credulity therein and when we may see the defect of ability which alwayes is an impediment both to the act and also to the presumption thereof And because there is nothing possible in law that in nature is impossible therefore the judge doth not attend or regard what the accused man saith or yet would do but what is proved to have been committed and naturally falleth in mans power and will to do For the law saith that to will a thing impossible is a sign of a mad-man or of a fool upon whom no sentence or judgement taketh hold Furthermore what Jury will condemn or what Judge will give sentence or judgement against one for killing a man at Berwick when they themselves and many other saw that man at London that very day wherein the murther was committed yea though the party confess himself guilty therein and twenty witnesses depose the same But in this case also I say the Judge is not to weigh their testimony which is weakened by Law and the Judges authority is to supply the imperfection of the case and to maintain the right and equity of the same Seeing therefore that some other things might naturally be the occasion and cause of such calamities as witches are supposed to bring let not us that profess the Gospel and knowledge of Christ be bewitched to believe that they do such things as are in nature impossible and in sense and reason incredible If they say it is done through the Devils help who can work miracles why doe not theeves bring their business to pass miraculously with whom the Devil is as conversant as with the other Such mischiefs as are imputed to witches happen where no witches are yea and continue when witches are hanged and burnt why then should we attribute such effect to that cause which being taken away happeneth nevertheless CHAP. VII By what means the name of Witches becometh so famous and how diversly people be opinioned concerning them and their actions SUrely the natural power of man or woman cannot be so inlarged as to do any thing beyond the power and vertue given and ingraffed by God But it is the will and mind of man which is vitiated and depraved by the devil neither doth God permit any more than that which the natural order appointed by him doth require Which natural order is nothing else but the ordinary power of God powred into every creature according to his state and condition But hereof more shall be said in the title of witches confessions Howbeit you shall understand that few or none are throughly perswaded resolved or satisfied that witches can indeed accomplish all these impossibilities but some one is bewitched in one point and some are cosened in another untill in fine all these impossibilities and many more are by several persons affirmed to be true And this I have also noted that when any one is cosened with a cosening toye of witch-craft and maketh report thereof accordingly verifying a matter most impossible and false as it were upon his own knowledge as being overtaken with some kind of illusion or other which illusions are right inchantments even the self-same man will deride the like proceeding out of another mans mouth as a fabulous matter unworthy of credit It is also to be wondered how men that have seen some part of witches cosenages detected and see also therein the impossibility of their own presumptions and the folly and falshood of the witches confessions will not suspect but remain unsatisfied or rather obstinately defend the residue of witches supernatural actions like as when a jugler hath discovered the slight and illusion of his principal feats one would fondly continue to think that his other petty juggling knacks of legierdemain are done by the help of a familiar and according to the folly of some Papists who seeing and confessing the Popes absurd Religion in the erection and maintenance of Idolatry and Superstition specially in Images Pardons and Reliques of Saints will yet persevere to think that the rest of his doctrine and trumpery is holy and good Finally many maintain and cry out for the execution of witches that particularly believe never a whit of that which is imputed unto them if they be therein privately dealt withall and substantially opposed and tryed in argument CHAP. VIII Causes that move as well Witches themselves as others to think that they can work impossibilities with answers to certain objections where also their punishment by Law is touched CArdanus writeth that the cause of such credulity consisteth in three points to wit in the imagination of the melancholick in the constancy of them that are corrupt therewith and in the deceit of the Judges who being inquisitors themselves against hereticks and witches did both accuse and condemn them having for their labour the spoil of their goods So as these inquisitors added many fables hereunto lest they should seem to have done injury to the poor wretches in condemning and executing them for none offence But sithence saith he the springing up of Luthers sect these Priests have tended more diligently upon the execution of them because more wealth is to be caught from them insomuch as now they deal so loosly with witches through distrust of gains that all is seen to be malice folly or avarice that hath been practised against them And whosoever shall search into this cause or read the chief writers hereupon shall find his words true It will be objected that we here in England are not now directed by the Popes Laws and so by consequence our witches not troubled or convented by the Inquisitors Haereticae pravitatis I answer that in times past here in England as in other nations this order of discipline hath been in force and use although now some part of the old rigour be qualified by two several Statutes made in the first of Elizabeth and 33 of Henry the eight Nevertheless the estimation of the omnipotency of their words or charmes seemeth in those statutes to be somewhat maintained as a matter hitherto generally received and not yet so looked into as that it is refuted and decided But how wisely soever the Parliament-house hath dealt therein or how mercifully soever the Prince beholdeth the cause if a poor old woman supposed to be a Witch be by the Civil or Canon Law convented I doubt some Canon will be found in force not only to give scope to the tormentor but also to the hangman to exercise their offices upon her And most certain it is that in what point soever any of these extremities which I shall rehearse unto you be mitigated it is through the goodness of the Queens Majesty and her excellent Magistrates placed amongst us For as touching the opinion of our Writers therein in our age yea in our Countrey you shall see it doth not only agree with foreign cruelty but surmounteth it far If you read a foolish Pamphlet dedicated to the Lord Darcy by W.W.
stroke we stricken bee If hard at hand and near in place Then ruddy colour fils the face Thus much may seem sufficient touching this matter of Natural Magick whereunto though much more may be annexed yet for the avoiding of tediousness and for speedier passage to that which remaineth I will break off this present Treatise And now somewhat shall be said concerning Devils and Spirits in the discourse following The Contents of the Chapters in the Sixteen Fore-going BOOKS BOOK I. CHAP. I. AN Impeachment of Witches power in Meteors and Elementary Bodies tending to the rebuke of such as attribute too much unto them Page 1 CHAP. II. The inconvenience growing by mens credulity herein with a reproof of some Church-men which are inclined to the common conceived opinion of Witches omnipotency and a familiar example thereof Page 3 CHAP. III. Who they be that are called Witches with a manifest declaration of the cause that moveth men so commonly to think and Witches themselves to believe that they can hurt Children Cattel c. with words and imaginnations and of cosening Witches Page 4. CHAP. IV. What miraculous actions are imputed to Witches by Witchmongers Papists and Poets Page 5 CHAP. V. A Confutation of the common conceived opinion of Witches and Witchcraft and how detestable a sin it is to repair to them for counsel or help in time of affliction Page 7 CHAP. VI. A further confutation of Witches miraculous and omnipotent power by invincible Reasons and Authorities with disswasions from such fond credulity ibid. CHAP. VII By what means the name of Witches becometh so famous and how diverssly people be opinioned concerning them and their actions Page 8 CHAP. VIII Causes that move as well Witches themselves as others to think that they can work impossibilities with answers to certain objections where also their punishment by law is touched Page 9 CHAP. IX A conclusion of the first Book wherein is foreshewed the tyrannical cruelty of Witchmongers and Inquisitors with a request to the Reader to peruse the same Page 10 BOOK II. CHAP. I. WHat Testimonies and Witnesses are allowed to give evidence against reputed Witches by the report and allowance of the Inquisitors themselves and such as are special writers herein Page 11 CHAP. II. The order of Examination of Witches by the Inquisitors ibid. CHAP. III. Matters of evidence against Witches Page 13 CHAP. IV. Confessions of Witches whereby they are condemned Page 14 CHAP. V. Presumptions whereby Witches are condemned ibid. CHAP. VI. Particular Interrogatories used by the Inquisitors against Witches Page 15 CHAP. VII The Inquisitors tryal of Weeping by Conjuration Page 16 CHAP. VIII Certain cautions against Witches and of their tortures to procure Confession ibid. CHAP. IX The fifteen Crimes laid to the charge of Witches by Witchmongers specially by Bodin in Demonomania Page 18 CHAP. X. A Confutation of the former surmised Crimes patched together by Bodin and the only way to escape the Inquisitors hands Page 19 CHAP. XI The Opinion of Cornelius Agrippa concerning Witches of his pleading for a poor woman accused of Witchcraft and how he convinced the Inquisitors Page 20 CHAP. XII What the fear of death and feeling of torments may force one to do and that it is no marvel though Witches condemn themselves by their own Confessions so tyrannically extorted Page 21 BOOK III. CHAP. I. The Witches bargain with the Devil according to M. Mal. Bodin Nider Daneus Psellus Erastus Hemingius Cumanus Aquinas Bartholomeus spineus c. Page 22 CHAP. II. The order of the Witches homage done as it is written by lewd Inquisitors and peevish Witchmongers to the Devil in person of their Songs and Dances and namely of Lavolta and of other Ceremonies also of their Excourses Page 23 CHAP. III. How Witches are summoned to appear before the Devil of their riding in the air of their accompts of their conference with the Devil of his supplies and their conference of their farewell and sacrifices according to Daneus Psellus c. Page 24 CHAP. IV. That there can no real league be made with the Devil the first Author of the league and the weak proofs of the Adversaries for the same ibid. CHAP. V. Of the private league a notable table of Bodin concerning a French Lady with a confutation Page 25 CHAP. VI. A Disproof of their Assemblies and of their Bargain Page 26 CHAP. VII A Confutation of the Objection concerning Witches Confession Page 27 CHAP. VIII What folly it were for Witches to enter into such desperate peril and to endure such intolerable torments for no gain or commodity and how it comes to pass that Witches are overthrown by their Confessions Page 28 CHAP. IX How Melancholy abuseth old women and of the effects thereof by sundry examples Page 29 CHAP. X. That voluntary Confession may be untruly made to the undoing of the Confessors and of the strange operation of Melancholy proved by a familiar and late example Page 30 CHAP. XI The strange and divers effects of Melancholy and how the same humor abounding in Witches or rather old women filleth them full of marvellous imaginations and that their Confessions are not to be credited Page 31 CHAP. XII A Confutation of Witches Confessions especially concerning the League Page 32 CHAP. XIII A Confutation of Witches Confessions concerning making of Tempests and Rain of the natural cause of Rain and that Witches or Devils have no power to do such things Page 33 CHAP. XIV What would ensue if Witches Confessions or Witchmongers opinions were true concerning the effects of Witchcraft Inchantments c. Page 34 CHAP. XV. Examples of foreign Nations who in their Wars used the assistance of Witches of Eybiting Witches in Ireland of two Archers that shot with Familiars Page 35 CHAP. XVI Authors condemning the fantastical Confessions of Witches and how a Popish Doctor taketh upon him to disprove the same Page 36 CHAP. XVII Witchmongers Reasons to prove that Witches can work Wonders Bodin's tale of a Friseland Priest transported that imaginations proceeding of Melancholy do cause illusions Page 37 CHAP. XVIII That the Confession of Witches is insufficient in civil and common Law to take away life What the sounder Divines and Decrees of Councels determin in this case ibid. CHAP. XIX Of four capital crimes objected against Witches all fully an swered and confuted as frivolous Page 39 CHAP. XX. A request to such Readers as loath to hear or read filthy and bawdy matters which of necessity are here to be inserted to pass over eight Chapters Page 40 BOOK IV. CHAP. I. OF Witchmongers opinions concerning evil Spirits how they frame themselves in more excellent sort than God made us Page 41 CHAP. II. Of bawdy Incubus and Succubus and whether the action of Venery may be performed between Witches and Devils and when Witches first yielded to Incubus ibid. CHAP. III. Of the Devils visible and invisible dealing with Witches in the way of lechery Page 42 CHAP. IV. That the power of generation is both outwardly
worse they are And till you have perused my Book ponder this in your mind to wit that Sagae Thessalae Striges Lamiae which words and none other being in use do properly signifie our Witches are not once found written in the old or new Testament and that Christ himself in his Gospel never mentioned the name of a Witch And that neither he nor Moses ever spake any one word of the Witches bargain with the Devil their hagging their riding in the Air their transferring of Corn or Grass from one field to another their hurting of Children or Cattel with words or charms their bewitching of Butter Cheese Ale c. nor yet their transubstantiation insomuch as the writers hereupon are not ashamed to say That it is not absurd to affirm that there were no Witches in Jobs time The reason is that if there had been such Witches then in being Job would have said he had been bewitched But indeed men took no heed in those dayes to this doctrine of Devils to wit to these fables of Witchcraft which Peter saith shall be much regarded and hearkned unto in the latter dayes Howbeit how ancient soever this barbarous conceit of Witches Omnipotency is Truth must not be measured by Time for every old Opinion is not sound Verity is not impaired how long soever it be suppressed but is to be searched out in how dark a corner soever it lye hidden for it is not like a cup of Ale that may be broached toe rathe Finally time bewrayeth old errors and discovereth new matters of truth Danaeus himself saith that this question hitherto hath never been handled nor the Scriptures concerning this matter have never been expounded To prove the antiquity of the cause to confirm the opinion of the ignorant to inforce mine Adversaries Arguments to aggravate the Punishment and to accomplish the Confusion of these old women is added the vanity and wickedness of them which are called Witches the arrogancy of those which take upon them to work Wonders the desire that people have to hearken to such miraculous matters unto whom most commonly an impossibility is more credible than a verity the ignorance of natural causes the ancient and universal hate conceived against the name of a Witch their ill-favoured faces their spiteful words their curses and imprecations their charmes made in rime and their beggery the fear of many foolish folk the opinion of some that are wise the want of Robin Good-fellow and the Fairies which were wont to maintain that and the common peoples talk in this behalf the authority of the Inquisitors the learning cunning consent and estimation of Writers herein the false translations and fond interpretations used specially by Papists and many other like causes All which toyes take such hold upon mens fancies as thereby they are led and enticed away from the consideration of true respects to the condemnation of that which they know not Howbeit I will by God's grace in this my Book so apparently decipher and confute these Cavils and all other their Objections as every Witchmonger shall be abashed and all good men thereby satisfied In the mean time I would wish them to know that if neither the estimation of God's Omnipotency nor the tenor of his Word nor the doubtfulness or rather the impossibility of the case nor the small proofs brought against them nor the rigor executed upon them nor the pitty that should be in a Christian heart nor yet their simplicity impotency or age may suffice to suppress the rage or rigor wherewith they are oppressed yet the consideration of their sex or kind ought to move some mitigation of their punishment For if nature as Pliny reporteth hath taught a Lyon not to deal so roughly with a Woman as with a Man because she is in body the weaker vessel and in heart more inclined to pitty which Jeremiah in his Lamentations seemeth to confirm what should a Man do in this case for whom a Woman was created as an help and comfort unto him In so much as even in the law of Nature it is a greater offence to stay a Woman than a Man not because the Man is not the more excellent creature but because a Woman is the weaker vessel And therefore among all modest and honest persons it is thought a shame to offer violence or injury to a Woman in which respect Virgil saith Nullum memorabile nomen Foeminea in poena est God that knoweth my heart is witness and you that read my Book shall see that my drift and purpose in this enterprise tendeth only to these respects First that the glory and power of God be not so abridged and abased as to be trust into the hand or lip of a lewd old Woman whereby the work of the Creator should be attributed to the power of ae Creature Secondly that the Religion of the Gospel may be seen to stand without such peevish trumpery Thirdly that lawful favour and Christian compassion be rather used towards these poor souls than rigor and extremity Because they which are commonly accused of Witchcraft are the least sufficient of all other persons to speak for themselves as having the most base and simple education of all others the extremity of their age giving them leave to dote their poverty to leg their wrongs to chide and threaten as being void of any other way of revenge their humor Melancholical to be full of imaginations from whence chiefly proceedeth the vanity of their confessions as that they can transform themselves and others into Apes Owls Asses Dogs Cats c. that they can flie in the Air kill Children with Charms hinder the coming of Butter c. And for so much as the Mighty help themselves together and the poor Widows cry though it reach to heaven is scarce heard upon earth I thought good according to my poor ability to make intercession that some part of common rigor and some points of hasty judgement may be advised upon For the world is now at that stay as Brentius in a most godly Sermon in these words affirmeth that even as when the Heathen persecuted the Christians if any were accused to believe in Christ the common people cryed Ad Leonem So now if any Woman be she never so honest be accused of Witchcraft they cry Ad Ignem What difference is between the rash dealing of unskilful people and the grave counsel of more discreet and learned persons may appear by a tale of Danaeus his own telling wherein he opposeth the rashness of a few Townsmen to the counsel of a whole Senate preferring the Folly of the one before the Wisdom of the other At Orleance on Loyre saith he there was a Man-witch not only taken and accused but also convicted and condemned for Witchcraft who appealed from thence to the high Court of Paris Which accusation the Senate saw insufficient and would not allow but laughed thereat lightly regarding it and in the end sent him
Scourge and Terror to the Wicked Thus far I have been bold to use your Lordships patience being offended with my self that I could not in brevity utter such matter as I have delivered amply whereby I confess occasion of tediousness might be ministred were it not that your great gravity joyned with your singular constancy in reading and judging be means of the contrary And I wish even with all my heart that I could make people conceive the substance of my writing and not misconster any part of my meaning Then doubtless would I perswade my self that the company of Witchmongers c. being once decreased the number also of Witches c. would soon be diminished But true be the words of the Poet Haudquaquam poteris sortirier omnia solus Námque aliis divi bello pollere dederunt Huic saltandi artem voce huic cytharáque canendi Rursum alii inseruit sagax in pectore magnus Jupiter ingenium c. And therefore as doubtful to prevail by perswading though I have reason and common sense on my side I rest upon earnest wishing namely To all people an absolute trust in God the Creator and not in Creatures which is to make flesh our arme that God may have his due honour which by the undutifulness of many is turned into dishonour and less cause of offence and error given by common received evil example And to your Lordship I wish as increase of Honour so continuance of good health and happy dayes Your Lordships to be commanded Reginald Scot. To the Right Worshipful Sir THOMAS SCOT Knight c. SIR I See among other Malefactors many poor old Women convented before you for working of Miracles otherwise called Witchcraft and therefore I thought You also a meet person to whom I might commend my Book And here I have occasion to speak of your sincere administration of Justice and of your dexterity discretion charge and travel employed in that behalf whereof I am oculatus testis Howbeit I had rather refer the Reader to common fame and their own eyes and ears to be satisfied then to send them to a Stationers shop where many times lyes are vendible and truth contemptible For I being of your house of your name and of your blood my foot being under your table my hand in your dish or rather in your purse might be thought to flatter you in that wherein I know I should rather offend you than please you And what need I curry-favour with my most assured Friend And if I should only publish those virtues though they be many which give me special occasion to exhibit this my travel unto you I should do as a Painter that describeth the foot of a notable personage and leaveth all the best features in his body untouched I therefore at this time do only desire you to consider of my report concerning the evidence that is commonly brought before you against them See first whether the Evidence be not frivolous and whether the proofs brought against them be not incredible consisting of guesses presumptions and impossibilities contrary to Reason Scripture and Nature See also what persons cemplain upon them whether they be not of the basest the unwisest and most faithless kind of people Also may it please you to weigh what accusations and crimes they lay to their charge namely She was at my house of late She would have had a pot of Milk she departed in a chafe because she had it not she railed she cursed she mumbled and whispered and finally she said She would be even with me and soon after my Child my Cow my Sow or my Pullet dyed or was strangely taken Nay if it please your Worship I have further proof I was with a wise Woman and she told me I had an ill neighbour and that she would come to my house ere it were long and so did she and that she had a mark about her wast and so had she and God forgive me my stomach hath gone against her a great while Her Mother before her was counted a Witch she hath been beaten and scratched by the face till blood was drawn upon her because she hath been suspected and afterwards some of those persons were said to amend These are the certainties that I hear in their evidences Note also how easily they may be brought to confess that which they never did nor lyeth in the power of Man to do and then see whether I have cause to write as I do Further if you shall see that Infidelity Popery and many other manifest Heresies be backed and shouldered and their professors animated and heartened by yielding to creatures such infinite power as is wrested out of Gods hand and attributed to Witches Finally if you shall preceive that I have faithfully and truly delivered and set down the condition and state of the Witch and also of the Witchmonger and have confuted by Reason and Law and by the Word of God it self all mine abversaries Objections and Arguments then let me have your countenance against them that maliciously oppose themselves against me My greatest adversaries are young ignorance and old custom For what folly soever tract of time hath fostered it is so superstitiously pursued of some as though no Error could be acquainted with custom But if the Law of Nations would joyn with such custom to the maintenance of Ignorance and to the suppressing of Knowledge the civilest Countrey in the World would soon become barbarous c. For as knowledge and time discovereth Errors so do superstition and ignorance in time breed them And concerning the opinions of such as wish that Ignorance should rather be maintained than Knowledge busily searched for because thereby offence may grow I answer that we are commanded by Christ himself to search for Knowledge For it is the Kings honour as Solomon saith to search out a thing Aristotle said to Alexander That a mind well furnished was more beautiful than a body richly arrayed What can be more odious to Man or offensive to God than Ignorance for through ignorance the Jews did put Christ to death Which ignorance whosoever forsaketh is promised life everlasting and therefore among Christians it should be abhorred above all other things For even as when we wrestle in the dark we tumble in the mire c. so when we see not the Truth we wallow in Errors A blind man may seek long in the rushes ere he find a needle and as soon is a doubt discussed by Ignorance Finally truth is no sooner found out in ignorance then a sweet savor in a dunghill And if they will allow men knowledge and give them no leave to use it men were much better be without it than have it For it is as to have a talent and to hide it under the earth or to put a candle under a bushel or as to have a ship and to let her lie alwayes in the dock which thing how profitable it is I can say somewhat
Hilarius Hippocrates Homerus Horatius Hostiensis Hovinus Hypertus Jacobus de Chusa Carthusianus Jamblichus Jaso Pratensis Innocentius 8. Papa Johannes Anglicus Johannes Baptista Neapolitanus Johannes Cassianus Johannes Montiregrus Johannes Rivius Josephus ben Gorion Josias Rimlerus Isidorus Isigonus Juba Julius Maternus Justinus Martyr Lactantius Lavaterus Laurentius Ananias Laurentius à Villavicentio Leo II. Pontifex Lex Salicarum Lex 12. Tabularum Legenda Aurea Legenda longa Coloniae Leonardus Vairus Livius Lucanus Lucretius Ludovicus Coelius Lutherus Macrobius Magna Charta Malleus Maleficarum Manlius Marbacchius Marbodeus Gallus Marsilius Ficinus Martinus de Arles Mattheolus Melancthonus Memphradorus Michael Andraeas Musculus Nauclerus Nicephorus Nicolaus 5. Papa Nider Olaus Gothus Origenes Ovidius Panormitanus Paulus Aegineta Paulus Marsus Persius Petrus de Appona Petrus Lombardus Petrur Martyr Peucer Philarohus Philastrius Brixiensis Philodorus Philo Judaeus Pirkmairus Platina Plato Plinius Plotinus Plutarchus Polydorus Virgilius Pomoerium sermonum Quadragesimalium Pompanatius Pontificale Ponzivibius Popphyrius Prochus Propertius Psellus Ptolomeus Pythagoras Quintilianus Rabbi Abraham Rabbi Ben Ezra Rabbi David Kimhi Rabbi Josuah Ben Levi. Rabbi Isaac Natar Rabbi Levi. Rabbi Moses Rabbi Sedajas Hajas Robertus Carocullus Rupertus Sabinus Sadoletus Savanorola Scotus Seneca Septuaginta interpretes Serapio Socrates Solinus Speculum exemplorum Strabo Sulpitius Severus Synesius Tatianus Tertullianus Thomas Aquinas Themistius Theodoretus Theodorus Bizantius Theophrastus Thucydides Tibullus Tremelius Valerius Maximus Varro Vegetius Vincentius Virgillius Vitellius Wierus Xantus Historiographus English Authors BArnaby Googe Beehive of the Romish Church Edward Deering Geoffrey Chaucer Giles Alley Gnimelf Maharba Henry Haward John Bale John Fox John Malborn John Record Primer after York use Richard Gallis Roger Bacon Testament Printed at Rhemes T. E. a nameless Authour 467. Thomas Hills Thomas Lupton Thomas Moore Knight Thomas Phaer T. R. a nameless Authour 393. William Lambard W. W. a nameless Authour 542. THE DISCOVERY OF Witchcraft BOOK I. CHHP. I. An impeachment of Witches power in Meteors and Elementary Bodies tending to the rebuke of such an attribute too much unto them THe Fables of Witchcraft have taken so fast hold and deep root in the heart of man that few or none can now adaies with patience indure the hand and correction of God For if any adversity grief sickness loss of children corn cattel or liberty happen unto them by and by they exclaim upon Witches As though there were no God in Israel that ordereth all things according to his will punishing both just and unjust with griefs plagues and afflictions in manner and form as he thinketh good but that certain old women here on earth called Witches must needs be the contrivers of all mens calamities and as though they themselves were innocents and had deserved no such punishments Insomuch as they stick not to ride and go to such as either are injuriously termed Witches or else are willing so to be accounted seeking at their hands comfort and remedy in time of their tribulation contrary to Gods Will and Commandement in that behalf who bids us resort to him in all our necessities Such faithless people I say are also perswaded that neither hail nor snow thunder nor lightning rain nor tempestuous winds come from the Heavens at the commandement of God but are raised by the cunning and power of Witches and Conjurers insomuch as a clap of thunder or a gale of wind is no sooner heard but either they run to ring bells or cry out to burn Witches or else burn consecrated things hoping by the smoak thereof to drive the Devil out of the air as though spirits could be fraid away with such external toies howbeit these are right inchantments as Brentius affirmeth But certainly it is neither a Witch nor Devil but a glorious God that maketh the thunder I have read in the Scriptures that God maketh the blustering tempests and whirl-winds and I find that it is the Lord that altogether dealeth with them and that they blow according to his will But let me see any of them all rebuke and still the sea in time of tempest as Christ did or raise the stormy wind as God did with his word and I will believe in them Hath any Witch or Conjurer or any creature entred into the treasures of the snow or seen the secret places of the hail which God hath prepared against the day of trouble battel and war I for my part also think with Jesus Sirach that at Gods only commandement the snow falleth and that the wind bloweth according to his will who only makeh all storms to cease and who if we keep his ordinances will send us rain in due season and make the land to bring forth her increase and the trees of the field to give their fruit But little think our Witch-mongers that the Lord commandeth the clouds above or openeth the doors of heaven as David affirmeth or that the Lord goeth forth in the tempests and storms as the Prophet Nahum reporteth but rather that Witches and Conjurers are then about their business The Marcionists acknowledged one God the Author of good things and another the ordainer of evil but these make the Devil a whole God to create things of nothing to know mens cogitations and to do that which God never did as to transubstantiate men into beasts c. Which thing if Devils could do yet followeth it not that Witches have such power But if all the Devils in Hell were dead and all the Witches in England were burned or hanged I warrant you we should not fail to have rain hail and tempests as now we have according to the appointment and will of God and according to the constitution of the Elements and the course of the Planets wherein God hath set a perfect and perpetual order I am also well assured that if all the old women in the world were Witches and all the Priests Conjurers we should not have a drop of rain nor a blast of wind the more or the less for them For the Lord hath bound the waters in the clouds and hath set bounds about the waters until the day and night come to an end yea it is God that raiseth the winds and stilleth them and he saith to the rain and snow Be upon the earth and it falleth The wind of the Lord and not the wind of Witches shall destroy the treasures of their pleasant vessels and dry up the fountains saith Oseas Let us also learn and confess with the Prophet David that we our selves are the causes of our afflictions and not exclaim upon Witches when we should call upon God for mercy The Imperial law saith Brentius condemneth them to death that trouble and infect the air but I affirm saith he that it is neither in the power of Witch nor Devil so to do but in God only Though besides Bodin and all the Popish Writers in general it please Danaeus Hyperius Hemingius Erastus
whence proceed fears cogitations superons fastings labours and such like This maketh sufferance of torments and as some say fore sight of things to come and preserveth health as being cold and dry it maketh men subject to leanneses and to the Quartane Ague They that are vexed therewith are destroyers of themselves stout to suffer injuries fearful to offer violence except the humor be hot They learn strange tongues with small industry as Aristotle and others affirm If our Witches phantasies were not corrupted nor their wills confounded with this humor they would not so voluntarily and readily confess that which calleth their life in question whereof they could never otherwise be convicted J. Bodin with his Lawyers Physick reasoneth contrarily as though melancholy were furthest of all from those old women whom we call Witches deriding the most famous and noble Physitian John Wier for his opinion in that behalf But because I am no Physitian I will set a Physitian to him namely Erastus who hath these words that these Witches through their corrupt phantasie abounding with melancholick humors by reason of their old age do dream and imagine they hurt those things which they neither could nor do hurt and so think they know an Art which they neither have learned nor yet understand But why should there be more credit given to Witches when they say they have made a real bargain with the Devil killed a Cow bewitched Butter infeebled a Child fore-spoken her neighbour c. than when she confesseth that she transubstantiateth her self maketh it rain or hail flyeth in the air goeth invisible transferreth Corn in the Grass from one field to another c. If you think that in the one their confessions be sound why should you say that they are corrupt in the other the confession of all these things being made at one instant and affirmed with like constancy or rather audacity But you see the one to be impossible and therefore you think thereby that their confessions are vain and false The other you think may be done and see them confess it and therefore you conclude Aposse ad esse as being perswaded it is so because you think it may be so But I say both with the Divines and Philosophers that that which is imagined of Witchcraft hath no truth of action or being besides their imagination the Witch for the most part is occupied in false causes For whosoever desireth to bring to pass an impossible thing hath a vain and idle and childish perswasion bred by an unsound mind for Sanae mentis voluntas voluntas rei possibilis est The will of a sound mind is the desire of a possible thing CHAP. XII A Confutation of Witches Confessions especially concerning their League BUt it is objected that Witches confess they renounce the faith and as their confession must be true or else they would not make it so must their fault be worthy of death or else they should not be executed Whereunto I answer as before that their confessions are extorted or else proceed from an unsound mind Yea I say further that we our selves which are sound of mind and yet seek any other way of salvation than Christ Jesus or break his Commandements or walk not in his steps with a lively faith c. do not only renounce the faith but God himself and therefore they in confessing that they forsake God and imbrace Satan do that which we all should do As touching that horrible part of their confession in the league which tendeth to the killing of their own and others children the seething of them and the making of their potion or pottage and the effects thereof their good fridayes meeting being the day of their deliverance their incests their return at the end of nine moneths when commonly women be neither able to go that journey nor to return c. it is so horrible unnatural unlikely and unpossible that if I should behold such things with mine eyes I should rather think my self dreaming drunken or some way deprived of my senses than give credit to so horrible and filthy matters How hath the Oyl or Pottage of a sodden child such vertue as that a staffe anointed therewith can carry folk in the air Their potable liquor which they say maketh Masters of that faculty Is it not ridiculous And is it not by the opinion of all Philosophers Physitians and Divines void of such vertue as is imputed thereunto Their not fasting on fridayes and their fasting on sundays their spitting at the time of elevation their refusal of Holy-water their despising of superstitious Crosses c. which are all good steps to true Christianity help me to confute the residue of their confessions CHAP. XIII A Confutation of Witches Confessions concerning making of Tempests and Rain of the natural cause of Rain and that Witches or Devils have no power to do such things ANd to speak more generally of all the impossible actions referred unto them as also of their false Confessions I say that there is none which acknowledgeth God to be only Omnipotent and the only worker of all Miracles nor any other indued with mean sense but will deny that the Elements are obedient to Witches and at their Commandement or that they may at their pleasure send Rain Hail Tempests Thunder Lightning when she being but an old doting woman casteth a flint-stone over her left shoulder towards the West or hurleth a little Sea-sand up into the Element or wetteth a Broom-sprig in water and sprinkleth the same in the air or diggeth a pit in the earth and putting water therein stirreth it about with her finger or boileth Hogs bristles or layeth sticks across upon a bank where never a drop of water is or buryeth Sage till it be rotten all which things are confessed by Witches and affirmed by writers to be the means that Witches use to move extraordinary Tempests and Rain c. We read in M. Maleficarum that a little Girl walking abroad with her Father in his land heard him complain of drought wishing for rain c. Why Father quoth the child I can make it rain or hail when and where I list He asked where she learned it She said of her Mother who forbad her to tell any body thereof He asked her how her Mother taught her She answered that her Mother committed her to a Master who would at any time do any thing for her Why then said he make it rain but only in my field And so she went to the stream and threw up water in her Masters name and made it rain presently And proceeding further with her father she made it hail in another field at her fathers request Hereupon he accused his wife and caused her to be burned and then he new christened his child again which circumstance is common among Papists and Witch-mongers And howsoever the first part hereof was proved there is no doubt but the latter part
Hebrew word Onen of the vanity of Dreams and Divinations thereupon ONEN differeth not much from Kasam but that it is extended to the Interpretation of Dreams And as for Dreams whatsoever credit is attributed unto them proceedeth of folly and they are fools that trust in them for why they have deceived many In which respect the Prophet giveth us good warning Not to follow nor harken to the Expositors of Dreams for they come through the multitude of business And therefore those Witches that make men believe they can Prophesie upon Dreams as knowing the interpretation of theme and either for money or glory abuse men and women thereby are meer coseners and worthy of great punishment as are such Witchmongers as believing them attribute unto them such Divine power as only belongeth to God as appeareth in Jeremiah the Prophet CHAP. II. Of Divine Natural and Casual Dreams with their differing causes and effects MAcrobius recounteth five differences of Images or rather Imaginations exhibited unto them that sleep which for the most part do signifie somewhat in admonition There be also many subdivisions made hereof which I think needless to rehearse In Jasper Peucer they are to be seen with the causes and occasions of Dreams There were wont to be delivered from God himself or his Angels certain Dreams and Visions unto the Prophets and holy Fathers according to the saying of Joel I will powre my spirit upon all flesh your young men shall dream Dreams and your old men shall see Visions These kind of Dreams I say were the admonishments and forewarnings of God to his people as that of Joseph To abide with Mary his wife after she was conceived by the holy Ghost as also To convey our Saviour Christ into Aegypt c. the interpretation whereof are the peculiar gifts of God which Joseph the Patriarch and Daniel the Prophet had most specially As for Physical conjectures upon Dreams the Scriptures reprove them not for by them the Physicians many times do understand the state of their Patients bodies For some of them come by means of Choler Flegme Melancholy or Blood and some by Love Surfet hunger thirst c. Galen and Boetius were said to deal with Devils because they told their Patients Dreams or rather by their Dreams their special Diseases Howbeit Physical Dreams are natural and the cause of them dwelleth in the nature of Man for they are the inward actions of the mind in the spirits of the brain whilest the body is occupied with sleep for as touching the minde it self it never sleepeth These Dreams vary according to the difference of humors and vapors There are also casual Dreams which as Solomon saith come through the multitude of business for as a looking-glass sheweth the image or figure thereunto opposite so in Dreams the phantasie and imagination informes the understanding of such things as haunt the outward sense whereupon the Poet saith Somnia ne cures nam mens humana quod optat Dum vigilat sperans per somnum cernit id ipsum Englished by Abraham Fleming Regard no Dreams for why the minde Of that in sleep a view doth take Which it doth wish and hope to finde At such time as it is awake CHAP. III. The opinion of divers old Writers touching Dreams and how they vary in nothing the causes thereof SYnesius Themistius Democritus and others grounding themselves upon example that chance hath sometimes verified perswade men that nothing is dreamed in vain affirming that the heavenly influences do bring forth divers formes in corporal matter and of the same influences visions and dreams are printed in the fantastical power which is instrumental with a Celestial disposition meet to bring forth some effect especially in sleep when the mind being free from bodily cares may more liberally receive the heavenly influences whereby many things are known to them sleeping in Dreams which they that wake cannot see Plato attributeth them to the forms and ingendred knowledges of the soul Avicen to the last intelligence that moveth the Moon through the light that lighteneth the fantasie in sleep Aristotle to the Phantastical sense Averroes to the imaginative Albert to the influence of superior bodies CHAP. IV. Against Iterpreters of Dreams of the ordinary cause of Dreams Hemingius his opinion of Diabolical Dreams the Interpretation of Dreams ceased THere are Books carryed about concerning this matter under the name of Abraham who as Philo in lib. gigantum saith was the inventor of the exposition of Dreams and so likewise of Solomon and Daniel But Cicero in lib. de divinatione confuteth the vanity and folly of them that give credit to Dreams And as for the Interpreters of Dreams as they know not before the Dream nor yet after any certainty yet when any thing afterwards happeneth then they apply the Dream to that which hath chanced Certainly men never lightly fail to Dream by night of that which they meditate by day and by day they see divers and sundry things and conceive them severally in their minds Then those mixed conceits being laid up in the closet of the memory strive together which because the phantasie cannot discern nor discuss some certain thing gathered of many conceits is bred and contrived in one together And therefore in my opinion it is time vainly imployed to study about the interpretation of Dreams He that list to see the folly and vanity thereof may read a vain Treatise set out by Thomas Hill a Londoner 1568. Lastly there are Diabolical Dreams which Nicholaus Hemingius divideth into three sorts The first is when the Devil immediately of himself he meaneth corporally offereth any matter of Dream Secondly when the Devil sheweth Revelations to them that have made request unto him therefore Thirdly when Magicians by Art bring to pass that other men Dream what they will Assuredly these and so all the rest as they may be used are very Magical and Devilish Dreams For although we may receive comfort of mind by those which are called Divine Dreams and health of body through Physical Dreams yet if we take upon us to use the office of God in the Revelation or rather the Interpretation of them or if we attribute unto them miraculous effects now when we see the gifts of Prophesie and of interpretation of Dreams and also the operation of Miracles are ceased which were special and peculiar gifts of God to confirm the truth of the Word and to establish his people in the faith of the Messias who is now exhibited unto us both in the Testament and also in the blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ we are bewitched and both abuse and offend the Majesty of God and also seduce delude and cosen all such as by our perswasion and their own light belief give us credit CHAP. V. That neither Witches nor any other can either by words or hearbs thrust into the mind of a sleeping man what Cogitations or
which Augustus Caesar reputed for the worst luck that might befal But above all other Nations as Martinus de Arles witnesseth the Spaniards are most superstitious herein and of Spain the people of the Province of Lusitania is the most fond For one will say I had a dream to night or a Crow croaked upon my house or an Owl flew by me and screeched at which Augury Lucius Sylla took his death or a Cock crew contrary to his hour Another saith The Moon is at the prime another that the Sun rose in a cloud and looked pale or a Star shot and shined in the air or a strange Cat came into the house or a Hen fell from the top of the house Many will go to bed again if they sneeze before their shooes be on their feet some will hold fast their left thumb in their right hand when they hickot or else will hold their chin with their right hand whiles a Gospel is sung It is thought very ill luck of some that a child or any other living creature should pass between two friends as they walk together for they say it portendeth a division of friendship Among the Papists themselves if any hunters as they were a hunting chanced to meet a Frier or a Priest they thought it so ill luck as they would couple up their Hounds and go home being in despair of any further sport that day Marry if they had used venery with a begger they should win all the money they played for that day at dice. The like folly is to be imputed unto them that observe as true or probable old verses wherein can be no reasonable cause of such effects which are brought to pass only by Gods power and at his pleasure Of this sort be these that follow Vincenti festo si sol radiet memor esto Englished by Abraham Fleming Remember on S. Vincents day If that the Sun his beams display Clara dies Pauli bona tempora denotat anni Englished by Abraham Fleming If Paul th' Apstoles day be clear It doth fore-shew a lucky year Si sol splendescat Mariâ purificante Major erit glacies post festum quà m fuit antc Englished by Abraham Fleming If Maries purifying day Be clear and bright with Sunny ray Then frost and cold shall be much more After the feast than was before Serò rubens coelum cras indicat esse serenum Si manè rubescit ventus vel pluvia crescit Englished by Abraham Fleming The skie being red at evening Fore-shews a fair and clear morning But if the morning riseth red Of wind or rain we shall be sped Some stick a needle or a buckle into a certain tree neer to the Cathedral Church of S. Christopher or of some other Saint hoping thereby to be delivered that year from the headach Item Maids forsooth hang some of their hair before the Image of S. Urbane because they would have the rest of the hair grow long and be yellow Item Women with child run to Church and tie their Girdles or Shooe-lachets about a Bell and strike upon the same thrice thinking that the sound thereof hasteth their good delivery But sithence these things begin to touch the vanities and superstitions of Incantations I will refer you thither where you shall see of that stuffe abundance beginning at the word Habar CHAP. XVI How old Writers vary about the matter the manner and the means whereby things augurifical are moved THeophrastus and Themistius affirm that whatsoever happeneth unto man suddenly and by chance cometh from the Providence of God So as Themistius gathereth that men in that respect Prophesie when they speak what cometh in their brain upon the sudden though not knowing or understanding what they say And that seeing God hath a care for us it agreeth with reason as Theophrastus saith that he shew us by some mean whatsoever shall happen For with Pythagoras he concludeth that all foreshews and auguries are the voyces and words of God by the which he foretelleth man the good or evil that shall betide Trismegistus affirmeth that all augurifical things are moved by Devils Porphyrie saith by Gods or tather good Angels according to the opinion of Plotinus and Jamblichus Some other affirm they are moved by the Moon wandring through the twelve Signs of the Zodiake because the Moon hath dominion in all sudden matters The Aegyptian Astronomers hold that the Moon ordereth not those portentous matters but Stella errans a wandering Star c. CHAP. XVII How ridiculous an Art Augury is how Cato mocked it Aristotle's reason against it fond Collections of Augurers who allowed and who disallowed it VErily all these Observations being neither grounded on Gods Word nor Physical or Philosophical Reason are Vanities Superstitions Lyes and meer Witchcraft as whereby the world hath long time been and is still abused and cosened It is written Non est vestrum scire tempora momenta c. It is not for you to know the times and seasons which the Father hath put in his own power The most godly men and the wisest Philosophers have given no credit hereunto S. Augustine saith Qui his divinationibus credit sciat se fidem Christianam baptismum praevaricasse Paganum Deique inimicum esse He that gives credit to these Divinations let him know that he hath abused the Christian Faith and his Baptism and is a Pagan and an Enemy to God One told Cato that a Rat had carryed away and eaten his Hose which the party said was a wonderful sign Nay said Cato I think not so but if the Hose had eaten the Rat that had been a wonderful token indeed When Nonius told Cicero that they should have good success in battle because seven Eagles were taken in Pompies Camp he answered thus No doubt it will be even so if that we chance to fight with Pies In like case also he answered Labienus who prophesied like success by such Divinations That through the hope of such toyes Pompy lost all his Pavillions not long before What wise man would think that God would commit his councel to a Daw an Owl a Swine or a Toad or that he would hide his secret purposes in the dung and bowels of Beasts Aristotle thus reasoneth Augury or Divinations are neither the causes nor effects of things to come Ergo they do not thereby foretel things truly but by chance As if I dream that my friend will come to my house and he cometh indeed yet neither dream nor imagination is more the cause of my friends coming than the chattering of a Pie. When Hannibal overthrew Marcus Marcellus the Beast sacrificed wanted a piece of his heart therefore forsooth Marius when he sacrificed at Utica and the beast lacked his liver he must needs have the like success These are their Collections and as vain as if they said that the building of Tenderden-steeple was the cause of Goodwines-Sands or the decay of Sandwich-Haven S.
And never think that a poor old woman can alter supernaturally the notable course which God hath appointed among his creatures If it had heen Gods pleasure to have permitted such a course he would no doubt have both given notice in his word that he had given such power unto them and also would have taught remedies to have prevented them Furthermore if you will know assured means and infallible Charms yielding indeed undoubted remedies and preventing all manner of Witchcrafts and also the assaults of wicked Spirits then despise first all cosening knavery of Priests Witches and coseners and with true faith read the sixt chapter of St. Paul to the Ephesians and follow his counsel which is ministred unto you in the words following deserving worthily to be called by the name ensuing The Charm of Charms FInally my Brethren be strong the Lord and in the power of his might Put on the whole armour of God that you may stand against the assaults of the Devil For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against Principalities and Powers and against worldly Governours the Princes of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickednesses which are in the high places For this cause take unto you the whole armour of God that you may be able to resist in the evil day and having finished all things stand fast Stand therefore having your loins girded about with verity and having on the brestplate of righteousness c. as followeth in that Chapter verses 15 16 17 18. 1 Thess 5. 1 Pet. 5. Vers 8. Ephes 1. and else-where in the holy Scripture Otherwise IF you be unlearned and want the comfort of friends repair to some learned godly and discreet Preacher If otherwise need require go to a learned Physitian who by learning and experience knoweth and can discern the difference signs and causes of such diseases as faithless men and unskilful Physitians impute to Witchcraft CHAP. XXIII A Confutation of the force and vertue falsely ascribed to Charms and Amulets by the Authorities of ancient Writers both Divines and Physitians MY meaning is not that these words in the bare letter can do any thing towards your ease or comfort in this behalf or that it were wholesome for your body or soul to wear them about your neck for then would I wish you to wear the whole Bible which must needs be more effectual than any one parcel thereof But I find not that the Apostles or any of them in the Primitive Church either carryed St. John's Gospel or any Agnus Die about them to the end they might be preserved from bugs neither that they looked into the four corners of the house or else on the roof or under the threshold to find matter of Witchcraft and so to burn it to be freed from the same according to the Popish rules Neither did they by such and such Verses or Prayers made unto Saints at such or such hours seek to obtain grace neither spake they of any old Women that used such Trades Neither did Christ at any time use or command holy Water or Crosses c. to be used as terrours against the Devil who was not affraid to assault himself when he was on Earth And therefore a very vain thing it is to think that he feareth these trifles or any external matter Let us then cast away these prophane and old Wives Fables For as Origen saith Incatationes sunt Demonum irrisiones idololatriae fex animarum infatuatio c. Incantations are the Devils sport the dregs of Idolatry the besotting of souls c. Chrysostome saith there be some that carry about their necks a piece of a Gospel But is it not daily read saith he and heard of all men But if they be never the better for it being put into their ears hour shall they be saved by carrying it about their necks And further he saith Where is the vertue of the Gospel In the figure of the letter or in the understanding of the sense If in the figure thou dost well to wear it about thy neck but if in the understanding then thou shouldst lay it up in thine heart Augustine saith Let the faithful Ministers admonish and tell their people that these Magical Arts and Incantations do bring no remedy to the Infirmities either of Men or Cattel c. The Heathen Philosophers shall at the last day confound the infidelity and barbarous foolishness of our Christian or rather Antichristian or prophane Witchmongers For as Aristrtle saith that Incantamenta sunt muliercularum figmenta Inchantments are womens figments So doth Socrates who was said to be cunning herein affirm that Incantationes sunt verba animas decipientia humanas Incantations are words deceiving humane souls Others say Inscitia pallium sunt carmina maleficium Incantatio The cloak of Ignorance are Charms Witchery and Incantation Galen also saith that such as impute the Falling-evil and such like diseases to divine matter and not rather to natural causes are Witches Conjurers c. Hippocrates calleth them arrogant and in another place affirming that in his time there were many deceivers and coseners that would undertake to cure the Falling-evil c. by the power and help of Devils by burying some Lots or Inchantments in the ground or casting them into the Sea concludeth thus in their credit that they are all Knaves and Coseners for God is our only defender and deliverer O notable sentence of a Heathen Philosopher BOOK XIII CHAP. I. The signification of the Hebrew word Hartumim where it is found written in the Scriptures and how it is diversly translated whereby the Objection Pharaohs Magicians is afterward answered in this Book also of Natural Magick not evil in it self HArtumim is no natural Hebrew word but is borrowed of some other Nation howbeit it is used of the Hebrews in these places to wit Gen. 4.1.8.24 Exod. 7.13 24. 8.7.18 9.11 Dan. 1.20 2.2 Hierome sometimes translateth it Conjectores sometimes Malefici sometimes Arioli which we for the most part translate by this word Witches But the right signification hereof may be conceived in that the Inchanters of Pharaoh being Magicians of Aegypt were called Hartumim And yet in Exodus they are named in some Latine Translations Venefici Rabbi Levi saith it betokeneth such as do strange and wonderful things naturally artificially and deceitfully Rabbi Isaac Natar affirmeth that such were so termed as amongst the Gentiles professed singular wisdom Aben Ezra expoundeth it to signifie such as know the secrets of Nature and the quality of Stones and Hearbs c. which is attained unto by Art and specially by Natural Magick But we either for want of speech or knowledge call them all by the name and term of Witches Certainly God endueth bodies with wonderful graces the perfect knowledge whereof man hath not reached unto and on the one side there is amongst them such mutual love society and consent and
have in the faculties of the humane Life as to the indowments of the Soul considered in the just and in the wicked for to be good pure and holy is really present as a quality in potentia with the depraved soul although at that instant the Soul be cloathed with Abominations so that the eye which should behold God or Goodness is put out Yet if the soul would but come out of it self and enter into another source or principle in the center it might come to see the Kingdome of Heaven within it self according to the Scripture and Moses The word is nigh thee in thy Heart and in thy Mouth 5. True it is that the Devils and damned Souls cannot sometimes manifest themselvs in this Astral World because the nature of some of them is more near unto the external quality then of others so that although properly the very innermost and outermost darkness be their proximate abode yet they do frequently flourish live move and germinate in the Aery Region being some of them finite and determinate Creatures 6. But according to their fiery nature it is very difficult for them to appear in this outward world because there is a whole principle or gulph betwixt them to wit they are shut up in another quality or existence so that they can with greater difficulty finde out the being of this World or come with their presence into the same then we can remove into the Kingdome of Heaven or Hell with our intellectual man for if it were otherwise and that the Divels had power to appear unto Mortals as they list how many Towns Cities c. should be destroyed and burnt to the ground how many Infants should be kild by their malicious power yea few or none might then escape in Lives or Possessions and sound minds whereas now all these enjoyments are free amongst mortals which proves that it is exceeding hard for evill Spirits to appear in the third principle of this world as for a man to live under water and fishes on the Land Yet must we grant that when the imaginations and earnest desires of some particular Wizards and envious Creatures have stirr'd up the center of Hell within themselvs that then the Devil hath sometimes access to this world in their desires and continues here to vex and torment so long as the strength of that desire remains which was the first attractive Cause 7. For the very cause of the paucity of appearances in these dayes is the fulness of time and the brightness of Christianity dispelling such mists as the sun doth cause the clouds to vanish not by any violence or compulsion but from a natural cause even so the Kingdome of Light as it grows over mans soul in power and dominion doth naturally close up the Center of darkness and scatter the influences of the Devil so that his tricks lye in the dust and his will at length becomes wholly passive as to man 8. In the time of the Law when the wrath and jealousie of the Father had the dominion in the Kingdom of Nature all Infernal Spirits had more easie access unto mankind then now they have for before the Incarnation of Christ the anger of God had more dominion over the soul of Man and was more near in nature unto the same so that the Devils could with more facility spring up in the element of Wrath to manifest themselves in this outward principle because the very Basis and Foundation of Hell beneath is built and composed of the Wrath of God which is the channel to convey the Devil into this sublunary World 9. But when Christ began to be manifest unto the World the multiplicity of Appearances and possessed with Devils began insensibly to decay and vanish And if any should object That betwixt the space of his Incarnation and his Suffering such accidents were rather more frequent than in the times before To this I answer That the Devil knowing well that his time was but short and also knowing that till the great Sacrifice was offered up he had leave to range and rove abroad the Kingdom of this World therefore he imployed all his forces and endeavours to torment those miserable souls and captives to whom Christ came to Preach Deliverance 10. But after the Partition wall was broken down and the vail of Moses and of the anger of God from off the soul in the death of Christ there was a sensible and visible decay of the Devils prancks amongst mortals and that little remnant of Lunaticks and Possessed which continued after Christ did the Apostles relieve and set at liberty through the influence and virtue of the promise of the Son of God to wit the Holy Ghost or the Comforter which could not come until he went away And on the day of Pentecost whilst they waited in humility for the fulfilling of his promise the very effect of Christs birth and sufferings did first manifest it self when the Holy Ghost sprung up amongst them to the destruction of Sin and Satan 11. And so long as the purity of Christianity continued in the Primitive Church there were very few that the Devil could personally or actually lay hold of in the Astral Man for the space of two hundred years after the death of Christ until that from Meekness and Abstinence the Christians began to exalt themselves in Loftiness and Worldly Honours then the Devil began to exalt his head amongst the Lip-Christians bewitching them into every Lust and captivating their inward and outward faculties at his pleasure As all along in Popery is clearly seen 12. Yet notwithstanding the coming of Christ hath prevented the Devils force in general Such Nations as have never embraced the Christian Faith are still deluded and bewitched by him because the center hath never been actually awakened in any of them so that the Devils power prevails over them mightily to seduce them to worship things visible and not the true God For where the most darkness is in Religion and Worship or in natural understanding there his power is most predominant As in Tartary China and the East-Indies also in Lapland Finland and the Northern Islands 13. In the West-Indies or America his access is very facil and freequent to the Inhabitants so that by custom and continuance they were at the first discovery thereof become so much substitute and obsequious to his power that though they knew him to be a power of Darkness yet they adored him lest he should destroy them and their Children And unto such a height were they come at the Landing of Cortes Drake and Vandernort that they could familiarly convert themselves into Wolves Bears and other furious Beasts in which Metamorphosis their Enthusiasms and Divinations were suggested and such were held in greatest esteem 14. Till upon the Invasion of the Spaniards the greater evil drove out the less and the cruel Murthers of that Antichristian tradition did both depopulate
are not subject to conjurations What Spirits may be conjured The nature of the Astral Spirits Their degrees Their actions and affections The distinct orders of starry Spirits The office of Daemons or Genii Three ways of enjoying their society The first way The second way The third way of their appearance Their number The seven good Angels The nature of both The seven evil Genii and the manner of their appearances An example The uncertainty of communicating with Angels Familiars in the time of the Jews Several men have wrote and methodized the Art of Conjuration The spirits of men return again All men have starry Spirits What sort of persons most frequently re-appear The manner and time of their appearance The reason thereof The power of Magitians over them Example The cause the difficulty and paucity of appearances More particularly of the same The nefarious practices of Necromancers in an example Example The state of the Starry Spirit Why the Ghost of Samuel appeared The opinions of Plato Of Phythagoras Of other Philosophers The Raptures of Lunaticks Their Entertainments A strange example Apparitions before Christianity were frequent Why Funeral Piles were instituted What the want of Burial causeth The conclusion of this Chapter with an example Astral Spirits common The Spirits of the Planets The Power of the Planets Spirits the Air. Their Actions Spirits appropriate to the Spheres Terrestrial Spirits Faeries Lares and Domestick Spirits Luridan a famaliar Spirit Balkin a Familiar A strange example Spirits of Woods and Mountains Incubi and Succubi A froward kinde of Spirit Example Example Janthe a Spirit of the water Watry Spirits that procreate Apparitions on the water Prophetical rivers and vocal fountains Example Spirits in Green-Land Destroying Spirits Fiery Spirits What these Spirits are Why they delight in the fiery element Spirits that burn Cities Their food and pastime Why they delight in the fiery quality Astral Spirits ministers to the devill Why the devil requires their help Subterranean Spirits Spirits of the Mountains Caves and Tombs Spirits of hidden Treasures The nature of such Spirits Spirits that infest Mines and Miners An Example of a turbulent Spirit Conclusion What this Chapter treats of The place of hell or the habitation of devils Illustrated by a similitude The differerence betwixt heaven and hell How the Devils can come into this World The great difficulty of their appearance The cause of few appearances now The Devils power in the time of the Law His power under Christ in the flesh Under Christianity Under Apostacies Under Idolatry How power in new discovered Lands His power in America The variety of Conjurations according to the Countries Why few are able to raise Spirits The Names of Devils in the time of the Law Their Names in China In the East-Indies Tartaria Greece Italy West Indies The nature of their Names The names of of Devils in Scot. The names of Damned souls Whence the names of Devils are The names of Devils in the Kingdom of Fiacim The Shapes of Devils As they appear to Magicians in the highest ranks In the lower orders That the Devils are answerable to the unclean Beasts The shapes of Damned Souls Their times and seasons Their places of appearance When Tempests reign According to the situation of Regions Their Ranks and Orders In three distinctions Their numbers Their natures and properties Their torments The Variety thereof The Nature thereof Their torment in the source of Anger In all the five Senses By their acquaintance on earth The Nature of Hell The food of Devils Their food in the Astral source Their Speech What Language they affect Their unconstancy Their Power When they are called up Fumigations made unto them The Conclusion Shews before Spirits appear A Relation of a Magician His Actions Another Magician What Charms are Pentacles Their force Telesms For Diseases Fumigations For Saturn Jupiter Mars Sol. Venus Mercury Luna Why such Ceremonies are of force Charms Natural Operations Places ascribed to the seven Planets Spells Secret Conclusions The Candle of life That Characters are compacts The force of Words and Characters The vanity of Conjuration By Similitude Exorcising or casting out Like desires its like Nothing is compelled by contraries Of Images of Wax and what is wrought by them Further concerning Images Of Images provoking Love Forms of Charms in Tartary The tying of the Point Charming by the Sive By Bottles Skins Letters Cords Lots Transplantation Ceremonious And meerly natural Magical Instruments Their matter Substance And Form The Conclusion