years an excusable curiosity in that age and profession long before he was a Christian Three or four notable stories he hath of him but first of all or before that what kind of man he was for his life A very rogue as any was in Carthage and such a whoremonger innumera scorta saith St. Augustin as scarce any age hath known the like The first story is that consulted about some silver Spoons that were missing by a messenger he presently told the owner of the Spoons the thief and the place where they were at present I believe some of our London-Prognosticators have done as much or near if publick fame though they may think it a credit do them no wrong Another time when St. Augustin or some of his familiar acquaintances went to him to be satisfied about somewhat which he doth not relate he not only satisfied them in that to the utmost of their expectation or desire but moreover acquainted them that their boy or servant by the way had stoln some money out of the bag of money which he carried after them even before he had set his eyes upon the said boy or servant and forced him to restore every penny before
the many revolutions of the world the sad chances and alterations which publick Estates and private persons and families are subject unto producing commonly as in Salomon and Aurelius Antoninus another Salomon for this kind of wisdom a right apprehension of the vanity and contemptibleness of the world and all worldly things without a reference to God and immortality they that make this good use of it though they die young yet may be said to have lived longer than any Epicuraean Sectary though he should live two hundred years who can give no other account of his life but that he hath eaten and drunk and enjoyed bodily pleasure with perfect we will suppose it so contentedness so long which things have nothing at all of a rational soul in them but of a beast of a dog or a swine much more than of a man They therefore that despise History upon that account might as well deprive themselves of the light of the Sun because it is subject to some Eclipses BUT we must add that many of these contradictions which we charge upon Historians proceed not from the Historians but our ignorance our ignorance I say either of the tongue not perfectly known wherein many are deceived as they that think themselves very good Grecians because they have read and can understand two or three Greek Authors or of the times or of the thing it self which is spoken of which may have reference to some of the Sciences or some secret of Nature or for want perchance of that light which a diligent comparing and consulting with good books of ancient or later times would afford That it is so so many once thought apparent contradictions both in the Scriptures and other good Authors besides Historians now by the labour of learned men happily cleared and reconciled are sufficient evidences I think there is not a book of any age or profession extant but ancient especially but may give some light to a judicious Reader towards the clearing of some obscurity either in matter of fact or science or work of nature Two Vniversities in one Kingdom are little enough for such a work if a man go the right way to work But many run where one only carrieth the prize And if but one in a hundred or two hundred that run happen to speed as God be thanked the Universities have always been stored with able men in this kind who have been a great ornament to the whole Nation the cost is not ill bestowed upon one or two hundred that do not so that it be not for want of labour and industry for that ones sake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Er. p. 1668. Quà m pauci qui capiunt magnitudinem literarum was a speech very frequent in the mouth of one whom I knew very well and I might have been the better for it but for frequent sicknesses and the loss of twenty years during these late troubles and confusions BUT besides many contradictions proceed also from a humour in some men or a malignity rather to contradict others So Ctesias of old was known to set himself to contradict Herodotus To make him fabulous and himself a considerable man he pretended because he had lived in Assyria and served one of those great Kings to sacred records But it fell out much otherwise than he expected for Herodotus in most things wherein he dissents from him is followed and he generally accounted a fabulous foolish Historian From what humour it proceeded I know not But I knew a Gentleman of great worth who would very stifly argue that Constantine the Great never was a Christian I do not remember I ever heard him alledge any thing for it which I thought of any force But this he might as well as Pomponius Laetus a late Italian compiler of History suspected by some to have had more affection for old Heathenism than he had for Christianity made bold to write that Constantius one of Constantine's Sons died a Heathen OTHERS again though they have no humour to contradict yet they will hardly believe any thing that doth contradict or not well sute with their humour and proper temper So that a man had need if possible to know somewhat of the temper of his Historian before he know what to think of his relations such especially as have somewhat of incredibleness in them We heard a learned Physician of our times in our First Part deny that there are Witches One great argument is because he did not believe that any woman could be so cruel or wicked so that he doth not stick absolutely to profess that should he see with his own eyes any woman commit any of those horrible things that are laid to their charge he would not believe his eyes that it is so truly and really but believe it a delusion Yet this the man that doth tell as horrible stories of men-Sorcerers and Conjurers without any scruple of believing as any I have read in any books of that argument OF all women I have read of ancient or late I know not of any that stands upon the records of History for cruelty and all manner of wickedness more infamous or indeed comparable than two women that lived at one time in France better than a thousand years ago Fredegonde and Brunichild Queens both but the one a Kings daughter also the other ascended to that height by her baseness first and then cruelty Medea of old was nothing to either of these as set out by some of those times If I were to judge I should be much put to it which was the worse of the two For he that reads the acts of either by themselves will find so much that he cannot but think that either of them went to the height of what can be thought possible But however though for their lives never so well matched yet in their deaths great inequality may be observed Providentia apud imperitos laborante saith one that writes of them that is To the no small prejudice or reproach of Gods providence but apud imperitos well added that is with men that must know all the secrets of God and the reasons of all his dispensations or else they will not believe that there is a God if men such blind wretches even the wisest that are in comparison acknowledged by divine Aristotle but not by the wits and wise men of our time could understand the reasons of all he doth It is enough that he hath been pleased to arm us against this kind of temptation by his Revealed Word so that to judge of men by what hapneth unto them in this world is little better than absolute apostacy from the right faith But as the story goes Fredegonde of whose wickedness we have more pregnant testimonies than of the others died in peace and was happy in her Son who made all France happy as even any King did Brunichild died much after the manner of Ravailack's death being tied to the tail of a wild Horse who soon