IMPRIMATUR THO. TOMKYNS R. R mo in Christo Patri ac Domino D no. GILBERTO Divina Providentia Archiepiscopo Cantuariensi à Sacris Domesticis Ex Aedibus Lambethan Julii 9. 1668. A TREATISE PROVING Spirits Witches AND Supernatural Operations BY PREGNANT INSTANCES AND EVIDENCES Together with other Things worthy of Note By Meric Casaubon D. D. LONDON Printed for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons in Cornhill 1672. TO THE READER CHristian Reader what ever thou art otherwise thou art not a true Christian or so good as thou shouldest be if thou doest not account that of a Christian thy best title though it doth concern thee no further perchance than I shall tell thee by and by yet it doth me very much in thankfulness to God and to acquit my self of wilful negligence in some particulars of this ensuing Treatise to acquaint thee with the occasion and in what condition I was when I wrote it I will not go back so far as to tell thee what I have suffered since I have been in the world by sicknesses and some other accidents the relation whereof though very true yet I am sure would be incredible unto many There may be a time for that if God please It shall now suffice to tell thee that about three years ago and somewhat better being in London I was seized upon with a cold and shortness of breath which was so troublesome that I went to an intimate friend and learned Physician for help who made no question but in few days he would cure me and to that end prescribed some things But before many days were over himself ended his life in whose death good learning ancient I mean had a great loss But the comfort is which I can witness he died a Christian After him the cause still continuing I had recourse unto another of the same profession whom though I knew not before yet I found him very friendly and so far as I could judge very rational in his prescriptions But notwithstanding such help the disease increasing rather than abating I at last resolved with Gods help for Canterbury again which I did think many times I should never see more Where for eight or nine moneths I continued much in the same case till at last that disease ended in some nephritical fits which I did not expect to out-live But I did till April 1666. when I was freshly assaulted with new fits which more remisly or sharply continued some moneths till at last divers other evil symptomes concurring I lost sleep and so lost it that for the space of four moneths and upwards I may truly to the best of my knowledge say I had not one hour of natural sleep but such as was by the advice of my Physicians procured by Drugs the strongest that are to that end which sleep so procured left me always in such a hatred and detestation of life that nothing but obligation of conscience could have prevailed with me or any body else I think in my case to preserve life at so dear a rate What I was unto others I know not I was unto my self I am sure a wonder nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prodigium a monster our old translation that I did hold out so long And yet when I did most despair of life or rather comfort my self that the time of my deliverance was now surely come so it pleased God I began to recover sleep and not long after amended to such a degree of chearfulness 〈◊〉 for many weeks after I did ever and anon 〈◊〉 whether I was not in a dream But 〈◊〉 the continuance of my chearfulness though 〈…〉 other weakness I think any Christian 〈◊〉 if he do not think me worse than an ordiâ—â—â—y Heathen or Infidel will easily believe â—hat I had some thoughts how I might employ a â—â—fe so much of it as was yet to come so strangely prolonged to do Him some service whom I loâ—â—ed upon as the only Author First I resolved my most immediate profession to preach as often as I could And for the first time being an Easter-day a very proper day after such a reviving I thought as to bodily strength I came off well enough But when I attempted it a second time though till the Evening before I thought my self in very good case yet I found my self suddenly so disabled and brought so low again which continued for three days that since that time my opinion hath been I should but tempt God to think of any such thing any more After this my chearfulness and vigour of spirits still continuing I began to think of writing a trade which I began very young and of which I thank God for it I have had comfort at home and abroad as much and more than I did ever promise my self I did pitch upon a subject which I did think most convenient for me as having more immediate relation to devotion and not unseasonable in these ungodly times It was not long before I had all my materials out of several papers and Note-books together and ready But when I thought to put them into a form by coherence of matter and stile I found my self so unable that I did absolutely conclude I had no other business in this world and to no other end God had prolonged my life than by continued earnest repentance a greater work I doubt than many imagine to fit my self for a better How I have acquitted my self I must leave to God But time passing moneth after moneth and I still continuing in as good vigour of mind I thought as when at the best it troubled me not a little that I should live profitable unto my self only At last this subject once before thought upon but since forgotten came into my mind again I will not be so bold without better warrant with God Almighty to say that he put it into my head either before when it first offered it self or now when I remembred it But this I may truly say since I have been a writer I never proceeded in any subject for the time that was bestowed upon it with more expedition and alacrity For it hath been my case ever since I came out of that languishing extremity which affected my Spirits most that my body hath continued very weak ever since so that it is but some part of the day when at best that I can converse with books seldom so well that I can walk or stand upon my legs and when once set in my Study to write or to meditate it is irksome to me to rise upon any occasion and therefore I avoid it without there be some great necessity much more tedious and irksome and not without danger to reach books which I cannot reach a great part of my books without climbing nor always find very readily though ranged and ordered with care when I seek them This is the cause that my quotations are not always so full or so punctual as otherwise they might have been But
Diogenes Laertius ever was WELL but was not Epicurus however a valiant man who in such pains as he was then in could write so couragiously as in this and in some other Epistles of his written at the same time he doth I answer briefly It is no wonder at all that a very wicked man should die in his wickedness very resolute and undauntted There be many examples in all Histories and some reasons might be given were it our business here why it is so But secondly we are not bound to believe whatsoever he saith of himself that he was in such pain when he wrote those Letters whom we know to have been a most vain self-conceited wretch as covetous of praise as ever man was so far as may be learned by his own writings A vanity such is the force of it in some men for which men have endured great torments wilfully and have undergone strange deaths I could say more but this is more than I needed But I may not omit that this Letter of Epicurus is mentioned by Seneca also more than once as particularly Epist 9â— which I think Gassendus would not have omitted had he been pleased with Seneca's words and judgment about it For Seneca there as a Stoick arguing that bodily pleasure or indâ—lency was not a thing considerable at all to true vertue These things may seem incredible saith he but is it not as much incredible that any man in extremity of bodily pain should say I am happy And yet this vâ—ry word or speech hath been heard in the shop or wardrobe officina of pleasure I am at my last and happiest day saith Epicurus wâ—en on the one side great difficulty of making of water on the other the uncurable dolour of an ulcerated belly did tâ—rment him How then should these things we have said seem incredible to them that apply themselves to the study and practice of vertue when even among them who are lead altogether by pleasure they are found Even those degenerate low or base minded men cay say we see that a wise man in greatest pains greatest miseries can be happy And is not this incredible yea much more incredible than any thing we have said of true vertue But I cannot conceive how true vertue being once cast down from its true height or eminency of being able of it self to make men happy without the accessories of fortune bodily pleasure c. can keep it self from sinking to the very bottom of scorn and contempt So Seneca of Epicurus and his doctrine in that place What elsewhere somewhat shall be said of that too by and by I HAVE done with my Chapter and if any be so much at leisure to follow this example in all the rest I durst promise them if judicious and diligent no worse success in all the rest But it may be though I chose this as the most considerable Chapter yet some will think St. Gregory Nazianzen his authority much more considerable even in this than Plutarch's whose testimony and his only of all the Fathers or Ecclesiastical writers as I remember Gassendus doth produce to prove Epicurus his innocency and chast life De vita c. lib. 7. cap. 4. Quem merito saith he innumerae obloquentium turbae praeferendum censeas Well be it so What saith this godly Father The summ is it is in Verse that Epicurus did maintain pleasure to be the chiefest good of man but lest he should be understood to speak this of base bodily pleasure so Gassendus his translation but the words rather imply lest he should be thought to commend pleasure unto others because of the pleasure himself had taken or because himself had indulged unto pleasure which makes a very different sense for it doth not acquit Epicurus of making bodily pleasure the end or happiness of man but this only that himself for bare such pleasures of purpose to acquire the more authority to his doctrine himself lived it is falsly printed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in my book for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chastâ—ly and soberly helping his doctrine by his practice So Nazianzen And this may seem somewhat But had Gassendus dealt ingenuously with his Reader besides the true sense which he hath concealed he would have told him that Nazianzen in that piece and place doth profess to relate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things that were ordinarily reported of ancient Philosophers not engaging himself for the truth He saith indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is That he would not deny them or be incredulous for that it is possible to find examples of temperance and sobriety even among Heathens That he must be understood tenderly not of perfect belief doth clearly appear even by the examples which he doth relate For after Epicurus the next he doth mention is Polemon of whom among other things he doth relate from publick fame as all the rest that a publick whore being sent for by a young gallant as she was come to the door by the sight only of Polemon's picture was turned back Nazianzen doth call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a wonder or miracle which I think we may read and suspend our belief without any breach of that respect which we owe to that holy Father But Gassendus might have told us withal what the same Nazianzen elsewhere not in Verse but in Prose doth object unto the same Epicurus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Atheism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Atomes that is the denying of a Providence and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the commendation if not pursuit which is more likely of a voluptuous life or pleasure unworthy the name or profession of a Philosopher Naz. Orat. 33. BY this may appear how Gassendus may be trusted in this cause Yet we deny not but Epicurus what ever his life was hath many fine sayings which might make Seneca to judge at least to speak the more favourably of his life and the rather because it was in part his own case I have a better opinion of Seneca than to compare him with such a lend man Yet it cannot be denied that he also gave too much occasion to the world to upbraid him that he did not live as he spake and taught others Which troubled him not a little as may appear by that passionate Apology that he makes for himself and all Philosophers in general to whom the same was objected in some of his books Yet for all that though some men can distinguish between doing and saying who may be more scandalized where they observe such contrariety between speeches and actions than edified yet generally it hath always been the propriety of the multitude to be led more by words than by deeds by appearance than reality which made that grave Historian Polybius to pronounce the generality of men much inferior to bruits in point of forecast and judgment And to this we may ascribe factions and rebellions and schisms and almost all the evils by which the publick peace
some particular end or meerly to shew his wit which I know hath been done by more than one should attempt such a thing but that so many professing Christianity should entertain the attempt with so ready an assent and applause an argument to me with many others of the inclination of the age God avert the event SINCE this written I bethought my self that Gassendus happily in those large Comments and Animadversions upon Epicurus his Philosophy if we may so call it which deserveth better to be called dotage and madness set out some years after in three Tomes might retract some of those notorious mistakes if any man can think them so I have searched but I find that instead of retracting he doth repeat and endeavour to confirm and that especially by the addition of two testimonies which I shall take notice of The first of St. Jeromes out of his second book against Jovinian Chap. 8. where he doth say with this Preface Quod mirandum sit a thing to be wondred at because assertor voluptatis an assertor or patron of pleasure bodily certainly else it had been no wonder that Epicurus did fill his bocks with the commendations of a spare diet That Epicurus did it all the wonder is that the man should be so inconstant to himself if in so doing he doth make any mention of vertue or seems to have any regard unto it it being sure enough that in this he doth but abuse the credulity of his Readers But if he commend a sober life in general and highly extol it before a riotous and leud this he might well enough without any repugnancy to his doctrine in placing the happiness of man in bodily pleasures Though the practice of it a rare thing in men of that profession yet the commendation of it might as well become a professed Epicuraean as any other Besides it should be considered that St. Jerome his purpose there being to collect out of all profane Authors whatsoever he had read in any of them tending to the commendation of a spare diet which he doth very copiously as a very learned man and excellently versed in all ancient Authors any man may see that he doth relate many things as in such a case is ordinary which it is not probable that he believed or did expect his Readers should I could instance in many particulars but only to serve his present subject upon a supposition nevertheless that many things though not so probable yet might be true the truth whereof he doth not stand to examine which every Reader as he should find himself concerned might do better at leisure Not therefore to add any credit to Epicurus but more forcibly to shame them that lived riotously or discommend a spare diet or spake slightly of it is that passage of Epicurus produced by St. Jerome And let me add that Gassendus doth make that quotation by adding some of St. Jerome's words to it as may easily appear somewhat longer than in it self it is or can well be but I make no great matter of it HIS other long quotation is out of Porphyrius his excellent book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of abstinence c. Porphyrius a Magician it is well known and as great an enemy to Christianity as ever it had any yet Porphyrius of abstinence c. an excellent book as I think ever was written of that argument I wish we had the old translation of it more common than it is out of which many corrupt places in the Author might be corrected at least understood Well Porphyrius in that book just as St. Jerome upon the same occasion and to the same purpose A wonder saith he that even they that make pleasure to be the end the Epicuraeans even they c. It is a long passage and it will appear if well examined that here also Gassendus doth ascribe somewhat to the Epicuraeans which doth in Porphyrius his Text belong unto them And which is worse so unlucky shall I say or so bold is Gassendus such confidence he had in himself when he saw how currently every thing did pass that he had written in that wicked cause that he doth deprave as excellent a passage in the Text of that long quotation as any is extant in any Heathen writer I will not say because it hath too much Christianity nor yet can I say because it is very obscure but truly as he doth in Epicurus his life many through unadvised rashness and temerity The Author there doth say very piously if sincerely whoever he was that we should not first provide for the world and he gives an excellent reason for it afterwards and then make Philosophy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very word used by Christ upon the same occasion if the Greek be authentick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an addition or an accessory according to that of the Poet O Cives Cives quaerenda pecunia primo est Virtus post nummos but first provide by good instruction I suppose and Philosophy for a generous confidence in God and then content our selves with what every day doth afford This Gassendus by correcting or corrupting rather the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is in the Gospel also or the effect of it well expressed in the English But seek ye first c. into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 turns it quite into another sense I shall not proceed to any further examination But if any body will make it his business he will without much trouble find matter enough CIVIL affairs and actions the proper object of Credulity and Incredulity which we propose to our selves in this Part come to be known to us either by our own experience or by the relation of others private as Friends and Travellers or publick as the Historians of present or past ages Our aim is by some instances and observations it is an ordinary thing for men to forget their Text this often repetition may help to prevent it to direct them that may want such help in point of Credulity and Incredulity Wherein our first observation for a caution to some how they take upon them to judge before they be throughly versed in the world shall be that old saying with little alteration appliable to many occasions Homine imperito nunquam quicquam injustius Qui nisi quod ipse fecit nihil rectum putat we say Qui nisi quod ipse credit or vidit if you will nihil verum putat It is a sad thing to converse with men who neither by their own experience nor by the relation of others Historians and Travellers are acquainted with the world How they will stare and startle at things as impossible and incredible which they that are better acquainted with it know to be very true or judge by what they have known in like cases to be very possible and credible It were great wisdom in such who are so happy as to know their defects though they suspend their belief yet to be very
some men can never attain unto though they be taught by reason of some accidental defect But for more clearness because it is to our purpose to instance in somewhat that hath more affinity There is no man I think where Dogs are but are acquainted more or less with their nature and conditions Of all creatures generally they love and know their masters best this is common to them all more or less to be loving naturally But what if I should tell a story of one or more Dogs that loved their masters so well that they would needs die with them Would it be a good argument that it must be a fable because all Dogs do it not Lipsius hath one of a Dog of his own house that loved his mistress so well that when she died and he saw her dead run into the Garden digged himself a hole and there ended soon after his life Haec tota familia nostra teste sunt gesta He doth appeal to all his family who were present and saw it for the truth of it Scaliger hath another in his Exercitations against Cardan every whit as strange What if I should tell of Dogs that have pursued the murderers of their Masters so constantly so vigorously that notice being taken publickly it came at last by order of justice to a duel or combat wherein the murderers being overcome by the Dogs they confessed the crime We have the story of one in Scaliger and out of Scaliger in Lipsius the History of another out of St. Ambrose Giraldus Cambrensis in his Itinerary doth transcribe So he professeth But if faithfully then the Editions we have of St. Ambrose that which I have not at this time I am sure are defective For the latter part of the Duel is there wanting And indeed the story seems to me but imperfect as it ends there no sense I think can be made of the words to bring the relation to an end without which it is not probable that St. Ambrose would have left it But if for persecutus as printed in my Ambrose set out by Erasmus at Bazil Anno Dom. 1567. we read it as I find it in an old Manuscript I have perpessus some end may be made of it though not so full or so clear as in Giraldus I wish I were in better case were it but for St. Ambrose's sake to look into it For I shrewdly suspect because I have known it done in many books long ago that some who were scandalized at the story as absurd or impossible as many things through meer ignorance to the prejudice of truth are often suspected did cut off St. Ambrose his relation with those words of their own devising Itaque quod erat difficilius ultionem persecutus est so printed but perpessus certainly as in my Manuscript to make any sense of it quia defensionem praestare non potuit which words are not in Giraldus I hope if not already done though unknown to me some body will take the pains who is better able than I am at this time or ever like to be HOW many more strange things from good Authors or certain experience even of our times might be added which if a man should deny because all Dogs do not so or not one of a thousand or a million or scarce one in an age how ridiculous were it I remember when I lived in Sussex I heard of one Dog there of another when in Sommerset but in another kind from persons of credit I make no question of the truth which nevertheless I might live fifty years longer and not hear the like Great pity it is that no memory is kept of such rare accidents whereof besides the improvement of the knowledge of nature good use might be made upon several occasions Did we understand the nature of Dolphins perfectly we might give a reason probably how some come to do so and so sometimes and how sutable it is to their nature and yet how through the defect of some one circumstance or more in themselves or the party they would pitch upon or some circumstance of time they come to do it no oftner though much oftner I believe than is generally known or for want of good records remembred But upon Boys all stories do agree that they commonly pitch upon such and that they are some of the kind at least great lovers of musick Which doth make well for Arion's case THIS objection therefore that it is not natural to Dolphins because all Dolphins do it not or that we read of very few who have done or reported to have done the like rejected as invalid and weak in Arion's case I should rather object how a Boy or Man could sit a Dolphin I will not say playing upon an instrument for there is no need of that but sit him or ride him for a considerable time through so many waves and not be washed off or drowned To me it doth seem very strange to another it may be not so much But if we suppose the Sea as some Seas are known to be ordinarily or at some times of the year very still and calm then there 's no further question as to this And indeed Pliny tells us of one of these Dolphin-riders who being surprised by a tempest was drowned which the Dolphin but I warrant it no further to the Reader than he shall like his authority apprehending himself the cause of did end his life upon the Land for grief Another question would be how a Boy can sit a Dolphin without danger and whether a Dolphin be naturally shaped for that use Pliny indeed doth express in the relation of his first story that the Dolphin had the providence pâ—nnae aculeos velut vagina condere and Apion writing of the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Aelianus tells the story of another such Boy who riding a Dolphin did unadvisedly run his belly against the thorns or prickles of his back-fin whereof he died and the Dolphin after him for grief Had I ever seen a Dolphin I could judge better or had I at this time either Gesnerus or Rondeletius or could any where so far from all Libraries that I can call Libraries but mine own and that a sorrowful one too at this time a remnant of a Library rather than Library come to the sight of either I have the pictures of Dolphins in some books but they do not satisfie me I FIND in the books of a very learned man which I have out of Rondeletius that a Dolphin hath no prickles in his back who thereupon doth infer that therefore Apion did impose and might as well in the whole story as in that particular But that is somewhat a hard judgment by his favour I believe Rondeletius that they have none ordinarily But as the Camels of some Countries differ from the Camels of others by the number of their bunches as Pliny and some others tell us and so many other creatures of one Climat or Country or of