Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	life_n	soul_n	5,160	5	5.5664	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42824	Saducismus triumphatus, or, Full and plain evidence concerning witches and apparitions in two parts : the first treating of their possibility, the second of their real existence / by Joseph Glanvil. With a letter of Dr. Henry More on the same subject and an authentick but wonderful story of certain Swedish witches done into English by Anth. Horneck.	Glanvill, Joseph, 1636-1680.; More, Henry, 1614-1687.; Horneck, Anthony, 1641-1697.	1681 (1681)	Wing G822; ESTC R25463	271,903	638

the House in clear nights and nothing visible the shaking of the Floor and strongest parts of the House in still and calm nights with several other things of the like nature And that by other Evidence it was applied to him For some going out of these parts to Gloucester whilst he was there in Prison and visiting him he ask't them what News in Wilts To which they replyed they knew none No says the Drummer did you not hear of a Gentlemans House that was troubled with the Beating of Drums They told him again if that were News they heard enough of that Ay says the Drummer it was because he took my Drum from me if he had not taken away my Drum that trouble had never befallen him and he shall never have his quiet again till I have my Drum or satisfaction from him This was deposed by one Thomas Avis Servant to one Mr. Thomas Sadler of North-Wilts and these words had like to have cost the Drummer his Life For else although the things were never so true it could not have been rightly applyed to him more than to another I should only add that the before mentioned Witnesses were Neighbours and deposed that they heard and saw these things almost every day or night for many Moneths together As to the Sculpture you intend you best understand the advantage I think it needless And those Words you shall have Drumming enough is more than I heard him speak I rest Your Loving Friend Jo. Mompesson Tedworth Aug. 8. 1674. An Introduction to the Proof of the Existence of Apparitions Spirits and Witches SECT I. The great usefulness and seasonableness of the present Argument touching Witches and Apparitions in subservieney to Religion THe Question whether there are witches or not is not matter of vain Speculation or of indifferent Moment but an Inquiry of very great and weighty Importance For on the resolution of it depends the Authority and just Execution of some of our Laws and which is more our Religion in its main Doctrines is nearly concerned There is no one that is not very much a stranger to the World but knows how Atheisme and Infidelity have advanced in our days and how openly they now dare to shew themselves in Asserting and Disputing their vile Cause Particularly the distinction of the Soul from the Body the Being of Spirits and a Future Life are Assertions extreamly despised and opposed by the Men of this sort and if we lose those Articles all Religion comes to nothing They are clearly and fully Asserted in the Sacred Oracles but those Wits have laid aside these Divine Writings They are proved by the best Philosophy and highest Reason but the Unbelievers divers of them are too shallow to be capable of such proofs and the more subtle are ready to Scepticize away those grounds But there is one Head of Arguments that troubles them much and that is the Topick of Witches and Apparitions If such there are it is a sensible proof of Spirits and another Life an Argument of more direct force than any Speculations or Abstract reasonings and such an one as meets with all the sorts of Infidels On which account they labour with all their might to perswade themselves and others that Witches and Apparitions are but Melancholick Dreams or crafty Impostures and here it is generally that they begin with the young-men whose understandings they design to Debauch They expose and deride all Relations of Spirits and Witchcraft and furnish them with some little Arguments or rather Colours against their Existence And youth is very ready to entertain such Opinions as will help them to phansie they are wiser than the generality of Men. And when they have once swallowed this Opinion and are sure there are no Witches nor Apparitions they are prepared for the denial of Spirits a Life to come and all the other Principles of Religion So that I think it will be a considerable and very seasonable service to it fully to debate and settle this matter which I shall endeavour in the following sheets and I hope so as not to impose upon my self or others by empty Rhetorications fabulous Relations or Sophistical Reasonings but treat on the Question with that freedom and plainness that becomes one that is neither fond fanciful nor credulous SECT II. The true stating of the Question by defining what a Witch and Witchcraft is I Know that a great part of the Labour in most Controversies useth to be bestowed on things impertinent to the main business and by them the Minds of both sides are so confounded that they wander widely from the point in difference and at last lose it quite It would quickly be thus in the Question of Witchcraft and usually is so without previous care to avoid it But I shall take the best I can that my pains on this Subject be not so mis-bestowed but closely applyed to the purpose And in order thereunto shall briefly define the terms of the Question and then set down what I grant to mine Adversaries and what I demand from them And when these Preliminaries are well adjusted we shall proceed with more distinctness and still see whereabout we are and know how far what is affirmed or proved reaches the main matter in debate The Question is whether there are Witches or not Mr. Webster accuseth the Writers on the Subject of defect in not laying down a perfect Description of a Witch or Witchcraft or explaining what they mean p. 20. What his perfect Description is I do not know but I think I have described a Witch or Witchcraft in my Considerations sufficiently to be understood and the Conception which I and I think most Men have is That a Witch is one who can do or seems to do strange things beyond the known Power of Art and ordinary Nature by vertue of a Confederacy with Evil Spirits Strange Things not Miracles these are the extraordinary Effects of Divine Power known and distinguished by their circumstances as I shall shew in due place The strange things are really performed and are not all Impostures and Delusions The Witch occasions but is not the Principal Efficient she seems to do it but the Spirit performs the wonder sometimes immediately as in Transportations and Possessions sometimes by applying other Natural Causes as in raising Storms and inflicting Diseases sometimes using the Witch as an Instrument and either by the Eyes or Touch conveying Malign Influences And these things are done by vertue of a Covenant or Compact betwixt the Witch and an Evil Spirit A Spirit viz. an Intelligent Creature of the Invisible World whether one of the Evil Angels called Devils or an Inferiour Daemon or Spirit or a wicked Soul departed but one that is able and ready for mischief and whether altogether Incorporeal or not appertains not to this Question SECT III. That neither the Notation of the Name that signifies indifferently nor the false Additions of others to the Notion of a Witch can any way

may be effected by creatures whose powers and knowledge are so vastly exceeding ours I shall endeavour theresore briefly to suggest some things that may render the possibility of these performances conceivable in order to the removal of this Objection that they are contradictions and impossible For the FIRST then That the confederate Spirit should transport the Witch through the Air to the place of general Rendezvous there is no difficulty in conceiving it and if that be true which great Philosophers affirm concerning the real separability of the Soul from the Body without death there is yet less for then 't is easie to apprehend that the Soul having left its gross and sluggish body behind it and being cloath'd onely with its immediate vehicle of Air or more subtile matter may be quickly conducted to any place it would be at by those officious Spirits that attend it And though I adventure to affirm nothing concerning the truth and certainty of this Supposition yet I must needs say it doth not seem to me unreasonable And our experience of Apoplexies Epilepsies Ecstasies and the strange things men report to have seen during those Deliquiums look favourably upon this conjecture which seems to me to contradict no principle of Reason or Philosophy since Death consists not so much in the actual separation of Soul and Body as in the indisposition and unfitness of the Body for vital union as an excellent Philosopher hath made good On which Hypothesis the Witches anointing her self before she takes her flight may perhaps serve to keep the Body tenantable and in fit disposition to receive the Spirit at its return These things I say we may conceive though I affirm nothing about them and there is not any thing in such conceptions but what hath been own'd by men of worth and name and may seem fair and accountable enough to those who judge not altogether by the measures of the populace and customary opinion And there 's a saying of the great Apostle that seems to countenance this Platonick notion what is the meaning else of that expression Whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell except the Soul may be separated from the Body without death which if it be granted possible 't is sufficient for my purpose And 2 The Transformations of Witches into the shapes of other Animals upon the same supposal is very conceivable since then 't is easie enough to imagine that the power of imagination may form those passive and pliable vehicles into those shapes with more ease than the fancy of the Mother can the stubborn matter of the Foetus in the womb as we see it frequently doth in the instances that occur of Signatures and monstrous Singularities and perhaps sometimes the confederate Spirit puts tricks upon the senses of the Spectators and those shapes are onely illusions But then 3 when they feel the hurts in their gross bodies that they receive in their airy vehicles they must be supposed to have been really present at least in these latter and 't is no more difficult to apprehend how the hurts of those should be translated upon their other bodies than how diseases should be inflicted by the imagination or how the fancy of the Mother should wound the Foetus as several credible relations do attest And 4 for their raising Storms and Tempests They do it not be sure by their own but by the power of the Prince of the Air their Friend and Allie and the Ceremonies that are enjoyn'd them are doubtless nothing else but entertainments for their imaginations and are likely design'd to perswade them that they do these strange things themselves And lastly for their being suck'd by the Familiar I say 1 we know so little of the nature of Doemons and Spirits that 't is no wonder we cannot certainly divine the reason of so strange an action And yet 2 we may conjecture at some things that may render it less improbable For some have thought that the Genii whom both the Platonical and Christian Antiquity thought embodied are recreated by the reeks and vapours of humane blood and the spirits that proceed from them Which supposal if we grant them bodies is not unlikely every thing being refresh'd and nourish'd by its like And that they are not perfectly abstract from all body and matter besides the reverence we owe to the wisest antiquity there are several considerable Arguments I could alledge to render it exceeding probable Which things supposed the Devil 's sucking the Sorceress is no great wonder nor difficult to be accounted for Or perhaps 3 this may be onely a diabolical Sacrament and Ceremony to confirm the hellish Covenant To which I add 4 That which to me seems most probable viz. That the Familiar doth not onely suck the Witch but in the action infuseth some poysonous ferment into her which gives her Imagination and Spirits a magical tincture whereby they become mischievously influential and the word venefica intimates some such matter Now that the imagination hath a mighty power in operation is seen in the just now mention'd Signatures and Diseases that it causeth and that the fancy is modified by the qualities of the blood and spirits is too evident to need proof Which things supposed 't is plain to conceive that the evil spirit having breath'd some vile vapour into the body of the Witch it may taint her blood and spirits with a noxious quality by which her infected imagination heightned by melancholy and this worse cause may do much hurt upon bodies that are impressible by such influences And 't is very likely that this ferment disposeth the imagination of the Sorceress to cause the mentioned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or separation of the Soul from the Body and may perhaps keep the Body in sit temper for its re-entry as also it may facilitate transformation which it may be could not be effected by ordinary and unassisted imagination Thus we see 't is not so desperate to form an apprehension of the manner of these odd performances and though they are not done the way I have describ'd yet what I have said may help us to a conceit of the possibility which sufficeth for my purpose And though the Hypotheses I have gone upon will seem as unlikely to some as the things they attempt to explain are to others yet I must desire their leave to suggest that most things seem improbable especially to the conceited and opinionative at first proposal and many great truths are strange and odd till custome and acquaintance have reconciled them to our fancies And I 'le presume to add on this occasion though I love not to be confident in assirming that there is none of the Platonical supposals I have used but what I could make appear to be fair and reasonable to the capable and unprejudic'd SECT IV. III. BUT III. I come to another prejudice against the being of Witches which is That 't is very improbable that the Devil who

Physical divisibility to such an Extension surely that must necessarily proceed from the impotencie of his Imagination which his Mind cannot curb nor separate herself from the dreggs and corporeal foulnesses thereof and hence it is that she tinctures and infects this pure and Spiritual Extension with Corporeal Properties But that an extended thing may be divided Logically or Intellectually when in the mean time it can by no means be discerped it sufficiently appears from hence That a Physical Monad which has some Amplitude though the least that possible can be is conceived thus to be divided in a Line consisting of any uneven number of Monads which notwithstanding the Intellect divides into two equal parts And verily in a Metaphysical Monad such as the Holenmerians conceit the Mind of man to be and to possess in the mean time and occupie the whole Body there may be here again made a Logical Distribution suppose è subjectis as they call it so far forth as this Metaphysical Monad or Soul of the Holenmerians is conceived to possess the Head or Trunk or Limbs of the Body And yet no man is so delirant as to think that it follows from thence that such a Soul may be discerped into so many parts and that the parts so discerped may subsist by themselves SECT XXVI An Answer to the latter part of the Second Objection which inferreth the separabilitie of the parts of a Substantial Extensum from the said parts being Substantial and independent one of another FRom which a sufficiently fit and accommodate Answer may be fetched to the latter part of this difficulty namely to that which because the parts of Substance are Substantial and independent one of another and subsisting by themselves as being Substances would infer that they can be discerped at least by the Divine Power and disjoyned and being so disjoyned subsist by themselves Which I confess to be the chief edge or sting of the whole difficulty and yet such as I hope I shall with ease file off or blunt For first I deny that in a thing that is absolutely One and Simple as a Spirit is there are any Physical parts or parts properly so called but that they are onely falsly seigned and fancied in it by the impure Imagination But that the Mind it self being susficiently defecated and purged from the impure dreggs of Fancie although from some extrinsecal respect she may consider a Spirit as having parts yet at the very same time does she in herself with close attention observe and note that such an Extension of itself has none And therefore whenas it has no parts it is plain it has no substantial parts nor independent one of another nor subsistent of themselves And then as much as concerns those parts which the stupid and impotent Imagination fancieth in a Spirit it does not follow from thence because they are Substantial that they may subsist separate by themselves For a thing to subsist by itself onely signifies so to subsist that it wants not the Prop of some other Subject in which it may inhere as Accidents do So that the parts of a Spirit may be said to subsist by themselves though they cannot subsist separate and so be substance still SECT XXVII That the mutual Independencie of the parts of an extended Substance may be understood in a twofold sence with an Answer thereto taken in the first sence thereof BUt what they mean by that mutual Independencie of parts I do not fully understand But I sufficiently conceive that one of these two things must be hinted thereby viz. Either that they are not mutual and effectual causes to one another of their Existing or that their Existence is understood to be connected by no necessary condition at all And as for the former sense I willingly confess those parts which they fancie in a Spirit are not mutual causes of one anothers Existence but so that in the mean time I do most firmly deny that it will thence follow that they may be discerped and thus discerpt be separately conserved no more than the Intelligible parts of a Physical Monad which is divided into two by our Reason or Intellect which surely are no mutual causes of one anothers Existence or the Members of the Distribution of a Metaphysical Monad according to the Doctrine of the Holenmerians viz. The Soul totally being in every part of the Body which no man in his wits can ever hope that they may be discerped although the said Members of the division are not the mutual causes of one anothers Existence For they are but one and the same Soul which is not the cause of itself but was wholly and entirely caused by God But you will say that there is here manifestly a reason extant and apparent why these Members of the Distribution cannot be discerped and discerpt separately conserved because one and the same indivisible Monad occurs in every Member of the Distribution which therefore since it is a single one it is impossible it should be discerped from itself To which I on the other side answer That it is as manifestly extant and apparent how frivolously therefore and ineptly Arguments are drawn from Logical or Intellectual Divisions for the concluding a real separability of parts And I add further That as that fictitious Metaphysical Monad cannot be discerped or pluckt in pieces from itself no more can any real Spirit because it is a thing most simple and most absolutely One and which a pure Mind darkened and possessed with no prejudices of Imagination does acknowledge no real parts at all to be in For so it would ipso facto be a compound Thing SECT XXVIII An Answer to the Independency of parts taken in the second sence FRom whence an easie entrance is made to the answering this difficulty understood in the second sence of the mutual Independency of the parts of a Spirit whereby their coexistence and union are understood to be connected by no necessary Law or Condition For that this is false I do most constantly affirm without all demur For the coexistences of the parts as they call them of a Spirit are connected by a Law or Condition absolutely necessary and plainly essential Forasmuch as a Spirit is a most simple Being or a Being unum per se non per aliud that is one of itself or of its own nature immediately so and not by another either Substance or Quality For none of those parts as the Nullibists call them can exist but upon this condition that all jointly and unitedly exist together which Condition or Law is contained in the very Idea or nature of every Spirit Whence it cannot be created or any way produced unless upon this condition that all its parts be inseparably and indiscerpibly one as neither a Rectangle Triangle unless upon this condition that the powers of the Cathetus and Basis be equal to the power of the Hypotenusa Whence the Indiscerpibility of a Spirit cannot be removed from it

both by Jews and Christians that the Soul of the Messias appeared to the Patriarchs and was the Angel of the Covenant and we know he was pleased to appear to St. Stephen at his Martyrdom though then in Glory And in the various Apparitions of Angels recorded in the Scripture we have reason to think that some were humane Souls called Angels from their Office So that on the whole we see we have no cause to rely on Mr. Websters certainty that Samuel's Soul came not on a Divine Command SECT XXV Other Arguments of Mr. Webster against the appearing of the Soul of Samuel proposed and answered BUt Mr. Webster goes on Fourthly saith he Mr. Glanvil hath only affirmed not proved it Which is not so I alledge the same reasons I have mentioned here in my Philosophical Considerations about Witchcraft Sect. 16. And the srequent assirmations of the Sacred T●…xt were sufficient ground for the Assertion though no other reasons were added to them He argues Fifthly Miracles are wrought to confirm truth but this would have confirmed Saul and the Witch in their wicked ways p. 174. I answer Miracles are not always wrought to confirm truth but sometimes to declare it And these sort are often for that purpose Such was this to pronounce the final Sentence and Doom on Saul as to the concerns of this World And the Prophet's appearing so contrary to the Womans expectation and before she had performed her spells struck her into dread and amazement and so she could draw no incouragement thence to countenance her trade of Witchcraft Sixthly He saith it is not credible but that Samuel would have reproved the Sorceress But that was not his business and it is like she being one of that vile and Diabolical profession was forsaken of God and good Spirits and given up to those evil ones that were her Agents and Familiars Such derelictions we sometimes read of And certainly if any course of sinning occasions and brings such a judgment as some no doubt do this of Witchcraft and Confederacy with evil Spirits is one that most justly may Seventhly But God had refused to answer Saul by any living Prophet and Eighthly would not vouchsafe him his Spirit in the ordinary way and therefore it is not probable he would do it by sending a Prophet from the dead Which arguings can only discover our ignorance in the Reasons of the Divine Counsels and Actions But yet it may be said God had indeed withdrawn all comfortable and directive Communications from him but this was of another sort a further instance of the Divine Displeasure and Declarative of the forsaken Kings Doom Which was no favour but indeed a judgment to which the Divine Justice was probably further provoked by this his sin of dealing with the Sorceress But Ninthly Abraham would not send Lazarus upon the Rich Mans desire to his surviving Brethren p. 175. Nor can any one think it follows that because one came from the dead to an extraordinary person and upon an occasion that was such that therefore Prophets or other Souls shall be sent from thence ordinarily to warn those that have other sufficient means of conviction and amendment The Tenth is to fill up tale Where doth Mr. Glanvil saith he find it in Scripture or Orthodoxal Divines that ever any Blessed Soul was sent on a Divine Errand to any here below Which he objected and I answered before SECT XXVI That the Soul of Samuel might come of it self as well as be sent by Divine Command either Opinion desensible I Have briefly recited and I hope cleared Mr. Webster's Objections which he runs out into great length and numerous impertinencies And indeed his Arguments are often such confident Nothings that it is really a shame to go about to answer them But I shall never pass by any thing of his strength But though I have defended the Opinion that Samuel's Soul was sent on a Divine Errand to Saul against Mr. Websters contrary pretences yet is there another thing supposable which is as probable viz. That Samuel came without any direct command being barely permitted and that the earnest and importunate desire of Saul to have some Communication with him in his distress invited and inclined him to it Thus it might be and there is no cause to think but that blessed Souls have sometimes such liberty allowed them which of these it was I shall not presume to determine both are defensible and either sufficient for my purpose SECT XXVII Several other Objections against the appearing of the Soul os Samuel answered BUt there are other Objections besides Mr. Websters against the Tenent that it was the Soul of Samuel I shall not conceal any one that hath any force in it First it is urged That Witches and Magicians have no power over the Spirits of the Just and therefore this Pythoness could not raise Samuel Nor do we say she did He appeared as 't is probable from the Text before she had made her Conjurations Which might be one reason of her crying out He came either sent from God or of his own inclination The Devil nor Witch had nothing to do in it But Secondly would God send Samuel at such a time when he was seeking satisfaction from enchantment And why not as well that as appoint the Prophet to meet the Messengers of Ahaziah when he sent to Beelzebub 2 Kings 1 That King sent to the Idol of E●…ron to inquire his Fate and God acquainted him with it by his Prophet Elijah Thus also when Balak had required Balaam to curse the Israelites God put a Prophecy into his Mouth and made him bless them Numb 32. c. Thirdly The Woman said she saw Gods arising a company of evil Spirits so some interpret and what did Samuel among them But I saw Gods is more probably rendered by others a God a Divine Personage the plural Number for the singular to express honour And that it is so to be understood is signified plainly by the singular Relative that follows Of what form is he v. 14. Or if more be meant why might they not be good Genii that accompanied Samuel a great and Divine Personage eminent no doubt in the other World as he was in this Fourthly some argue from the Question of the Apparition v. 15. Why hast thou disquieted me Samuel say they whether sent by God or coming of his own accord could not be disquieted by appearing Nor was there any real disturbance in it but the Spirit of the Prophet speaks our Language who are apt to fancy the dead to rest in their Graves and to be disturbed of their repose when upon any occasion they appear among the living Fifthly But he saith that Saul and his Sons should be with him viz. in Thalamo justorum which some think not unlikely believing that Saul was reprobate only in Type But more probably the meaning is that he should be in the State of the dead in another World as he the Prophet was