to certain knowledge or science though not science properly because not grounded upon the knowledge of the causes In either sense credulity taken will fit our purpose well enough yet of the two I rather chuse the second that credulity may be taken for a vice that so as all or most vertues according to Aristotle's doctrine though by some upon very light grounds as I conceive much opposed we may place this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or belief also in the middle of two vicious extremities And so is this business of believing very well stated by Plutarch in more than one place and upon several occasions LASTLY whereas my title promiseth the consideration of both equally Credulity and Incredulity and most of my examples will be found of Incredulity or such as tend to the reproof and confutation of it I may be thoâ—ght to have dealt partially as though I favoured or less blamed Credulity than the contrary vice But that doth not follow neither had I any such respect in the chusing of my examples Neither indeed is it absolutely determinable which of the two Credulity or Incredulity is most dangerous or blamable but as the particular object of either is so may the one be more or less than the other But I must confess the business of incredulity did more run in my head at this time because of the times so set upon Atheism which of all kind of incredulity is the most horrible and damnable and most unworthy of a rational man Now one prime foundation of Atheism as by many ancient and late is observed being the not believing the existence of spiritual essences whether good or bad separate or united subordinate to God as to the supream and original Cause of all and by consequent the denying of supernatural operations I have I confess applied my self by my examples which in this case do more than any reasoning and the authority of the holy Scriptures laid aside are almost the only convincing proof to the confutation of such incredulity in this first part especially However unadvised credulity and incredulity being considered as two extreams by the doctrine of contraries it will follow that what tends to the illustration or confutation of the one doth in some sort equally belong unto the other and though the examples generally have more reference to the one than to the other the observations upon the examples shall equally concern them both which is enough to justifie my Title NOW because credulity and incredulity doth properly belong unto such things as are wondred at either as besides the ordinary course of nature and therefore wondred at because rare and unusual or against it and therefore thought impossible or supernatural it will not be amiss in the first place to consider what those things are considered in their kinds or generality which usually cause admiration As I go along I may meet with somewhat that may occasion some consideration otherwise I have no intention but to name them only MONSTERS are the most ordinary subject of their admiration who are not qualified to admire any thing else though it deserve it much more However they that have or shall read the History of Monsters written by Bauhinus not to mention others may think the better of many things which before perchance they thought incredible Though he treat of all kind of Monsters yet Hermaphrodites only are in his Title as the most prodigious or most considerable Indeed many laws have been made about them and many cases proposed and answered both in the Civil and Canonical law I have read also of trials processes and Judgments against or concerning them in several Courts beyond the Seas and Pliny doth record that in his time they were in deliciis not for their beauty and good parts I suppose but such is the perversity of some for their very monstrosity And what if after all this some men will maintain that there be no such creatures One great argument will be they never saw any Another there have been some counterfeits Upon these grounds who seeth not how much the History of Nature may suffer through the rashness and ignorance of some who affect to be thought wise for denying what other men believe the Continuator of Thuanus his History will tell what passed in Paris Anno Dom. 1613. about this controversie if any desire to know AFTER Monsters those things I reckon that happen by natural sympathies and antipathies though these also denied by some who must adventure upon somewhat that they may be thought some body and again those things that proceed from what Physicians call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is written both ways to which sympathies may be referr'd but it extends much further and again those things that proceed from the strength of imagination concerning all which not only example and instances in most books of all arguments are obvious but also peculiar books and tractates made by learned Physicians and Philosophers searching into the causes though natural acknowledged yet hidden and secret so far as the wit of man can reach are extant all these I conceive to them that search into the works of nature with diligence offer themselves frequently as worthy objects of admiration ANOTHER great object of admiration is that which they call occultae qualitates to which some sympathies and antipathies as also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be referred but is much more general than either Those occultae qualitates have been stiled by some men who had the ambition to be accounted more profound and quick-sighted into the works of nature than others asylum asinorum or the refuge or sanctuary of Asses but in their attempts and endeavours of rendring of reasons to maintain manifest qualities they generally have acquitted themselves so weakly so childishly as by the discourses and refutations of Physicians and Philosophers both ancient and late generally most approved and known doth appear that what they thought to brand others with hath unhappily but deservedly stuck to themselves their reasonings if not themselves being become the scorn and ludibrium of all truly wise and judicious So hitherto I am sure according to the old Philosophy But what the conceited omnipotency of Atomes according to the new Philosophy or revived Epicurism may do to satisfie all doubts and scruples I know not For my part I shall not be ashamed to acknowledge my weakness I have looked into it with as much candor and diligence as in such a case I thought necessary so far from prejudice that I would perswade my self I could not but speed and find what I sought for but I have not I profess it yet with submission to better judgments TO these occultae qualitates we may add influxus coelestes or influentiae to which I find very learned men Physicians and others to ascribe strange effects Yet there be very learned too that will by no means admit of such as learned Pererius by name who doth
declare durst mention such a book except such a one had been then extant in Galen's name or could be mistaken in his judgment concerning the Author whom he had read so diligently as by his writings doth appear So that even Valesius though he doth write against the opinion maintained by Trallianus yet he doth upon his authority yield it as unquestionable that such a book was then extant written by Galen As he so Fererius who hath written a Chapter of that argument and entituled it as Galen had his Treatise NOW because in those times most incantations used not only by the Jews but by Gentiles also as by Trallianus by Lucian by Origen and by others may appear had the name of Dominus Sabaoth as a chief ingredient it is observable that some godly Fathers who knew Christians had more right to that name than either Gentiles or Jews of those times had thought it no superstition to commend unto them the nomination of the Lord of Sabaoth upon such occasions not as an inchantment but a lawful prayer So doth Cyrillus Alexandrinus in his book De Adoratione Spirituali lib. 6. whose words perchance some might interpret as though he allowed those words to them that have faith as a lawful charm But what he writes in that very place against all kind of inchantments as unlawful and forbidden by God may sufficiently acquit him from any such intention But I cannot acquit Origen neither is it much material except I could acquit him of so many other pestilent errors wherewith he stands charged in the Ecclesiastical story and his books yet extant though much purged by Ruffinus the Latine interpreter proclaim him guilty of In his 20. Homily upon Josuah part of which in Greek is preserved in that Philocalia collected out of his works he doth very erroniously ascribe power to the very words and letters of ordinary charms for which he doth appeal to common experience and consequently would have the very letters or words of the Scripture in any language though not understood if but read and pronounced to be of great power and efficacy which as it is against the very principles of Natural Philosophy so against the determination of all sober Philosophers Physicians and Divines YET as there is nothing so uncouth or absurd but shall meet with a Patron so hath this opinion of the efficacy of bare sounds and letters met with some in our age as Thomas Bartholinus for one This Thomas Bartholinus one of the King of Denmarks Physicians the Author of many curious pieces if he be not either too credulous sometimes or too ambitious to be the reporter of strange things in his Centuriae Historiarum Anatomicarum rariorum upon the experience of some to whom he doth give credit doth maintain that the Epilepsie may be cured by charms and those charms upon a natural account of the causes not unlawful His reason I will not stand to examine I think they will not perswade very many besides those who think well enough of charms in general whatever it be that makes them effectual but would be glad to find a plausible pretence THIS mention of Bartholinus puts me in mind of a strange story I profess again seriously as I have done before this Discourse was never undertaken by me to tell the Reader strange stories though true which might have made it much more both easie and voluminous Yet the use that may be made of this in point of Credulity or Incredulity in case any such report as very probably may occur of any other place or Country besides what inferences or experiments may be made upon it for the publick good if this be true makes me take notice of it and the rather because having enquired of divers Travellers into those parts whom I have had the opportunity to consult about it I have not as yet met with any that could give me any account Now the story is this In Italy not above twelve leagues they reckon there by miles ordinarily but he saith 12. leucis near a Town or Village vulgarly known he saith by the name of Il Sasso in Latin Braccianum there is a Cave commonly called the Cave of Serpents Serpents at all times it seems but at some time of the year more certainly and solemnly frequent it in great number And then if any troubled and afflicted with any ordinary disease proceeding from a cold cause as the Palsie Leprosie Dropsie c come and lie down immovable which the better to do some take Opium beforehand Serpents will come about him and suck him or lick him till he be well He tells of more but of one Cardinal among the rest particularly who being desperately ill there recovered Many other things he tells of it which it seems with other company he went of purpose to see This upon the report of the Country people he more delivers of it which sounds somewhat of a fable that one of the Serpents Coronâ insignitus adorned with a kind of Crown as the governor of the rest useth to come out of his hole first and after diligent search if he finds all things safe gives notice unto the rest This if true may give light to some other story which as I said before made me the more willing to take notice of it BY this I hope yea and before this as I have said before but that I had some consideration of the good use that might be made of what did offer it self over above but now again by this I hope it will be granted by all that do not profess wilful incredulity and contradiction that many things happen supernaturally which are above the sphere and activity of the believed and beloved atomes and can be referred to no other cause but the operations of Daemons or evil Spirits which once secured Atheism hath lost its greatest prop and the mockers and scoffers of the time the chiefest object of their confidence and boasting which though not our immediate subject yet of purpose as before said did we make choice of such instances of Credulity and Incredulity that we might una fidelia as they say duos parietes and yet still according to my Title in this First Part have I kept within the bounds of things Natural which by many according to the genius of the times are laid for a foundation of Atheism or at least for the undermining of Christianity which they that profess yet secretly endeavour to undermine deserve to be accounted the worst of Atheists I have now but a word or two concerning Divination and Prodigies in general because in all ages a main object of Credulity and Incredulity to add and then we shall see what observations more we can draw from the premised instances and so conclude which I begin to be weary of as much as any Reader can be this first Part. DIVINATION as it belongs unto God more properly nay unto God only if it be true divination that is such as
the masters of it did know what or how much had been taken away A third story is of one Flaccianus well known to St. Augustin it seems who being about to purchase a piece of ground went to this Diviner or Cunning-man to see what he could tell him about it who had no sooner seen Flaccianus but presently told him what he was come about and named the ground or Farm as it was ordinarily called which Flaccianus himself it seems it was somewhat an uncouth hard name did not well know But the fourth story made St. Augustin a young man then under the name and person of the said Licentius even tremble for amazement whilest he did relate it A condisciple of his or one that had been hearing so much of the man and either not believing or for further trial and to know the utmost of his power went to him and boldly and importunately challenged him to tell him what it was he had in his thoughts who put to it as he was told him he did think of Virgil. Being further asked what particular place of Virgil the man though otherwise scarce able to read pronounced aloud boldly and securely the very verse of the Poet he had then in his mind Who makes any question but he that did this no man of God but a very rogue was really possest by the Devil And do we wonder at it or rather wonder that any men or women that take upon them to do such things in a Christian Common-weal should be suffered to live Or that any that make use of such whether men or women should make any question if Christians by profession and education but that in so doing they go to the Devil But some may wonder perchance as St. Augustin or his friend did at the first for afterwards he made nothing of it that the Devil should have such power which the Scripture doth seem to appropriate unto God to know thoughts But it is one thing to have the thoughts of all men in all places at all times open and naked which belongs unto God only by some subtilty or secret of nature to know the thoughts of some men at sometimes which the Devil can it is certain if God do not hinder which men also well acquainted with nature by diligent observation of the eyes and otherwise may in some part attain unto And why not this as possible as for men but women rather in the light or day-time at a good distance to communicate and to impart their thoughts freely and fully without any noise or voice by the observation of the lips only and other parts about the mouth A secret of nature lately discovered of which more in my Treatise of Enthusiasm Chapter 4. of the second Edition page 181 c. I name the second Edition because not so much of it in the first to be found AFTER Divination somewhat because of the affinity may be expected of Prodigies of which as of Divination much hath been written and argued to and fro by divers and very lately by one by some whom I have heard much commended I therefore shall say the less neither indeed doth my subject engage me to say much As all other things in the world not determinable by sense those especially that relate to God and his providence have been liable to superstition and credulity so this of prodigies as much as any The ancient Romans have been noted for their excess in this kind and their best Historian Titus Livius for inserting that into the body of his History which stood upon publick records hath been censured as fabulous for which nevertheless he doth often excuse himself and smartly doth censure the credulity of the people of those days Yet I make no question but by the contrivance of the Devil in those days of ignorance and superstition as of Oracles was said before for the increase of superstition many things in that kind might happen besides what did by Gods order and appointment which have not hapned so frequently since But what excess soever they might justly be charged of yet we must acknowledge that the ground of it Quod omnium secundorum adversorumque causas in Deos had he but said Deum verterent that is in effect Because they bâ—lieved a God and a providence the cause of all good and evil that hapneth unto men as the same Livy doth inform us was commendable which would make us besides other reasons think the better of prodigies in these days wherein Epicurism and Atheism do so mightily prevail And it cannot be denied but they lived then generally according to their belief frugally and vertuously Witness those rare Examples those times afforded scarce to be matched in any other age And as this belief made them vertuous so their vertue conquerors of the best and greatest part of the then known world Whereas when all observation of prodigies ceased which the same Livy saith did proceed ab eadem negligentia quâ nihil Deos portendere vulgo nunc credunt a mild word negligentia for Atheism or Epicurism all manner of vices pride luxury covetousness and the like crept in which occasioned their Civil wars and their Civil war with these vices the ruine of that glorious Empire Were there no other thing in the world to perswade me yet the authority of two such men as Camerarius and Melanchton so pious so learned both would make me not to reject all prodigies whether publick or private Yet it must be confessed that where the opinion lights upon a man who is naturally tender and fearful and such was the nature of them both I have named of Melanchton especially it hardly escapes excess But again were there no other examples or instances of prodigies known to me than what hapned before the death of Julius Caesar the Roman Emperor and what before Henry the Fourth late King of France who for their valour and manner of death may well be paralleled being so well attested as no rational man can make any question I should think and acknowledge my self sufficiently convicted that there be prodigies presaging prodigies I mean And if in their case why not in the case of many Princes and others such especially who have been active men in the world and made a great noise by their valourous or ventrous atchievements and undertakings Always provided that there be like evidence and attestation I think I have read in Julius Scaliger a man of singular as learning so piety some where I find it so in my papers but not the place quoted Melior superstitio so it do not proceed to a breach of any particular command of Gods revealed word so I understand it nimiâ sobrietate quae facile degenerat in Atheismum that is Better is superstition sometimes than too much sobriety or cautelousness which is apt soon to degenerate into Atheism At another time perchance I should not think so well of it But now when Atheism doth so prevail and true Piety
inveigh against them as the confusion of all sound Philosophy and in very deed the true asylum asinorum Yet if a man consider of it soberly and read impartially what is by very sober men pleaded for them he may find ground enough it is my opinion to believe them especially when he doth consider that Aristotle himself was forced besides his four Principia or Elementa to have recourse to a quintam essentiam besides that which he doth appropriate to the Heavens as a more noble cause yea to God himself in some things as the immediate cause operating above nature above reason humane by his meer Omnipotency Whereby Aristotle doth apparently lay a foundation for miracles as we may shew in due place whereas some conceited foolish men pretended Christians but real Atheists as Pomponatius and the like because they would not seem to depart from Aristotle's doctrine refer all miracles to natural causes Besides it is well known that Hippocrates also doth acknowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in diseases by which though Gallen and some others understand ambientem aerem only yet even so then certainly the aer preternaturally or supernaturally affected by some divine or celestial cause which is the more probable because in other places he doth speak of the Gods according to the phrase of those days very reverently and doth much ascribe to their power in those things that happen unto men BUT to our Coelestes influxus though they be granted yet it is very possible that many things may be ascribed unto them which may proceed from other causes That some men are lucky at Cards beyond all imagination or do feats with them beyond the limits of any supposed activity or jugling such as learned Raguseius doth profess in the presence of some others men of great worth and fame whom he doth name Hieron Fabritius ab Aquapendente Hercules Saxonia c. to have seen and admired I should not though never so much admired or incredible ascribe to a Celestial influence though I find a very good Author whom I ever look'd upon as a second Aristotle the greatest commendation I think that can be given to man Religion laid aside in point of sound and solid reasoning even Thomas Aquinas cited for it by the same learned Author whose opinion in that matter I much sooner embrace that such things are done by contract with the Devil And yet I have ground to believe that so much may be done in this kind by art and cunning which things are commonly referred to the power of uâ—e and custom which will be our next consideration after this of influxes so strange and miraculous in appearance that a man had need to be very well vers'd in such speculations before he charge any man And that is when the case is so notorious as no man can rationally doubt as in that pretended Jugler who related by divers before Charles the Ninth King of France made the Rings of a gold Chain to leap towards him one after another who was at a distance and after that made the Chain whole again which at last himself confessed to have done by the help of the Devil for which he was deservedly cast out of the Court and punished Learned Vossius hath it too and quotes three Authors for it but those three have it but from one which kind of quoting is not so safe except this very thing add some weight because it hath been believed by such and such and not contradicted by any But in a case of this nature before such company and yet of fresh memory when the first relation was made the testimony of one credible witness may be thought sufficient But for Pererius why he should be so bitter against Celestial influences since he also doth grant and ground upon occult qualities which often are fetched from Celestial influences and liable to the same inconveniencies and therefore by some as was said before who would gladly be thought to see further than other men so termed asylum asinorum I see no reason BUT granting these influences the great question doth remain whether they work as general only or as particular causes also It is the opinion of some very learned that their power and operation doth extend even to particulars as for example to dispose and to incline not compel a man to such and such actions but of more that they work only as general causes as for example why in some ages men generally have been more inclinable to superstition ready to believe and to swallow more than the boldest impostor could invent in others more to Atheism and incredulity all upon the senses and what is visible and palpable though against all sense and reason In some more for strifes and contention in others more for peace and calmer studies And what shall we say to that influence that produced in men that frantick humor the beginning whereof is ascribed by Historians to the year of the Lord 1260. of wandring about half naked and whipping themselves unto bloud Which though suppressed by authority for a while sprung up again some forty or fifty years after with so much advantage that most Kingdoms in Europe were over-run with it and notwithstanding the opposition of Popes by their excommunications and other means that were used continued above 100. years after as doth appear by a peculiar tractate of Gerson the learned Chancellor of France set out Anno Dom. 1460. against it Thousands in one company of all kind of people might have been seen in divers places thus martyrizing their bodies by tearing their flesh and their bloud running a pitiful sight in outward appearance but whether to the greater pleasure of their distemper'd minds or pain of body I know not I have spoken of it elsewhere which I shall not here repeat I quote no Authors there are so many Historiographers besides others that take notice of it I think it needless If I may speak my mind without offence this prodigious propensity to innovation in all kind but in matters of learning particularly which so many upon no ground that I can see on appearance of reason are possessed with I know not what we should more probably ascribe it unto than to some sad constellation or influence But to conclude this matter of influences whether of general only or of particular efficacy also it is agreed on all hands that they are secrets of Nature or of Heaven if you will which none will upon pretence of any art attempt to dive unto but upon a presumption that the world as of wicked men in general some Philosophers have maintained cannot subsist without cheaters and impostors ANOTHER great cause of wondring is the power of use and custom which they who either by the report of others creditable witnesses or by their own experience have not been acquainted with and well considered of must needs ascribe to magick and supernatural causes many things which are meerly natural It is a subject of a
racing or any way else by any kind of game or exercise to apply themselves to Witches and Magicians that by their help they might be sure of the game so not unusual also for men to prevail by those arts Which gave occasion to Constantius's law De maleficis comprehendendis where learned Gothofred his note is Agitatores equorum plerique c. that is Most horse-racers of those times by magical arts at times did hinder their adversaries horses and made their own swâ—fter as St. Jerome in the life of St. Hilarion Arnobius contra Gentes and Cassiodore in the third of his Varia bear witness So he We shall have a proper place afterwards to consider of St. Jeromes words here cited which are very pregnant and apposite to prove the thing but otherwise might cause further doubt and wonder and therefore must not be passed over in silence But besides those quoted by Gothofred there be others of as great or greater antiquity and authority that bear witness to the same truth Ammianus Macellinus in his 26. History doth record that one Hilarius a horse-racer was put to death by Apronianus then Governour of Rome a man he saith of equal integrity and severity for being convicted to have sent his son to a Magician to be taught by him secretiora quaedam legibus interdicta certain secret Spells and Charms so I take it by which without any mans knowledge he might be assisted and enabled to compass his desires in the way of his profession St. Augustine also writeth of himself that at a time when he prepared to make a party in a singing-prize or match upon the Theater nor then a Priest or in Orders you may be sure an aruspex or Magician so taken sometimes offered him for a good reward to make him victor which he professeth he did abhor and detest But I must not conceal from the Reader that Galen whose judgment in such a case must needs be very considerable seems to deride such things and particularly that by such devices any man should be enabled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. to confound his enemy in publâ—ck Courts and places of Judicature and to stop their mouths that they shall not be able to speak He doth indeed but then it was when in general he denied all Magical or Supernatural operations and as a rational Physician and Naturalist in which profession he was accounted the wonder of his age he thought himself bound to deny whatsoever had not as he speaks in more than one place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a probable reason to satisfie a rational man Yet the same man afterwards upon further experience and better consideration fearing also probably the reproach and derision of men for his obstinate incredulity did nobly recant and acknowledge his error as we shall shew afterwards BUT to go on as we began we read besides that at the Olympick games the greatest and most solemn conflux of mankind that hath been known either before or since and the records whereof were accounted most authentick a certain Milesian of known valour or ability being to wrestle with an Ephesian he could do nothing because the Ephesian had about him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is certain Spells or Charms so called The Ephesian letters which being suspected and taken from him he was thrown by his adversary no less than thirty times So Eustathius upon the 19. Odissie Suidas hath the same relation but there the Text both and the Translation had need to be corrected a little will do it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that sense may be made of it That there be even now Spells and Charms when God is pleased to give way which in all things wrought by the Devil must always be understood to make men invulnerable no man I think upon the attestation of so many creditable witnesses can rationally doubt Learned Sennertus in his book De vulneribus begins his 24. Chapter thus Cum nihil hodie c. that is Whereas there is nothing more ordinary now adays among Souldiers than by certain Pentacula and Seals and Characters to fence themselves and to make themselves inviolable against all kind of arms and musquet-bullets c. and so far was he from suspecting that any body that knew any thing of the world would make a question of the truth of it that omitting that disquisition as needless and ridiculous he presently falls upon that whereof only he thought question could be made An liceat Christiano c. Whether it be lawful for a Christian by certain Amulets or Seals fastned to the body or the like to make himself inviolable to any kind of arms Some take upon them to limit how far the Devils power in point of reason may extend in this kind as I remember a learned man doth who hath written the life of Monsieur de la Nove a French Gentleman of great fame So doth Sennertus too he tells of many particular cases for which no reason can be given but experience wherein and whereby the power of those Spells is eluded or frustrated But I think the truest limitation is so far as God will permit or give leave For I doubt not but the Devil can do much more as he is a Spirit by his own skill and power than to preserve a single man even from Canon-shot It is much more strange which yet I believe true that whole Armies of men God then not without good cause certainly permitting have been defeated by his power as by several Historians and others the relation whereof because obvious enough I shall here omit is averred and some others made victorious as strangely in all which things though set on work by men also I look upon him but as Gods executioner without whose leave and permission whatever his power be by his nature he cannot hurt the meanest man They that desire to be further satisfied in this particular may read Delrio the Jesuite if they please in his Magical Disquisitions Yet I will not say that I believe every thing that he doth propose as true it may be his faith doth in some things extend much further than mine but I would have the quality of his witnesses well considered and if they will not I think they do avail to a certainty in this point there be others that may be consulted whom no man that I know hath gone about to contradict or challenged of falshood except it be in the way of those incredulous wise men of whom Seneca speaketh Mendacium est fabula est it is a lye it is a lye I will not believe it But I name him before any other because every where to be had I HAVE already gone further than I needed to make good my censure of Philostratus or Damis in Philostratus his false and deceitful judgment concerning the power of Magick to offend or to defend in several cases which hath occasioned us all this discourse The Reader I hope
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
particularly I WILL not take upon me absolutely to determine how these Crosses might come I should not make any great wonder of them no more than I do of those stones which by the pious and learned compiler of Musaeum Veronense are called Crucis Lapilli and fully described by him which I do not find adscribed to any other but a natural cause Learned Remigius I remember hath an observation that very frequently those bodies that are struck with Thunder are found marked with signs resembling the impression of nails which they that are simple saith he suppose to be the Devils claw whom they believe to have hoofs and nails not ordinary But this as well he might he doth laugh at and proceeds to the inquisition of a natural cause out of Aristotle and others But I will not transcribe where there is such facile excess I AM a great admirer I profess it of a stone which is not very rare Many call them Thunder-stones I have them of divers forms as to the bigness or whole body which in some is perfectly Oval in some more round in others pointed or pyramidical some for the length not unlike a helmet and some very flat which have somewhat of the resemblance of a heart divided in two And this is observable in some of them that the lines not going through the body of the stone not visibly at least but ending soon they represent a perfect Star or Asterick as usually painted curiously set out in several rows of little points But this the occasion of this short digression is essential to them all that are perfect not broken I mean or wore out They have five double lines made of two distinct rows of pricks or full-points as it were but with great variety For in some every row is double very artificially set out The points in most are as it were dented in the stone in some others extant or eminent but still five curiously drawn from the top and all or most of them meeting in one center which is as it were a navel which navel as also the vertex or very top seemeth in some of them to be a body by it self or a different piece and separable from the rest but closely joynted or joyned I have sought into them diligently that write of stones but hitherto found but little that satisfies me They are not of the nature of ordinary stones I am sure but as I conceive owe their original to some kind of generation Learned Wormius who hath made a great collection of them in his Musaeum Wormianum doth tell us it is the opinion of some that they ingender even whilest stones which his own observation that he hath some which have other little ones annexed and as it were proceeding from them doth make the more probable to him at least Nec certè omninò abnuere pâ—ssum he saith of himself Most that write of them tell us that by Pliny they are called Ovum anguinum or Snakes-egge It may be so but what reason might enduce them to think so I must confess that as yet I am to seek His description is Vidi equidem id ovum mali orbiculati modici magnitudine crusta cartilaginis velut acetabulis brachiorum polypi crebris insigne Druidis which before I take upon me to translate I must understand better than I do Sure I am here is no mention of the five lines or tails as Gesnerus calls them the most eminent thing in these kind of stones Besides whether a true ovum anguinum or no the trial is saith Pliny Si contra aquas fluitet vel auro vinctum Will these stones do so I have so little belief they will that I never yet could be so idle as to make trial But again he writes of them as stones or eggs rather for he doth not at all in all his description make them to be stones or call them so of great worth and rarity which if these kind of stones be not much rarer in Italy than they are in England cannot be true of them Nor even so neither For England where they are so common being then in the power of the Romans they could not be very rare at Rome if in any request He tells of many strange or rather admirable qualities which the Druids and Magicians reported of them but not as believing them However if that be true he seems to report in good earnest that a Roman Knight whom he names was put to death by Claudius for having one of them about him when he was in suit of law hoping by the help of it to become victorious it will follow that this Snakes-egge was accounted a magical thing which will agree well enough with those things that are written and by some believed of the vertues of these Thunder-stones But this is not much to perswade me that they are the thing intended by Pliny by ovum anguinum when so many other things are against it Let me add that the figures of these stones set out by Wormius and Gesnerus though they agree so well that a man may suspect they had them the one from the other yet not very like in either of them to those stones that I have For whereas their figures between the lines are scabrous or full of little protuberances or eminences like little warts as Gesnerus calls them mine are smooth in those interstices one or two excepted which might contract their raggedness from the ground where they did long lie I have one so smooth that one half of it is perspicuous or pellucid and doth represent within some kind of circles or tunicles like Onions-coats which also hath this singular that in one side of the circumference it hath a little round excrescence as it were a Wen or a Wart but smooth The truth is the figures in Wormius do not agree with his description The description tells us that the lines or tails ab apice in basin from the top to the navel as I call it or as he not improperly alluding to the modiolus of a wheel where the radii meet and are fastened modiolum do excurrere the figure fetcheth them from the basis which is so main a difference that Gesner by that chiefly doth distinguish them from the true or supposed ovum anguinum or Snakes-egge by some supposed to be a Toads and by others the egge of a Tortoise And as to the stones which Wormius under one figure and under one kind by the name of Brontia Thunder-stone or ovum anguinum doth describe Gesner hath the figure of them in another place page 166. of my Edition under no certain name and Chapter 3. p. 59. c. under the title of Brontia Ombria and Ceraunia which are the right figures of the stones which but with much more variety I have very well and fully enough described by Wormius But it is time I should end this occasioned meerly by the mention of Thunder Thunder-marks and some kind of
Plutarch as from one of them doth answer O but these things are laid to our charge wrongfully the basest of the world generally would be accounted honest if they knew how what is that to the purpose replieth Plutarch whether true or no The question is not now whether deservedly or undeservedly whether truly or falsly but what reputation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you have in the world For who doth not see that if a man which was proved before of Epicurus and his adherents place happiness or part of happiness in a good name and become whether justly or unjustly infamous he doth thereby undoubtedly lose some part of his happiness Therefore saith Plutarch arguing from their own suppositions and opinions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reputation and not truth or true desert is the thing we here enquire into And indeed had Plutarch upon this their answer gone about by good proofs and evidences which elsewhere he doth plentifully to make good that what was laid to their charge Atheism c. was very true and real as it was generally believed he had in that wronged his cause and made an unseasonable digression since it was nothing at all to the question proposed what man Epicurus had been really or what his followers were or had been but what fame 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they had in the world And could Gassendus grounding upon the ambiguity of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and concealing the occasion and the coherence a notorious kind of jugling and falsification could Gassendus I say from these words infer that as Plutarch's acknowledgment that what he had written of Epicurus was all in compliance to opinion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not according to truth Or did not Gassendus more probably rely so much upon the favour of the times and those that did set him on work that he thought any argument that had but any slender appearance of truth or probability if but favouring Atheism and sensuality would pass currently enough and get him fame and good will to boot BUT we have not done Plutarch in the same book a little before doth mention that famous Letter mentioned by so many of Epicurus when upon his death-bed by which he makes himself a notable stout man who in such extremities of bodily pains as he doth express could enjoy himself with such peace and tranquillity of mind In which peace and tranquillity to preserve him that which by his own words and acknowledgment as set out by Plutarch did most conduce was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the remembrance of those according to the propriety of the words fleshly pleasures he had formerly enjoyed This Plutarch thinks very strange and almost incredible wicked varlet as though he intended with his last bloud to seal the truth of his abominable doctrine But here Gassendus doth insult At hic Plutarchus c. But Plutarch to the end that he might more effectually traduce Epicurus hath depraved and changed the words c. who can excuse Plutarch if guilty of so great a crime or Gassendus if it prove an arrant falsehood and calumny The question is whether Epicurus wrote 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as before exhibited and translated or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is The remembrance of our former discourses and reasonings as exhibited by Diog. Laertius and translated by Cicero II. De sinibus memoria rationum inventorumque nostrorum And this Gassendus thinks is enough himself I doubt did not think so he had read Cicero better than so to prove Plutarch a falsary I must acknowledge that Cicero's translation is a great evidence for that reading exhibited by Laertius But had Gassendus looked further into Cicero or rather ingenuously told us all that he knew Vna eademque manus vulnus opemque he would have told us that as the reading exhibited by Laertius is found in Cicero so that exhibited by Plutarch in the same Cicero more than once I am sure as particularly V. Tuscul Sed una se dicit recordatione acquiescere praeteritarum voluptatum and again in the same book from whence that other reading is produced more punctually and emphatically sed vobis speaking to men of that Sect voluptatum perceptarum recordatio beatam vitam facit quidem corpore according to the proper signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perceptarum And this enough I think to acquit Plutarch from all suspition of any falsification what can be said for Gâ—ssendus to acquit him of false and injurious dealing except this that it was for so good an end as to promote Atheism or Epicurism I profess I know not Well it must needs be that either in Cicero's time both those readings were in the Text of that Letter which may be thought the more probable because Câ—cero in the same book or place takes notice of both or that there were two different Copies of that one Lâ—tter and that Cicero made use of either reading as he saw occasion This is certain to which I will add as to me not improbable though I will not affirm it that some of Epicurus his friends or disciples when that letter came first abroad being much ashamed of those words exhibited by Plutarch did make that alteration of the reading exhibited by Laertius which probably that reading I mean never came to Plutarch his knowledge But see the force of conscience sometimes let a man resolve against it never so much After Gassendus had charged Plutarch with two such foul crimes the one of conforming himself to the opinions of the vulgar to take away an honest and worthy mans good name against his own conscience the other of adulterating writings of purpose that he might have some ground to calumniate what could be said more of the arrantest rogue of the world yet at last a sudden qualm takes him Ne Plutarchum accusare videar lest I may be thought to accuse Plutarch saith he and so doth end whether pricked in his conscience because he knew he had accused him falsly as I rather believe or ashamed of his own inconstancy that he had commended one so highly whom afterwards he had charged with the greatest baseness and dishonesty that can be laid to any mans charge for either or for both let the Reader judge but a fit man observe we that by the way to make a Saint of a rogue that could make a rogue to serve his turn of such an incomparable person according to his own testimony in the beginning of the Chapters And as he hath dealt with Plutarch in this just so in effect by false glosses and interpretations doth he deal with Galen in the next Chapter Galen no Stoick but a true lover of vertue and sound reason and upon that score a mortal enemy of Epicurus his phrensies and leud doctrine and let me add one and so Plutarch and Cicero who was better able to judge what was falsly adscribed to Epicurus what not than a hundred such as
wary how they contradict or oppose and as much wisdom in men that are better acquainted with the world when they meet with such to be very sparing of their stories which have any thing of strangeness nor yet to be very peremptory or forward to contest lest that besides the offence that unseasonable pertinaciousness may give they wrong their own reputation and be accounted lyars or wonder-mongers though unjustly Others there be who because they have seen somewhat themselves or are not altogether unacquainted with Histories or the travels of others ground upon that somewhat so much that they will not believe or acknowledge to be true whatsoever is beyond their knowledge or hear-say when God knows a man had need to be almost as old as the Devil before he can take upon him to know or peremptorily to determine what the world doth afford Though not born yet I have lived a long time in England a very small portion of the world for extent of ground sometimes in one place sometimes but necessitated partly by the late troubles in another always studious to observe or to learn from others what every place afforded worthy the knowledge besides what might be learned by printed books without much pains Yet to this day I think my self but a stranger in it daily meeting with many things that I never heard of before But I have often admired at the confidence of some Travellers who if they have been but six moneths abroad it may be less say France or Italy they think and talk of it as though they knew it as perfectly as the Country or Parish where they were born and bred a great part of their life Nay some be so simple and ignorant that whatsoever they have observed in an Inne or single house as they passed by they will tell you confidently that so and so such is the fashion in France or Italy when it may be that they that have lived in either Country all their lives long never met or heard of any such thing Doth not every Country as England particularly consist of several Shires and Provinces or Counties and hath not every County their particular rites and customs not only different but even contrary He therefore that shall ascribe the particular customs of any one County as Yorkshire or Devonshire to England in general doth he not expose himself to the just censure and indignation of those that shall believe him when they shall come to know their error and make themselves ridiculous to others that have better knowledge of the Countrie Hence proceed variety of reports and relations even in printed books which may be true perchance of such a place at such a time particularly but generally for want of wit and more experience delivered are most false and happily ridiculous In a great fight ordinarily men think their relations very creditable that can say if honest civil men they were at it Whereas it is very possible and I have known such a thing in my time more than once that one man of the same fight shall report a flight and the other both present and actors a victory and both truly enough but not so wisely because what they have seen in one part of the Army they rashly or ignorantly apply unto the whole and perchance call that a victory so for the time perchance which before the day be over may be the occasion of a total rout It is the observation of learned Cambden Ita in pugnarum ratione qui rebus gerendis adfuerunt c. Englished by Bishop Carleton Thus it is in Bateel they who are present and actors report not always the same thing each reporting what himself observed This is very appliable to the relations of Travellers concerning the same places or Countries A man therefore had need to consider well if truth be his end and aim whom he doth believe in such things or how he speaks himself upon the credit of others honest men perchance â—â—d such as have no intention to deceive but of what judgment what experience yea and moderation that also must be taken into consideration or we may miss our end I add moderation because some men naturally passionate are so swayed by their interest whether of profit or meer affection that they think they speak truth sometimes when they speak that which to others of the same judgment as to the cause but without passion doth appear notoriously false These things observed many seeming contradictions in Histories may be reconciled and we the better prepared when we read or hear strange things to judge and discern what upon grounds of probability we may believe and what not I rather say so than what credible or incredible because as in the First Part hath been declared I allow not of many things besides what is against the faith as absolutely incredible because what is really impossible is beyond our skill absolutely to determine WHAT may be required of an Historian in general to deserve credit many have treated of it Of late writers among others that offer now themselves to my remembrance Bodinus in his Methodus Historiae a book well deserving to be read and by Melchior Canus sufficiently known in his Common Places are two But I have nothing to do with History or Historians here in general but only as they relate strange things which in their own nature may be thought by some incredible Of which nature every man knows Herodotus the Greek Historian so much admired for the sweetness of his style and the ancientest Historian now extant in the judgment of many to be Insomuch that of all Historians whereof any account is made he hath got the name of a fabulous writer Indeed he had not the luck to write of things of his own time or Country for the most part as Thucydides did except it be in the last books and what is worse not of things which many others now extant have written of so that most things must be believed upon his credit if we see cause or may be rejected as fabulous or incredible if we think fit because not confirmed by any other But they do him great wrong that ascribe all that he tells of that nature generally accounted fabulous or incredible as though he were the Author or inventer of such things or did deliver them unto us for things which himself believed or did expect that others should For for the first there is no probability that he who to satisfie himself of the truth of those things which he had heard would take such pains to travel into Aegypt yea all Aegypt in person with so much diligence as himself tells us in many places and not Aegypt only but some other more remote places as Syria Palestina and the like would make so bad use of his travels though some have done it I must confess Thovetus of late for one as to abuse his Readers with stories of his own devising when his own travels could furnish him
Kings order brought to Paris and by him bought to be kept in his Cabinet of rarities as the very bones of a Gyant This Riolanus doth not deny Peireskius that great and famous Antiquary upon accurate examination of all circumstances did at first pass his verdict that probably they might be true bones of some great Gyant of the old time but afterwards did rather incline to think them the bones of an Elephant Riolanus after some conjectures doth pitch upon that at the last to make them fossilia bred and begot in the earth because saith he it is the property of some grounds to produce some bony stones or stony bones which have all the properties of true bones Or that they might be made by art which may be done he saith and in time thus metamorphosed by the water He hath more conjectures but in this particular case for as to the nature of the Fossilia in general and the marvellous works of nature in this kind I believe much but in this particular case in my judgment so improbable that it doth to me clearly appear that he had more will to oppose others than ability to give better satisfaction himself His exceptions from the dimensions or properties of the bones as first related I shall not take upon me to examine or to control it is not my trade Only I can say there might be some mistake in the relation or somewhat besides the ordinary course of nature which doth happen we know sometimes I my self when I was young did see a grave in Spittle-fields two or three days after it was opened The skull was broken in pieces by him that digged the ground and the pieces scattered and some carried away But by some pieces that were found and put together the whole skull by the Kings appointment as I was told being drawn out according to art did equal a bushel in the compass of it So I was told and I think by one of the Court and a Scholar but I am not certain I my self was then sick of a disease which I think caused more wonder than the Gyants bones It was but a pin but a very costly pin it proved in the compass of seven years for so long it was not before it came out of my body but before my body was well of it so that I was seldom out of the Chirurgeons hands But Physicians I thank God cost me little Sir Theod. Mayerne and Dr. Raphael Thoris I had in London where most of my sickness was who were my very good friends as they had been my Fathers But to return I had some of the Coins that were found in this Spittle-field's Grave But that other Grave is my business That that Grave should be the Grave of Teutobochus that Gyant or Gyant-like man mentioned by divers Ancients who according to Peireskius his casting must have been some 10. or 12. foot high according to an old inscription pretended to be found in the said grave besides other reasons that have been given I less believe it for that very inscription which I am sure cannot be of that antiquity except we should say that such a grave being digged up many hundred years ago which by a constant tradition or by some much worn inscription did appear to be Teutobochus his grave to increase the miracle of his height and bigness it was of purpose so re-built and the inscription also according the wit and genius of that age so renewed This is possible a man may say and somewhat of that nature I am sure hath been done in more than one age Witness the old Statues which with changing of their heads became the Statues of divers men or perchance of Gods and Men successively and many other things done in that kind which I will not stop to call to mind because there is no need except I had more confidence that it is so indeed I shall conclude nothing but as I begun when I have well considered of all particulars in the relation of these bones what I account certain in it what doubtful and perchance fabulous and read what others have thought and written of it and not of this only but of many such relations of graves and bones well attested I am at a stand and suspend my belief But therefore to conclude that all such relations are false because we cannot absolutely resolve or answer all doubts and Queres I hold that a very preposterous way and very unworthy the profession of a Philosopher or one that seeks after truth time may reveal many secrets which are now hid and diligent searching may find some but well agreeing with the dull and sottish Epicuraean humour which to prevent the trouble of inquiry and withal fearing that we may be forced sometimes to go to a higher cause than the sanctuary of Atomes hath found a compendious way to reject all as fabulous any evidence of truth to the contrary notwithstanding which it cannot give a reason of We have their own words out of Lucian a great friend if not professor of the Sect in our Preface to Dr. Dâ—e's Plato therefore said well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that To wonder and to admire was a quality that well became a Philosopher and was indeed the beginning and foundation of all Philosophy And so Aristotle too more than once very rightly For to wonder and admire doth cause inquiry and diligence it also sharpens the wit and brain But to believe nothing true that is strange and admirable doth well become such infidels who make their ease and their pleasure their God If any except that rather to wonder little Nil admirari the Poet saith may become a Philosopher better as he whose work is to dive into the causes of things which cause wonder to the ignorant that may be true too rightly understood since that not to wonder or to wonder but little is the fruit of having wondred much and that too from Aristotle that true master of reason indeed a title lately usurped by some who have as little right to it as any men of the world I think 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But what if the deceitfulness of men more than the obscurity of nature or any other cause be the cause of our admiration That also must upon such occasions among other things be remembred and those Etruscae Antiquitates before spoken of may serve for a pregnant example what pains some men though they get nothing by it will take to contrive a cheat and what admiration they cannot by true to raise it by false miracles What if some men though they cannot contrive any thing that will be ripe to work whilest they live yet can be so base and unworthy as to solace themselves whilest they live with the presumption of deluded posterity by their means So indeed it might happen that four or five hundred years before that grave was opened in Daulphine some such conceited man if man to be called and not Devil rather
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
So the fourth the fifth day still one half of the way or space that remaineth and no more I ask when shall A. be at his journeys end and overtake B. I answer upon the same ground as before Never I would not have these things used as arguments to confirm the truth of Christian faith or of any Articles of our faith I see it is done by some that seem most incredible For though assent may be extorted by apparent irrefragable proofs and propositions yet hardly true belief wrought and obtained Gassendus saith he will suspend his saith adhuc ambigo is his word and gives his reason Because Mathematical to which nevertheless of all humane Sciences it is acknowledged that truth doth most properly belong suppositions may be true in one sense and not in another Chrys Magnenus a great stickler for the atoms saith Non eadem est ratio linearum Mathematicarum Physicarum I hope then it will not be required that Divinity shall be tried by the Mathematicks and made subservient to them which yet the temper of some men of this age doth seem to threaten who scarce will allow any thing else worthy a mans study and then what need of Universities BUT not the Theorems of the science but the works of Mathematicians was that we were upon as a more proper object more visible I am sure of admiration and by consequent of Credulity and Incredulity Such were those admirable works of Archimedes we have before spoken of and may have more occasion perchance in our Second Part and therefore shall proceed no further in this subject So we go on THERE is not I think any thing more liable after monsters to popular admiration than those things that grow in different Climats or Countries But as it belongs to fools and children most properly to gaze with no little wondring sometimes at those that wear Cloaths and Apparel different from their own or that which they are used unto some there be so simple that can scarce believe them real men endowed with the same qualities of nature if the difference of apparel be very great so truly to wonder much at any natural thing as plants or beasts or the like that are said to grow or live in any other part of the world or upon relation scarce to believe that to be truly existent though we have good authority for it which our own Country doth not afford must needs argue great simplicity and ignorance What can be more different of things that are of one kind than Europian and Asiatick Wheat otherwise called Turkish-wheat What if all or most other things did differ as much the difference of soil and climat considered it were no great wonder in point of Nature I have both seen the picture and narration of Lobsters drawing men notwithstanding their resistance with arms in their hands into the Sea to eat them I will not upon a single testimony though I have no exceptions against the relator absolutely believe that it is true though I believe it possible A flying Mouse is no wonder in England why should I wonder at a flying Cat I do not mean an Owle if I have good authority for it I have Scaligers but that is not enough to make me believe it though he name the place except he said he had seen it which he doth not It is enough for me that I believe it possible and if it be true when I know it I shall make no wonder of it Since we know it that the world is full of variety none of the least of its ornaments and an argument of the Creators power and wisdom why should we wonder at all or make any difficulty to believe what doth only confirm unto us what we know that the world is full of variety But this kind of admiration or unbelief besides them I have spoken of before doth naturally belong to them who never were out of their own Country nor ever had the curiosity to read the travels of others upon whom Seneca passeth this judgment Imperitum animal homo qui circumscribitur natalis soli fine which I may English That man is more an animal than a man whose knowledge doth not extend beyond the things of his own Country But then I say we must have good grounds for what we believe For to believe every thing that is reported or written because it is possible or not at all strange in case it be true doth argue as much weakness as to believe nothing but what our selves have seen But there will be a more proper place for this afterwards These things here spoken of might be referred also to the power of use and custom before spoken of but in another sense OF divers things which are ordinary objects of admiration and by consequent of Credulity and Incredulity hath been spoken hitherto but the most ordinary is yet behind and that is things that are supernatural of which we may consider two kinds Some things so called termed also natural by some as was said before because no probable natural reason hath hitherto been found or given nor are apparently reducible to any of those former heads before mentioned though it is possible that time and further experience may discover more and that be found natural in the ordinary sense which before was judged supernatural And again some things which though called natural also by some yet not by ordinary men only who may easily be deceived but by others also men of fame and approved sobriety and sincerity whose business it hath been all their life long whether obliged by their profession or no to enquire into the ways and works of nature are deemed and esteemed the actings of Devils and Spirits immediately or of men and women assisted with their power as their instruments But at this very mention of Devils and Spirits I see me-thinks not a few and among them some not only in their opinion but in the opinion of many others and by publick fame learned and experienced men some to recoil with indignation others gently to smile with some kind of compassion Now if it may be rationally doubted whether there be any such thing as Devils or Spirits and consequently such men and women as Magicians and Sorcerers and Witches then there is as much reason to doubt of all those particular relations which presuppose the operation of Spirits whether by themselves immediately or by their agents and instruments Witches and Wizards And indeed so we find it commonly that they that believe no Devils nor Spirits do also discredit and reject all relations either ancient or late that cannot with any colour of probability or knack of wit be reduced to natural causes and that they do not believe Witches and Wizards seldom believe that there be Devils or Spirits I might go further according to the observation of many both ancient and late but I will stop there However if not all Atheists themselves which I have more charity than
to believe yet it cannot be denied but the opinion is very apt to promote Atheism and therefore earnestly promoted and countenanced by them that are Atheists And indeed that the denying of Witches to them that content themselves in the search of truth with a superficial view is a very plausible cause it cannot be denied For if any thing in the world as we know all things in the world are be liable to fraud and imposture and innocent mistake through weakness and simplicity this subject of Witches and Spirits is When a man shall read or hear such a story as Erasmus in his Colloquium intituled Spectrum the thing was acted in England as I remember doth relate Who doth not find in himself a disposition for a while to absolute Incredulity in such things And the world is full of such stories some it may be devised of purpose either for sport or of design to advance the opinion in favour of Atheism but very many so attested that he must be an infidel as can make any question of the truth How ordinary is it to mistake natural melancholy not to speak of other diseases for a Devil And how much too frequently is both the disease increased or made incurable and the mistake confirmed by many ignorant Ministers who take every wild motion or phansie for a suggestion of the Devil Whereas in such a case it should be the care of wise friends to apply themselves to the Physician of the body and not to entertain the other I speak it of natural melancholy who probably may do more hurt than good but as the learned Naturalist doth allow and advise Excellent is the advice and counsel in this kind of the Author of the book de morbo Sacro attributed to Hippocrates which I could wish all men were bound to read before they take upon them to visit sick folks that are troubled with melancholy diseases But on the other side it cannot be denied because I see learned Physicians are of that opinion and visible effects do evince it but that the Devil doth immiscere se in several diseases whereof Sir Theodore Mayerne whom I think for strange and even miraculous cures I may call the Aesculapius of his time and do no body wrong gave me a notable instance concerning a maid in his house that had been bitten by a mad Dog which also died of it to whom when he came in a morning with a Looking-glass to make trial of what he had read but not yet experienced himself under his gown before he was in the room she began to cry out and told him what it was he had about him But I leave a further account of it to his own learned and voluminous Observations which I hope they that have inherited that vast estate will not envy to posterity Yet I know there be Physicians too that would make us believe that bare melancholy will make men or women prophesie and speak strange languages as Latine Greek Hebrew of all which there be sundry unquestionable instances but such are looked upon by others of their profession the far greater and every way much more considerable number as Hereticks in that point But because the matter is liable to mistakes and imposture hence to infer and conclude there is no such thing as either Witches or Spirits there is no truth but may be denied upon the same ground since it is certain there is no truth no nor vertue but is attended with a counterfeit often mistaken for the true as by divers Ancients both Historians and Philosophers is observed and by sundry pregnant instances confirmed whereof I have given a further account in my Latine notes upon Antoninus the Roman Emperor his incomparable I must except those of our late Gracious Sovereign and Gods glorious Martyr moral Meditations NOW whereas I said but now they that did not believe there be Witches or Spirits did generally discredit and reject such relations either ancient or late as cannot with any colour of probability or knack of wit be reduced to natural causes it is true generally they do But see the contradictions and confusions of a false opinion and affected singularity For some of them of a more tender mould being convicted by frequent experience of the truth of those operations by others accounted supernatural or diabolical and yet it seems not willing to recant their error of the non-existence of Witches and Spirits which perchance had got them the thing certainly that divers aim at the reputation of discerning able men above the ordinary rate of men to maintain their reputation they devised a way how not to recede from their former opinion and yet not deny that which they thought it is their own acknowledgment could not be denied but by mad-men that is supernatural generally so called operations How so Why they tell us that all men good or bad learned and unlearned by the very constitution of their soul and the power and efficacy of a natural faith or confidence may work all those things that we call miracles or supernatural operations This was the opinion of one Ferrerius a later and learned Physician in France whom I have had occasion but upon this very subject elsewhere to speak of How many more besides him did espouse the same opinion for he was a man of great credit as by Thuanus his relation doth appear I know not Now because I never heard neither is it alledged by any other that I have read that this man or any that were of his opinion did ever attempt to do miracles which certainly they would have done had they had any confidence in their opinion May not any man probably conclude from thence that they maintained what they knew in their own conscience to be false or by Gods just judgment for not submitting their reason to his Revealed Word and the ordinary maxims of Religion were suffered to entertain such opinions as must needs argue some kind of deliration and infatuation BUT if the Reader will have the patience of a short digression I will tell him a story concerning this Auâ—erius or as Bodin writes him Ogerius which may be worth his hearing not because it is strange which is not my business properly but because it is not impertinent to what we drive at truth There was it seems at Tholouse in France where this man lived and died a fair house in a convenient place which was haunted and for that reason to be hired for a very small rent This house Augerius as once Athenodorus the Philosopher did at Athens not giving perchance any great credit to the report did adventure upon But finding it more troublesome than he did expect and hearing of a Portugal Scholar in the town who in the nail of a young boy it is a kind of Divination we shall speak of in due place could shew hidden things agreed with him A young girle was to look She told she saw a woman curiously clad with precious
necessary to my principal end I shall willingly forbear them or reserve them to another place That which I have to except in the relation of this story is that two Authors are named Gnagninus in Muscoviae descriptione and Sigismundus Baro in Hebeirsten in itineratio as two several Authors and two several testimonies whereas if we examine those Authors they will appear in this but one not only by the words which they borrow the one from the other almost the same in both but also by Gnagninus who at the end of his Description doth make honourable mention of Sigismundus whereby it doth appear that he had read him and borrowed of him But what is worse upon further examination it will appear that this Sigismundus Baro saith no such thing at all himself but hath that passage verbatim out of an Itinerarie of a nameless Author written in the Ruthenick-tongue translated or part of it by himself and inserted in his own Commentaries and moreover that he had with all possible diligence as he professeth Page 89. of the Antwerp Edition Anno Dom. 1557. inquired of those huminibus mutis and other morientibus reviviscentibus those sleepers in Caves of the Earth before spoken of yet professeth he could never meet with any that could say he had seen it himself but only heard it from others and therefore saith he Vt aliis ampliorem quaerendi occasionem praeberem to the end that others might further enquire not as believing it himself or commending it to others for a truth he was willing to let them know what he had found in the Itinerary It is almost incredible what a wrong to truth this manner of citing of witnesses and testimonies hath been in all ages when three or four sometimes four or five or more are cited as several witnesses who upon examination prove but one and perchance not so much as one good or clear witness But I have done with my first instance or example which concerned things natural as ordinarily taken and though store of such offer themselves to me yet because I have reason to make what hast I can being every day by much weakness summoned or put in mind I will proceed to instances in things supernatural which will better fit my design MY second instance therefore shall be out of Seneca who in his fourth book of Natural Questions which doth treat of Snow Hail and Rain in his sixth Chapter relates rather as a tale than a truth so he doth profess at the beginning what he found recorded and believed by some others to wit that there were men in some places who by observing of the clouds were able and skilful to foresee and foretel when a storm of Hail was approaching Cleonis was the place by him named which was then the name of more places than one but by what he saith of it it should be a Town of the Peloponnesus now Morea under the Turk of no very great fame or name But it seems whether by the nature of the Climat or somewhat else natural or supernatural very subject to storms of Hail by which the fruits of the ground very commonly destroyed It did so trouble them that after many endeavours it should seem to prevent their loss they at last found a strange remedy First it must be believed according to the relation that by diligent observation of the clouds and other temper of the skies in such storms which to their great grief and damage were so frequent among them some men had attained to that skill that they could as was said before foretel a storm Of these men some were chosen and appointed as publick officers therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is observers of the Hail to give warning to the people who upon that warning did hasten to kill some a Lamb others according to their abilities Pullum some young thing or other probably a Chick the bloud whereof was offered as a Sacrifice But if any were so poor or by chance so destitute at that time that he had neither agnum or pullum why then his way was to prick one of his fingers with some bodkin or writing-steel as the fashion was then that had a good point and that bloud was accepted for other and so the storm certainly diverted In the relation of this Seneca doth use some merry words which have deceived many which hath made me the more willing to take them into consideration as though it were far from him to believe such an absurd and impossible thing Grant saith he there were such men that could foresee and foretel a storm what relation have the clouds to bloud or how can such a little quantity of bloud as a Chicken or a prickt-finger can afford so suddenly penetrate so high as the skies to work such an effect Yet if a man doth well observe his words it will appear that Seneca did more incline himself to believe it and so doth propose it to us rather as a thing true than otherwise For after he had said that men in the examination of the cause were divided some as became very wise men that is his word absolutely denying that any such thing could be that men should covenant with the Snow and with small presents pacifie tempests though saith he It is well known that the Gods themselves are overcome with gifts for to what end else are all their sacrifices Others thinking that there was in bloud naturally some kind of efficacy to repel and avert a cloud he doth further add what he knew would be objected by others but how can in so little bloud be so great force as to pierce the clouds and to make them sensible of its power After this knowing and tacitly grounding there was no arguing the possibility of a thing by reason against certain evidence for which in this case there was so much to be said How much more safe and ready would it be saith he barely to say It is a lye an arrant lye it cannot be And then go on But at Cleonis they were wont to punish them severely who had charge to prevent the tempest if through their negligence either their Vines or their Corn had suffered In our XII Tables also the old Roman-law there was a law against them who should by any kind of inchantment hurt or destroy other mens Corn. To what end all this think we but to make it appear that if evidence would carry it there was enough to perswade us the report of Cleonis was true enough Yet after all this fearing he had gone too far to expose himself to the ludibrium or derision of those sapientissimi or wonderful wise men who would believe nothing to be true the clear profession of the Epicuraeans of those days the cause whereof they could not understand to make some amends he ends his discourse in the reproof as it were of rude ignorant antiquity that could believe such things as that there were Charms or Spells for the
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
into a third in all which he found no more than this written Do well or All is well so reported unto me uncertainly but one of the two certainly Having satisfied his curiosity and happily thinking there could be no Magick in this he did what he was bid that is eat them Whereupon he was surprised with great pains the like whereof he had not felt before for a while but afterwards was altogether free of his disease Whereof having given an account to his friend or Physician what he had suffered first and how free afterwards Then I will warrant you said he presently you did open some of the papers and so many papers as you opened so many fits you had I believe of those pains which his friend told him was very true At the same time one that was present but not so well known to me told a story that had much affinity and I am much deceived if I have not read somewhat printed that hath more but one will serve our turn of this kind For though I may perchance believe my friend as he believed his that it is true yet to commend it to the Reader as an absolute truth I dare not but upon a probable supposition of the truth the opening of the papers and what ensued excepted I should not much wonder at the possibility of the thing in point of nature For a strong confidence if the Apothecary did well act his part or imagination may do much it is a common observation and examples every where are obvious NOW to proceed I have given I think a sufficient account of the power of Magick in point of Cures which by some besides them that deny all supernatural operations is not believed but more I believe for want of diligent enquiring into the thing then through meer incredulity I have made choice of such instances against which what rationally can be excepted I cannot so much as imagine But I will yet oppose incredulity in another kind of supernatural operations by instances as irrefragable as the former and to them that think themselves concerned in the true sense of the Scriptures more considerable Psalm 58. verse 4. and 5. it is written They are like the deaf Adder that stoppeth her ear which will not hearken to the voice of the charmers charming never so wisely Besides Ecclesiastes the 10. verse the 11. Surely the Serpent will bite without enchantment and a babler is no better and again Jeremy the 8. and the 17. verse For behold I will send Serpents Cockatrices among you which will not be charmed and they shall bite you saith the Lord. For the first place it were no hard matter to interpret the words of the Psalmist as spoken proverbially without any consequence of a supposition of the truth or reality of the thing in matter of fact For many things are thus spoken proverbially which they that speak have no intention to assert as true or perchance know or believe at last to be most false So Cygnea cantio Sirenum cantus and the like for which perchance somewhat may be said but not believed I am sure by all that use the speech Or if I compare a woman to a Circe or a man to Proteus or to aggravate any burden say it is heavier than that of Atlas no rational man will hence conclude that I believe that such have been really But the two other places are more positive and cannot so well be evaded Yet Valesius not to name others a very learned Spaniard in his books De Sacra Philosophia hath taken great pains to perswade men that these things were spoken not proverbially but mystically and allegorically and though he deny not supernatural operations by Devils and Spirits whom he doth not at all doubt of yet as to this particular of inchanting by magical words he doth altogether deny as possible and whatsoever is alledged by any ancient or late writer to that purpose he doth reject as meerly fabulous It seems by Pliny that learned men of old have been very much divided in their opinions about this matter insomuch that he dares not take upon him to decide it but leaves it free to every man to believe as they shall see cause His words elsewhere produced by me in a proper place very notable and applicable to many occasions are Maximae questionis semper incertae est valeantne aliquid verba incantamenta carminum and again more particularly Varia circa haec opinio ex ingenio cujusque vel casu mulceri alloquio foras quippe ubi etiam Serpentes extrahi cantu cogique in poenas verum falsumne sit vita non decreverit So he We shall give light to those words cogique in poenas afterwards We have given the substance of the rest before Now for my part partly upon what I have seen my self but much more upon the testimony of others who profess to have seen it and give a particular account of every circumstance men all generally well accounted of I do profess that I know not what to believe in the world which I cannot say I have seen my self if I may not believe this and commend unto others for a truth If any thing I say which I cannot say I have seen my self which would be a strange kind of Incredulity and worthy to make a man unworthy of the society of men of whom even the best and most creditable he can entertain so base an opinion Neither can it I think enter into the heart of any man to be so mistrustful but theirs only who are conscious unto themselves of their own baseness and make no other difference between lying and speaking truth but as either best fits their present occasion As for Valesius his opinion though a learned man and for ought I know pious and wise yet it is no wonder to me that any one man though pious and learned should fall into an opinion very paradoxical and contrary to most other mens belief especially in a thing of this nature which most depends of experience Pliny hath sufficiently warned us against this scandal or exception when in this very case he tells us that men are apt to believe and frame their opinions according as they have found or by their particular experience an excellent observation and as I said before applicable to many things of good moment whereof I have given examples elsewhere I am very confident that it was not Valesius his luck to meet with any man much less two or three or more whom he accounted pious and judicious withal that could say he had seen the thing done with his own eyes and in the presence of many others but more probable that he had met with or heard of some cheaters and impostors in this very case whereof it were no very hard thing I believe to find instances examples and when a man hath once framed to himself an opinion and pleased himself as we are too apt in his invention it
and if you go about to cover it it makes its way by force and flieth up on high No art of man can conclude it or contain it in a narrow room naturally affecting wide and free places It is of perfect purity and cleanness and cannot be soiled with any spot or foulness The shape of it is not certain but inconstant and in a moment changeable and though it be of a beautiful aspect yet cannot endure to be touched and if you think to use any force it is not without some inconvenience as some in my presence have found to their cost And if with much endâ—avour you happen to take any part or parcel from it for it is not very hard it is not O wonderful the less for it To all this the same man that brought it a meer Barbarian to sight doth add that the vertue of it as it is useful for many things so chiefly to Kings very necessary but not to be revealed without a good summe of money first payed Nothing now remains but earnestly to entreat you and other learned men where you are that you will make diligent search in Pliny Albertus Marbodeus and others that have written of stones what this stone is and in case it were known to the Ancients what is the true name of it For in this is the industry of our Courtiers who pretend to any learning now occupied wherein if I could prevent them I should think my self very happy For it is incredible how much the King himself and the whole Court long to be satisfied Farewel From Bononia Ascension Eur. 1550. WHERE Mizaldus was when the Letter came to him I know not certainly but I guess at Paris Hereupon the fame of this rare stone was spread far and near and all curious men Philosophers and Naturalists invited to spend their judgments Thuanus many years after enters it into his History as a thing worthy of eternal memory Dum Rex Bononiae esset allatus ad eum ex India Orientali c. concluding thus Haec ut in literis Johan Pipini oculati rei testis c. making no question at all of the truth but whether such a stone ever known to the Ancients or no leaving that to the further enquiry of Philosophers and Naturalists No such thing is now to be found in Thuanus after the matter was once come out and he knew it was a cheat Yet so long did the fame of this pretious stone continue that in the year 1622. when that admirable Treasury of choice rarities called Musaeum Veconense which I value the more because of the sobriety and piety of the setters out of it as by the disputation at the end doth appear it was yet current in those parts and great endeavours were used for the procuring of it if to be purchased at any rate So we find it there and moreover how men versed in those things differed in their opinions some accounting it a natural other a magical stone and the like Whether Fernelius was the first as Dr. Harvy doth inform us who placed the Oedipus and unfolded the riddle I know not I rather suspect because I find it explained in the copy of the Letter I have which I take to be ancient that it came from them or theirs that were the first contrivers of it Now truly had any man but suspected that it was possible concerning which we shall have a more proper place and full enquiry in our second part that any learned ingenuous man would be so disingenuous and so idle as meerly for the pleasure of the trouble and puzle of others to busie himself to contrive a cheat I think a less man than Oedipus might have unfolded the riddle for any great intricacy of it I am confident that nothing but a strong presumption and confidence that Pinellus was too grave and too serious to take such a person upon him made it a riddle so long It might have been observed that though the Author set down the time and place when and whether this strange stone was brought and also make bold with the Kings name either upon a confidence those whom he did abuse would not soon have the opportunity to ask him or because he had obtained so much favour of the King upon some plausible pretence that he was content to be named yet it might have been observed that in some other things he speaks not so particularly as might have been expected He doth intimate indeed that many they were besides the King that had seen it and wondred at it but names none particularly as Josephus doth by their relations and offices which doth amount to a naming and Laurentius in their stories this last especially very particularly which takes away all possibility of either fiction or mistake And if any man think that the very strangeness or incredibleness of the story was enough to make a wise man suspitious should we take a survey of those strange things secrets of nature time hath discovered in several ages of the world somewhat might be found perchance though since because better known not so much regarded that might deserve as much admiration To pass by what either Pliny upon the report of others more ancient or since him Albertus Magnus the wonder of his age and many ages after for natural knowledge have written of some stones which though written by such yet I believe no further than I see cause that is than is approved true by good experience which is repugnant I am sure to many of their traditions I will only instance in the effects of quicksilver known and tried vulgarly enough but accurately collected and set out by Acosta in his Natural History of the Indies lib. 4. cap. 10. and 11. and by Levinus Lemnius De occult Nat. Mir. lib. 2. cap. 35. we shall find some particulars of this imaginary stone truly verified of quick-silver and divers others not less admirable with equal truth attested of it But let us see I think with little alteration as strange a riddle as this might have been contrived as thus A very resplendent stone or if you will without any sophistication A liquor that wets not of no certain form not tractable without danger and if you divide it in never so many parts or parcels of it self it will come or affect to come into an entire body again and which is most admirable though it be the heaviest thing in the world yet with fire it will vanish into smoak the lightest thing in the world and though vanish yet not consume for sooner or later it will come to a body again without any loss or diminution All this to which more may be added according to the description of the two forenamed Authors the word stone which I am sure is more proper of quicksilver as it is a mineral than of fire only added Not to mention Gabriell Fallopius who of all I have seen hath written of it the vertues and properties most accurately in his
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