certain but 't is possible and I know no absurdity in it and consequently our concluding a Causality from Concomitancy here and in other Instances may deceive us 2. Our best natural Knowledg is imperfect in that after all our confidence Things still are possible to be otherwise Our Demonstrations are raised upon Principles of our own not of Vniversal Nature And as my Lord Bacon notes we judg from the analogy of our selves not the Vniverse Now many things are certain according to the Principles of one Man that are absurd in the apprehensions of many others and some appear impossible to the vulgar that are easie to Men of more improved Understandings That is extravagant in one Philosophy which is a plain truth in another and perhaps what is most impossible in the apprehensions of Men may be otherwise in the Metaphysicks and Physiology of Angels The sum is We conclude this to be certain and that to be impossible from our own narrow Principles and little Scheams of Opinion And the best Principles of natural Knowledg in the World are but Hypotheses which may be and may be otherwise So that though we may conclude many things upon such and such Suppositions yet still our Knowledg will be but fair and hopeful Conjecture And therefore we may affirm that things are this way or that according to the Philosophy that we have espoused but we strangely forget our selves when we plead a necessity of their being so in Nature and an impossibility of their being otherwise The ways of God in Nature as in Providence are not as ours are Nor are the Models that we frame any way commensurate to the vastness and profundity of his Works which have a depth in them greater than the Well of Democritus 3. We cannot properly and perfectly know any thing in Nature without the knowledg of its first Causes and the Springs of Natural Motions And who hath any pretence to this Who can say he hath seen Nature in its beginnings We know nothing but Effects nor can we judg at their immediate Causes but by proportion to the things that do appear which no doubt are very unlike the Rudiments of Nature We see there is no resemblance between the Seed and the Herb and the Flowre between the Sperm and the Animal The Egg and the Bird that is hatcht of it And since there is so much dissimilitude between Cause and Effect in these apparent things we cannot think there is less between them and their first and invisible Efficients Now had not our Senses assured us of it we should never have suspected that Plants or Animals did proceed from such unlikely Originals never have imagined that such Effects should have come from such Causes and we can conceive as little now of the nature and quality of the Causes that are beyond the prospect of our Senses We may frame Fancies and Conjectures of them but to say that the Principles of Nature are just as our Philosophy makes them is to set bounds to Omnipotence and to circumscribe infinite Power and Wisdom by our narrow Thoughts and Opinions 4. Every thing in Nature hath relation to divers others so that no one Being can be perfectly known without the knowledg of many more Yea every thing almost hath relation to all things and therefore he that talks of strict Science pretends to a kind of Omniscience All things are linkt together and every Motion depends upon many prerequired Motors so that no one can be perfectly known singly We cannot for instance comprehend the cause of any Motion in a Watch unless we are acquainted with other dependent Motions and have insight into the whole mechanical contexture of it and we know not the most contemptible Plant that grows in any perfection and exactness until we understand those other things that have relation to it that is almost every thing in Nature So that each Science borrows from all the rest and we attain not any single one without comprehending the whole Circle of Knowledg I might say much more on this Subject but I may have further occasion of speaking to it under the second General viz. The Consideration II. Of the Imperfection of our present Faculties and the malign Influence our Senses and Affections have upon our Minds I begin with the SENSES and shall take notice 1. Of their Dulness and 2. of their liableness to Errour and Mistake 1. Our Senses are very scant and limited and the Operations of Nature subtil and various They are only its grosser Instruments and ways of working that are sensible the finer Threads and immediate Actions are out of reach Yea it 's greatest works are perform'd by invisible insensible Agents Now most of our Conceptions are taken from the Senses and we can scarce judg of any thing but by the help of material Images that are thence convey'd to us The Senses are the Fountain of natural Knowledg and the surest and best Philosophy is to be raised from the Phoenomena as they present them to us when we leave these and retire to the abstracted notions of our minds we build Castles in the Air and form Chymerical Worlds that have nothing real in them And yet when we take our accounts from those best Informers we can learn but very little from their Discoveries For we see but the shadows and outsides of things like the men in Plato's Den who saw but the Images of external Objects and but so many as came in through the narrow entrance of their Cave The World of God no doubt is an other thing than the World of Sense is and we can judg but little of its amplitude and glory by the imperfect Idea we have of it From this narrowness of our Senses it is that we have been so long ignorant of a World of Animals that are with us and about us which now at last the Glasses that in part cure this imperfection have discover'd and no doubt there is yet a great variety of living Creatures that our best Instruments are too gross to disclose There is Prodigious fineness and subtilty in the works of Nature which are too thin for our Senses with all the advantages Art can lend them And many the greatest and the best of its Objects are so remote that our Senses reach them not by any Natural or Artificial helps So that we cannot have other than short and confufed apprehensions of those works of Nature And I sometimes fear that we scarce yet see any thing as it is But this belongs to an other consideration viz. 2. Our Senses extremely deceive us in their reports and informations I mean they give occasion to our minds to deceive themselves They indeed represent things truely as they appear to them and in that there is no deception but then we judge the exterior Realities to be according to those appearances and here is the Error and Mistake But because the Senses afford the ground and occasion and we naturally judg according to
the Fuga Vacui and shewn that the strange Effects which use to be ascribed to that general and obscure cause do arise from the native self-expansion of the Air. The extent of which Elastical Expansion he hath found divers ways to measure by his Engine which also discovers the Influence the Air hath on Flame Smoke and Fire That it hath none in Operations Magnetical That it is probably much interspersed in the Pores of Water and comprest by the incumbent Atmosphere even in those elose retreats What Operation the exsuction of the Air hath on other Liquors as Oil Wine Spirit of Vinegar Milk Eggs Spirit of Vrine Solution of Tartar and Spirit of Wine The gravity and expansion of the Air under Water The interest the Air hath in the vibrations of Pendulums and what it hath to do in the propagation of Sounds That Fumes and Vapours ascend by reason of the gravity of the Ambient and not from their own positive levity The nature of Suction the cause of Filtration and the rising of Water in Siphons The nature of Respiration and the Lungs illustrated by tryals made on several kinds of Animals and the interest the Air hath in the Operations of Corosive Liquors These and many more such-like beneficial Observations and Discoveries hath that great Man made by the help of his Pneumatick Engine and there is no doubt but more and perhaps greater things will be disclosed by it when future ingenuity and diligence hath improved and perfected this Invention For what great thing was absolute and perfect in its first rise and beginning And 't is like this Instrument hereafter will be used and applyed to things yet unthought of for the advancement of Knowledge and the conveniences of Life THus I have performed the first part of my promise by shewing what Advantages the latter Ages and particularly the ROYAL SOCIETY have for deep search into things both by Arts and Instruments newly invented or improved above those enjoy'd by Aristotle and the Ancients I am next II. To recount what Aids it hath received from our better acquaintance with the Phaenomena For this I must consider NATURAL HISTORY more particularly which is the Repository wherein these are lodg'd How this may be compiled in the best order and to the best advantage is most judiciously represented by the Immortal Lord Bacon and to shew how highly It hath been advanced in modern Times I need say little more than to amass in a brief Recollection some of the Instances of newly-discovered Phaenomena which are scatter'd under the Heads of the Arts and Instruments I have discours'd with the Addition of some others As In the HEAVENS those of the Spots and Dinettick motion of the Sun the mountanous protuberances and shadows in the Body of the Moon about nineteen Magnitudes more of Fixed Stars the Lunulae of Jupiter their mutual Eclipsing one another and its turning round upon its own Axis the Ring about Saturn and its shadow upon the Body of that Star the Phases of Venus the increment and decrement of Light among the Planets the appearing and disappearing of Fixed Stars the Altitude of Comets and nature of the Via Lactea By these Discoveries and more such the History of the Heavens hath been rectified and augmented by the Modern Advancers of Astronomy whom in their places I have cited In the AIR Its Spring the more accurate History and Nature of Winds and Meteors and the probable height of the Atmosphere have been added by the Lord Bacon Des-Cartes Mr. Boyle and others In the EARTH New Lands by Columbus Magellan and the rest of the Discoverers and in these new Plants new Fruits new Animals new Minerals and a kind of other World of Nature from which this is supplied with numerous conveniences of Life and many thousand Families of our own little one are continually sed and maintained In the WATERS the great Motion of the Sea unknown in elder Times and the particular Laws of flux and reflux in many places are discover'd The History of BATHES augmented by Savonarola Baccius and Blanchellus of METALS by Agricola and the whole SVBTERRANEOVS WORLD described by the universally Learned Kircher The History of PLANTS much improved by Matthiolus Ruellius Bauhinus and Gerard besides the late Account of English Vegetables publish'd by Dr. Merret a worthy Member of the ROYAL SOCIETY And another excellent Virtuoso of the same Assembly Mr. John Evelyn hath very considerably advanced the History of Fruit and Forest-Trees by his Sylva and Pomona and greater things are expected from his Preparations for Elysium Britanicum a noble Design now under his hands And certainly the inquisitive World is much indebted to this generous Gentleman for his very ingenious Performances in this kind as also for those others of Sculpture Picture Architecture and the like practical useful things with which he hath enrich'd it The History of ANIMALS hath been much enlarged by Gesner Rondeletius Aldrovandus and more accurately inquir'd into by the Micrographers And the late Travellers who have given us Accounts of those remote parts of the Earth that have been less known to these have described great variety of Living Creatures very different from the Animals of the nearer Regions among whom the ingenious Author of the History of the Caribbies deserves to be mentioned as an Instance In our own BODIES Natural History hath found a rich heap of Materials in the above-mentioned Particulars of the Venae Lacteae the Vasa Lymphatica the Valves and Sinus of the Veins the several new Passages and Glandules the Ductus Chyliferus the Origination of the Nerves the Circulation of the Blood and the rest And all the main Heads of Natural History have receiv'd aids and increase from the famous Verulam who led the way to substantial Wisdom and hath given most excellent Directions for the Method of such an HISTORY of NATVRE Thus I have dispatch'd the FIRST Part of my Method proposed in the beginning but stand yet ingaged for the other which is to shew II. That the later Ages have great Advantages in respect of Opportunities and Helps for the spreading and communicating of Knowledge and thereby of improving and enlarging it This I shall demonstrate in three great Instances viz. Printing the Compass and the Institution of the Royal Society For the FIRST Printing It was according to Polydore Virgil the Invention of John Cuthenberg of Mentz in Germany though others give the honour to one Fust of the same City and some to Laurentius a Burger of Harlem But whoever was the Author this is agreed That this excellent Art was first practised about the year 1440 and was utterly unknown in Elder Times at least in all the parts of the World that are on this side the Kingdom of China which they say had it more early but it signifies not to our purpose Now by reason of the Ancients want of this Invention Copies of excellent things could not be so much dispersed nor so well preserv'd either
that are not like it self nor the objects they represent is I think not to be explain'd Whether Sensation be made by corporeal Emissions and material Images or by Motions that are convey'd to the common sense I shall not dispute the latter having so generally obtain'd among the Philosophers But How the Soul by mutation and motion in matter a substance of an other kind should be excited to action and how these should concern it that is of so divers a nature is hardly to be conceiv'd For Body cannot act on any thing but by Motion Motion cannot be receiv'd but by Matter the Soul is altogether immaterial and therefore how shall we apprehend it to be subject to such Impressions and yet Pain and the unavoidableness of our Sensations evidently prove That it is subject to them Besides How is it and by what Art doth the Soul read That such an Image or Motion in matter whether that of her Vehicle or of the Brain the case is the same signifies such an Object If there be any such Art we conceive it not and 't is strange we should have a Knowledg that we do not know That by diversity of Motions we should spell out Figures Distances Magnitudes Colours things not resembled by them we must ascribe to some implicit inference and deduction but what it should be and by what Mediums that Knowledg is advanced is altogether unintelligible For though the Soul may perceive Motions and Images by simple sense yet it seems unconceivable it should apprehend what they signifie and represent but by some secret Art and way of inference An illiterate Person may see the Letters as well as the most Learned but he knows not what they mean and an Infant hears the sounds and sees the motion of the Lips but hath no conception convey'd to him for want of knowing the signification of them such would be our case not-withstanding all the motions and impressions made by external things if the Soul had not some unknown way of learning by them the quality of the Objects For instance Images and Motions have but very small room in the Brain where they are receiv'd and yet they represent the grâ—…st Magniâ—… The Image Figure or what-evâ—… else 〈◊〉 may be call'd of an Hemisphere of the Heavens cannot have a Subject larger than the pulp of a Walnut and how can such petty Impressions make known a Body of so vast a wideness without some kind of Mathematicks in the Soul And except this be suppos'd I cannot apprehend how Distances should be perceiv'd but all Objects would appear in a cluster Nor will the Philosophy of Des-Cartes help us here For the moving divers Filaments in the Brain cannot make us perceive such modes as Distances are unless some such Art and Inference be allow'd of which we understand nothing 5. The Memory is a Faculty in us as obscure and perhaps as unâ—…ccountable as any thing in Nature It seems to be an Organical Power because Diseases do often blot out its Ideas and cause Oblivion But what the marks and imprâ—…ssions are by which the Soul râ—…members is a question that hath not yet been very well resâ—…'d There are four principal Hypotheses by which an account hath been attempted The Peripatetick the Cartesian the Digbaean and the Hobbian 1. According to the Peripatetick Schools Objects are conserv'd in the memory by certain Intentional Species as they call them a sort of Beings that have a necessary dependance upon their Subjects but are not material in their formal Constitution and Nature I need not say much against these arbitrary precarious Creatures that have no foundation in any of our Faculties Or be that how it will They are utterly unintelligible neither bodily nor spiritual neither produc'd out of any thing as the matter of their production nor out of nothing which were Creation and not to be allow'd to be in the power of every or any finite Being And though there were no such contradictious contrivance in the framing these Species yet they could not serve any purpose as to the Memory since 't is against the nature of â—…native Effects such as these are to subsist but by the continual influence of their Causes and so if this were the true Solution we could remember nothing longer than the Object was in presence 2. The account of Des-Cartes is to this purpose The Spirits are sent about the Brain to find the tracks of the Objectâ—… we would call to mind which Tracks consist in this viz That the Pores through which the Spiâ—…ts that came from the Objects past are more easily open'd and afford a more ready passage to those others that seek to enter whence ariseth a special motion in the Glandule which signifies this to be that we would remember But if our Remembrance arise from the easie motion of the Spirits through the opened passages according to this Hypothesis How then do we so distinctly remember such a variety of Objects whose Images pass the same way And how the Distances of Bodies that lie in a Line Why should not the impell'd Spirits find other open passages besides those made by the thing we would remember When there are such continual motions through the Brain from numerous other Objects Yea in such a pervious substance as that is why should not those subtile Bodies meet every where an easie passage It seems to me that one might conceive as well how every Grain of Corn in a Sieve should be often shaken through the same holes as how the Spirits in the repeated acts of Memory should still go through the same Pores Nor can I well apprehend but that those supposed open'd passages would in a short time be stopt up either by the natural gravity of the parts or the making new ones near those or other alterations in the Brain 3. The Hypothesis of Sir Kenelm Digby is next viz. That things are preserv'd in the Memory by material Images that flow from them which having imping'd on the common sense rebound thence into some vacant Cells of the Brain where they keep their ranks and postures as they entred till again they are stirr'd and then they appear to the Fancy as they were first presented But how is it conceiveable That those active Particles which have nothing to unite them or to keep them in any order yea which are continually justled by the occursion of other minute Bodies of which there must needs be great store in this Repository should so long remain in the same state and posture And how is it that when we turn over those Idaea's that are in our memory to look for any thing we would call to mind we do not put all the Images into a disorderly floating and so make a Chaos of confusion there where the exactest Order is required And indeed according to this account I cannot see but that our Memories would be more confused than our Dreams and I can as easily conceive how an heap of Ants
can be kept to regular and uniform Motions 4. Mr. Hobbs attempts another way there is nothing in us according to this Philosopher but Matter and Motion All Sense is Reaction in Matter Leviath Chap. 1. the decay of that Motion and Reaction is Imagination Chap. 2. And Memory is the same thing expressing that decay Ib. So that according to M. H. all our Perceptions are Motions and so is Memory Concerning which I observe but two things 1. Neither the Brain nor Spirits nor any other material Substance within the Head can for any considerable time conserve Motion The Brain is such a clammy Consistence that it can no more retain it than a Quagmire The Spirits are more liquid than the Air which receives every Motion and loseth it as soon And if there were any other corporeal part in us as fitly temper'd to keep Motion as could be wisht yet 2. the Motions made in it would be quickly deadned by Counter-Motions and so we should never remember any thing longer than till the next Impression and it is utterly impossible that so many Motions should orderly succeed one another as things do in our Memories For they must needs ever and anon thwart interfere and obstruct one another and so there would be nothing in our Memories but Confusion and Discord Upon the whole we see that this seemingly plain Faculty the Memory is a Riddle also which we have not yet found the way to resolve I might now add many other difficulties concerning the Vnderstanding Fancy Will and Affections But the Controversies that concern these are so hotly managed by the divided Sohools and so voluminously handled by disputing Men that I shall not need insist on them The only Difficulties about the Will its nature and manner of following the Vnderstanding c. have confounded those that have enquired into it and shewn us little else but that our Minds are as blind as that Faculty is said to be by most Philosophers These Controversies like some Rivers the further they run the more they are hid And perhaps after all our Speculations and Disputes we conceive less of them now than did the more plain and simple Understandings of former times But whether we comprehend or not is not my present business to enquire since I have confined my self to an Account of some great Mysteries that do not make such a noise in the World And having spoken of some that relate to our Souls I come now to some others that concern II. BODIES I begin with our Own which though we see and feel and have them nearest to us yet their inward Constitution and Frame is hitherto an undiscovered Region And the saying of the Kingly Prophet that we are wonderfully made may well be understood of that admiration that is the Daughter of Ignorance For 1. There hath no good account been yet given how our Bodies are formed That there is Art in the contrivance of them cannot be denied even by those that are least beholden to Nature and so elegant is their composure that this very Consideration saved Galen from being an Atheist And I cannot think that the branded Epicurus Lucretius and their Fellows were in earnest when they resolv'd this Composition into a fortuitous range of Atoms 'T were much less absurd to suppose or say that a Watch or other curious Automaton did perform divers exact and regular Motions by chance than 't is to affirm or think that this admirable Engine an Humane Body which hath so many Parts and Motions that orderly cooperate for the good of the whole was framed without the Art of some knowing Agent But who the skilful particular Archeus should be and by what Instruments and Art this Fabrick is erected is still unknown That God hath made us and fashion'd our Bodies in the nethermost parts of the Earth is undoubted But he is the first and universal Cause who transacts things in Nature by secondary Agents and not by his own immediate hand The supposal of this would destroy all Philosophy and enquiry after Causes So that He is still supposed but the Query is of the next and particular Agent that forms the Body in so exquisite a manner a Question that hath not yet been answered Indeed by some 't is thought enough to say That it is done by the Plastick Faculty and by others 't is believ'd that the Soul is that that forms it For the Plastick Faculty 't is a big word but it conveys nothing to the Mind For it signifies but this that the Body is formed by a formative Power that is 't is done by a power of doing it But the doubt remains still what the Agent is that hath this power The other Opinion of the Platonists hath two Branches some will have it to be the particular Soul that fashions its own Body others suppose it to be the general Soul of the World If the former be true By what knowledg doth it do it and how The means and manner are still occult though that were granted And for the other way by a general Soul That is an obscure Principle of which we can know but little and how that acts if we allow such a being whether by knowledg or without the Assertors of it may find difficulty to determine The former makes it little less than God himself and the latter brings us back to Chance or a Plastick Faculty There remains now but one account more and that is the Mechanical viz. That it is done by meer Matter moved after such or such a manner Be that so It will yet be said that Matter cannot move it self the question is still of the Mover The Motions are orderly and regular Query Who guides Blind Matter may produce an elegant effect for once by a great Chance as the Painter accidentally gave the Grace to his Picture by throwing his Pencil in rage and disorder upon it But then constant Uniformities and Determinations to a kind can be no Results of unguided Motions There is indeed a Mechanical Hypothesis to this purpose That the Bodies of Animals and Vegitables are formed out of such particles of Matter as by reason of their Figures will not lie together but in the order that is necessary to make such a Body and in that they naturally concur and rest which seems to be confirm'd by the artificial Resurrection of Plants of which Chymists speak and by the regular Figures of Salts and Minerals the hexagonal of Chrystal the Hemi-spherical of the Fairy-Stone and divers such like And there is an experiment mentioned by approved Authors that looks the same way It is That after a decoction of Herbs in a frosty Night the shape of the Plants will appear under the Ice in the Morning which Images are supposed to be made by the congregated Eâ—…uvia of the Plants themselves which loosly wandring up and down in the Water at last settle in their natural place and order and so make up an appearance of the Herbs from
their impressions therefore the Fallacies and Deceits are imputed to their misinformations This I premise to prevent a Philosophical mistake but shall retain the common way of speaking and call those the errors of the Senses That these very frequently misreport things to us we are assured even from themselves a straight stick seems crooked in the Water and a square Towre round at a distance All things are Yellow to those that have the Jaundice and all Meats are bitter to the disaffected Palate To which vulgar Instances it will presently be answer'd that the Senses in those cases are not in their just circumstances but want the fit medium due distance and sound disposition which we know very well and learn there was somewhat amiss because our Senses represent those things otherwise at othertimes we see the stick is straight when it is out of the Water and the Tower is square when we are near it Objects have other Colours and Meats other tastes when the Body and its Senses are in their usual temper In such cases Sense rectifies its own mistakes and many times one the errors of another but if it did not do so we should have been alwayes deceived even in those Instances and there is no doubt but that there are many other like deceptions in which we have no contrary evidence from them to disabuse us not in the matters of common Life but in things of remoter speculation which this state seems not to be made for The Senses must have their due medium and distance and temper if any of these are amiss they represent their Objects otherwise to us than they are Now these we may suppose they generally have in the necessary matters of Life if not to report things to us as they are in themselves yet to give them us so as may be for our accommodation and advantage But how are we assur'd that they are thus rightly disposed in reference to things of Speculative Knowledg What medium what distance what temper is necessary to convey Objects to us just so as they are in the realities of Nature I observ'd before that our Senses are short imperfect and uncommensurate to the vastness and profundity of things and therefore cannot receive the just Images of them and yet we judg all things according to those confused and imperfect Idaeas which must needs lead us into infinite errors and mistakes If I would play the Sceptick here I might add That no one can be sure that any Objects appear in the same manner to the Senses of other men as they do to his Yea it may seem probable that they do not For though the Images Motions or whatever else is the cause of Sence may be alike as from them yet the representations may be much varied according to the nature and quality of the recipient we find things look otherwise to us through an Optick Tube then they do when we view them at a distance with our naked eyes the same Object appears red when we look at it through a Glass of that Colour but green when we behold it through one of such a Tincture Things seem otherwise when the Eye is distorted then they do when it is in its natural ordinary posture and some extraordinary alterations in the Brain double that to us which is but a single Object Colours are different according to different Lights and Positions as 't is in the necks of Doves and folds of Scarlet Thus difference in circumstances alters the sensation and why may we not suppose as much diversity in the Senses of several men as there is in those accidents in the perceptions of one There is difference in the Organs of Sense and more in the temper and configuration of the inward parts of the Brain by which motions are convey'd to the seat of Sense in the Nerves Humours and Spirits in respect of tenuity liquidity aptitude for motion and divers other circumstances of their nature from which it seems that great diversity doth arise in the manner of receiving the Images and consequently in the perceptions of their Objects So then though every man knows how things appear to himself yet what impressions they make upon the so different Senses of another he only knows certainly that is conscious to them And though all men agree to call the impression they feel from such or such an Object by the same name yet no one can assuredly tell but that the Sentiment may be different It may be one man hath the impression of Green from that which in another begets the Sense of Yellow and yet they both call it Green because from their infancy they were wont to join that word to that Sentiment which such an Object produc'd in their particular Sense though in several men it were a very divers one This I know some will think hard to be understood but I cannot help that Those that Consider will find it to be very plain and therefore I shall spend no more words about it The Sum is Our Senses are good Judges of Appearances as they concern us but how things are in themselves and how they are to others it should seem we cannot certainly learn from them And therefore when we determine that they are and must be according to the representations of our individual Senses we are very often grosly deceiv'd in such sentences to which yet we are exceeding prone and few but the most exercised minds can avoid them Of this I 'le give a great Instance or two 1. It is almost universally believ'd at least by the vulgar that the Earth rests on the Centre of the World and those ancient Philosophers have been extreamly hooted at and derided that have taught the contrary doctrine For my part I shall affirm nothing of the main question but this I say That the common inducement to believe it stands still viz the Testimony of Sense is no argument of it And whether the opinion of Pythagoras Copernicus Des-Cartes Galilaeo and almost all late Philosophers of the motion of the Earth be true or false the belief of its Rest as far as it ariseth from the presum'd evidence of Sence is an error That there is some common motion that makes the day and night and the varieties of seasons is very plain and sensible but whether the Earth or the Sun be the Body mov'd none of our Senses can determine To Sense the Sun stands still also and no Eye can perceive its Actual motion For though we find that in a little time it hath chang'd its Position and respect to us yet whether that change be caus'd by its translation from us or ours from it the Sense can never tell and yet from this and this only the greatest part of mankind believes its motion On the other side The standing still of the Earth is concluded the same way and yet though it did move it would appear fixt to us as now it doth since we are carried with it in a regular
cannot conceive a Spirit or any being without extension whereas others say They cannot conceive but that whatever is extended is impenetrable and consequently corporeal which diversity I think I have reason to ascribe to some difference in the natural temper of the mind 2. But another very fatal occasion of our mistakes is the great prejudice of Custom and Education which is so unhappily prevalent that though the Soul were never so truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher call'd it an unwritten table in it self yet this doth very often so scribble on it as to render it incapable of other impressions we judg all things by those Anticipations and condemn or applaud them as they differ or agree with our first Opinions 'T is on this account that almost every Country censures the Laws Customs and Doctrines of every other as absurd and unreasonable and are confirm'd in their own follies beyond possibility of conviction Our first Age is like the melted wax to the prepared Seal that receives any impression and we suck in the opinions of our Clime and Country as we do the common Air without thought or choice and which is worse we usually sit down under those Prejudices of Education and Custom all our Lives after For either we are loth to trouble our selves to examine the Doctrines we have long taken for granted or we are scar'd from inquiring into the things that Custom and common Belief have made Venerable and Sacred We are taught to think with the Hermit that the Sun shines no were but in our Cells and that Truth and Certainty are confin'd within that Belief in which we were first instructed From whence we contract an obstinate adherence to the conceits in which we were bred and a resolv'd contempt of all other Doctrines So that what Astrologers say of our Fortunes and the events of common life may as well be said of the opinions of the most that they are written in their Stars having as little freedom in them as the effects of Destiny And since the Infusions of Education have such interest in us are so often appeal'd to as the dictates of Truth and impartial Reason 't is no wonder we are so frequently deceiv'd and are so imperfect in our Knowledg Another cause of which is 3. The power that Interest hath over our Affections and by them over our Judgments When men are ingag'd by this they can find Truth any where and what is thought convenient to be true will at last be believed to be so Facilè credimus quod volumus So that I do not think that the learned Assertors of vain and false Religions and Opinions do always profess against their Consciences rather their Interest brings their Consciences to their Profession for this doth not only corrupt Mens Practise but very often pervert their Minds also and insensibly mislead them into Errours 4. But our Affections misguide us by the respect we have to others as well as by that we bear to our selves I mentioned The Instances of Antiquity and Authority We look with a superstitious Reverence upon the accounts of past Ages and with a supercilious Severity on the more deserving products of our own a vanity that hath possest all times as well as ours and the golden Age was never present For as an inconsiderable Weight by vertue of it's distance from the Centre of the Ballance will out-weigh much heavier bodies that are nearer to it so the most light and vain things that are far off from the present Age have more Esteem and Veneration then the most considerable and substantial that bear a modern date and we account that nothing worth that is not fetcht from a far off in which we very often deceive our selves as that Mariner did that brought home his Ship Fraught with common Pebbles from the Indies We adhere to the Determinations of our Fathers as if their Opinions were entail'd on us and our Conceptions were ex-Traduce And thus while every Age is but an other shew of the former 't is no wonder that humane science is no more advanced above it's ancient Stature For while we look on some admired Authors as the Oracles of all Knowledg and spend that time and those pains in the Study and Defence of their Doctrines which should have been imploy'd in the search of Truth and Nature we must needs stint our own Improvements and hinder the Advancement of Science Since while we are Slaves to the Opinions of those before us Our Discoveries like water will not rise higher then their Fountains and while we think it such Presumption to endeavour beyond the Ancients we fall short of Genuine Antiquity Truth unless we suppose them to have reach't perfection of Knowledg in spight of their own acknowledgments of Ignorance And now whereas it is observ'd that the Mathematicks and Mechanick Arts have considerably advanc'd and got the start of other Sciences this may be considered as a chief cause of it That their Progress hath not been retarded by this reverential awe of former Discoveries 'T was never an Heresie to out-limn Apelles or to out-work the Obelisks Galilaeuâ—… without a Crime out-saw all Antiquity and was not afraid to believe his Eyes in reverence to Aristotle and Ptolomy 'T is no disparagement to those famous Optick Glasses that the Ancients never us'd them nor are we shy of their Informations because they were hid from Ages We believe the polar vertue of the Loadstone without a Certificate from the dayes of old and do not confine our selves to the sole conduct of the Stars for fear of being wiser than our Fathers Had Authority prevail'd here the fourth part of the Earth had been yet unknown and Hercules Pillars had still been the Worlds Ne ultra Senecd's Prophesie had been an unfulfil'd Prediction and one Moity of our Globes an empty Hemisphere 'T is true we owe much reverence to the Ancients and many thanks to them for their Helps and Discoveries but implicitly and servilely to submit our Judgments to all Opinions is inconsistent with that respect that we may and ought to have to the freedom of our our own Minds and the dignity of Humane Nature And indeed as the great Lord Bacon hath observ'd we have a wrong apprehension of Antiquity which in the common acception is but the nonage of the World Antiquitas seculi est juventus Mâ—…di So that in those Appeals we fetch our Knowledg from the Cradle and the comparative infancy of days Upon a true account the present Age is the greatest Antiquity and if that must govern and sway our Judgments let multitude of days speak If we would reverence the Ancients as we ought we should dâ—… it by imitating their Example which was not supiâ—…ly and superstitionsly to sit down in fond admiration of the Learning of those that were before them but to examine their Writings to avoid their Mistakes and to use their Discoveries in order to the further improvement of Knowledg
and timorous World hath rescued Philosophers from the trouble of dreadful Presages and the mischievous Consequences that arise from those superstitious Abodings For whatever the casual Coincidencies may be between those Phaenomena and the direful Events that are sometimes observed closely to attend them which as my Lord Bacon truly notes are observ'd when they bit not when they miss I say notwithstanding these the Real Experimental Philosophy makes it appear that they are Heavenly Bodies far above all the Regions of Vapours in which we are not concerned and so they are neither the Signs nor the Causes of our Mischiefs And for the other little things which afford Matter for the Tales about Prodigies and other ominous Appearings the knowledge of Nature by exciting worthy and magnificent conceptions of the God of Nature cures that blasphemous abuse of the adorable Majesty whereby foolish Men attribute every trivial event that may serve their turns against those they hate to his immediate extraordinary interposal For 't is ignorance of God and his Works that disposeth Men to absurd ridiculous Surmises uncharitable Censures seditious Machinations and so to Thoughts that are prejudicial to the Glory of God the Interests of Religion and the security of Government to that Justice and Charity we owe to others and to the happiness that we seek our selves To which I add That this kind of Superstition is a relique of Pagan Ignorance which made Men look on Thunder Eclipses Earthquakes and all the more terrifying Phaenomena of Nature as the immediate Effects of Powers Supernatural and to judge Events by flights of Birds and garbages of Cattel by the accidental occursions of this Creature and the other and almost every casual occurrence But these Particulars have been most ingeniously represented and reproved in a late very elegant Discourse about Prodigies And though I do not acquiesce in the Design of that excellently penn'd Book which is to discredit and take away all kinds of Presages Yet I think it hath done rarely well so far as it discovers the folly and mischiefs of that ignorant and superstitious Spirit that makes every thing a Prodigy With such apprehensions as these the knowledge of Nature fills those Minds that are instructed in it And there is no doubt but that the Antipathy the Real Philosophy bears to all the kinds of Superstition is one cause why zealous Ignorance brands those Researches with the mark of Atheism and Irreligion For superstitious Folly adopts those groundless Trifles which Philosophy contemns and reproves into the Family of Religion and therefore reproacheth the Despisers of them as Enemies to the Faith and Power of Godliness So it fared with some of the bravest Spirits of ancient times who have had black Characters fixt upon their great and worthy Names only for their Oppositions of the foolish Rites and Idolatries of the vulgar Heathen We know the case of Socrates And as to the interest of their Names that of Anaxagoras Theodorus Protagoras and Epicurus was much worse the causless infamy coming down the Stream as far as the last Ages Since then we know who was an Heretick for saying there were Antipodes and a Pope was taken for a Conjurer for being a Mathematician yea those noble Sciences were counted Diabolical and even the Sacred Language could scarce escape the suspicion In later times Galilaeo fell into the Inquisition for the Discoveries of his Telescopes and Campanella could not endeavour to assert and vindicate the freedom of his Mind without losing that of his Person I might come nearer to our own days and knowledge Gothick barharity and the Spirit of the Iuquisition is not quite worn out of the Reformation Though indeed it ordinarily remains but among the scum and dregs of Men And no one is either less Religious or less Wise for being accounted an Atheist by the common Rabble But where-ever the knowledge of Nature and God's Works hath in any degree obtain'd those vile Superstitions have been despised and put to an infamous flight But to take another step IV. THe Real Philosophy and knowledge of God's Works serves Religion against Enthusiasm another dreadful Enemy Now Enthusiasm is a false conceit of Inspiration and all the bold and mistaken Pretensions to the Spirit in our days are of this sort What particularly Religion hath suffer'd from it would be too long to reckon upon this occasion It will be enough to say in an Age that hath so much and such sad experience of it That Enthusiasm hath introduced much phantastry into Religion and made way for all imaginable Follies and even Atheism it self which it hath done two ways 1. By crying up the Excesses and Diseases of Imagination for the greatest height of Godliness And 2. By the disparagrment of sober Reason as an Enemy to the Principles of Faith And Philosophy assists Religion against both these FOR the first in order The real knowledge of Nature detects the dangerous imposture by shewing what strange things may be effected by no diviner a cause than a strong Fancy impregnated by Heated Melancholy For this sometimes warms the Brain to a degree that makes it very active and imaginative full of odd Thoughts and unexpected Suggestions so that if the Temper determine the Imagination to Religion it flies at high things at interpretations of dark and Prophetick Scriptures at Predictions of future Events and mysterious Discoveries which the Man expresseth fluently and boldly with a peculiar and pathetick Eloquence which pregnances being not ordinary but much beyond the usual tone and temper of the Enthusiast and he having heard great things of the Spirits immediate Motions and Inspirations cannot well fail of believing himself inspired and of intitling all the excursious of his Fancy to the immediate Actings of the Holy Ghost and those thoughts by the help of natural pride and self-love will work also exceedingly upon the heightned Affections and they upon the Body so far as to cast it sometimes into Raptures Extasies and Deliquiums of Sense in which every Dream is taken for a Prophesie every Image of the Fancy for a Vision and all the glarings of the Imagination for new Lights and Revelations Thus have our Modern Prophets been inspired by Temper and Imagination and not by Design only For we may not think they are all Hypocrites and knowing Impostors No they generally believe themselves and the strength of their highly invigorated Fancies shuts out the sober Light of Reason that should disabuse them as sleep doth that of our External Senses in our Dreams And the silly People that understand not Nature but are apt to take every thing that is vebement to be sacred are easily deceived into the belief of those Pretensions and thus Diseases have been worship'd for Religion This account the Philosophy of Humane Nature gives of that by which the World hath been so miserably abused And when we cast our eyes abroad we may plainly see that those glorious things are no more than what hath been done
their peculiar Animals The certainty of which I believe the improvement of Microscopical Observations will discover From whence I infer That since this little Spot is so thickly peopled in every Atom of it ' â—…is weakness to think that all the vast spaces above and hollows under Ground are desert and uninhabited And if both the superiour and lower Continents of the Universe have their Inhabitants also 't is exceedingly improbable arguing from the same Analogy that they are all of the meer sensible Nature but that there are at least some of the Rational and Intellectual Orders Which supposed there is good foundation for the belief of Witches and Apparitions though the Notion of a Spirit should prove as absurd and unphilosophical as I judg the Denial of it And so this first Objection comes to nothing I descend then to the second Prejudice which may be thus formed in behalf of the Objectors II. II. THere are Actions in most of those Relations ascribed to Witches which are ridiculous and impossible in the nature of things such are 1. their flying out of Windows after they have anointed themselves to remote places 2. Their transformation into Cats Hares and other Creatures 3. Their feeling all the hurts in their own Bodies which they have received in those 4. Their raising Tempests by mattering some nonsensical words or performing Ceremonies alike impertinent as ridiculous And 5. their being suck'd in a certain private place of their Bodies by a Familiar These are presumed to be actions inconsistent with the nature of Spirits and above the powers of those poor and miserable Agents And therefore the Objection supposeth them performed only by the Fancy and that the whole mystery of Witchcraft is but an illusion of crasie Imagination To this aggregate Objection I return 1. In the general The more absurd and unaccountable these Actions seem the greater confirmations are they to me of the truth of those Relations and the reality of what the Objectors would destroy For these Circumstances being exceeding unlikely judging by the measures of common belief 't is the greater probability they are not fictitious For the contrivers of Fictions use to form them to as near a conformity as they can to the most unsuspected Realities endeavouring to make them look as like Truth as is possible in the main Supposals though withal they make them strange in the Circumstance None but a Fool or Madman would relate with a purpose of having it believed that he saw in Ireland Men with Horns on their Heads and Eyes in their Breasts or if any should be so ridiculously vain as to be serious in such an incredible Romance it cannot be supposed that all Travellers that come into those parts after him should tell the same Story There is a large Field in Fiction and is all those Relations were Arbitrary Compositions doubtless the first Romancers would have framed them more agreeable to the common Doctrine of Spirits at least after these supposed Absurdities had been a thousand times laugh'd at People by this time would have learn'd to correct those obnoxious Extravagancies and though they have not yet more Veracity than the Ages of Ignorance and Superstition yet one would expect they should have got more Cunning. This suppos'd Impossibility then of these Performances seems to me a probable Argument that they are not wilful and designed Forgeries And if they are Fancies 't is somewhat strange that Imagination which is the most various thing in all the World should infinitely repeat the same Conceits in all Times and Places BUT again 2. the strange Actions related of Witches and presumed to be impossible are not ascribed to their own Powers but to the Agency of those wicked Confederates they imploy And to affirm that those evil Spirits cannot do that which we conceit impossible is boldly to stint the powers of Creatures whose Natures and Faculties we know not and to measure the world of Spirits by the narrow Rules of our own impotent Beings We see among our selves the Performances of some out-go the Conceits and Possibilities of others and we know many things may be done by the Mathematicks and Mechanick Artifice which common Heads think impossible to be effected by the honest ways of Art and Nature And doubtless the subtilties and powers of those mischievous Fiends are as much beyond the reach and activities of the most knowing Agents among us as theirs are beyond the wit and ability of the most rustick and illiterate So that the utmost that any Man's Reason in the World can amount to in this particular is only this That he cannot conceive how such things can be performed which only argues the weakness and imperfection of our Knowledg and Apprehensions not the impossibility of those Performances and we can no more from hence form an Argument against them than against the most ordinary Effects in Nature We cannot conceive how the Fâ—… is form'd in the Womb nor as much as how a Plant springs from the Earth we tread on we know not how our Souâ—…s move the Body nor how these distant and extream Natures are united as I have shewn elsewhere And if we are ignoâ—…t of the most obvious things about us and the most considerable within our selves 't is then no wonder that we know not the Constitution and Powers of the Creatures to whom we are such strangers Briefly then Matters of Fact well proved ought not to be denied because we cannot conceive how they can be performed Nor is it a reasonable method of Inference first to presume the thing impossible and thence to conclude that the Fact cannot be proved On the contrary we should judg of the Action by the Evidence and not the Evidence by our Fancies about the Action This is proudly to exalt our own Opinions above the clearest Testimonies and most sensible Demonstrations of Fact and so to give the Lye to all Mankind rather than distrust the Conceits of our bold Imaginations But yet further 3. I think there is nothing in the Instances mention'd but what may as well be accounted for by the Rules of Reason and Philosophy as the ordinary Affairs of Nature For in resolving Natural Phaenomena we can only assign the probable Causes shewing how things may be not presuming how they are And in the particulars under our Examen we may give an account how 't is possible and not unlikely that such things though somewhat varying from the common road of Nature may be acted And if our narrow and contracted Minds can furnish us with apprehensions of the way and manner of such Performances though perhaps not the true ones 't is an argument that such things may be effected by Creatures whose Powers and Knowledg are so vastly exceeding ours I shall endeavour therefore briefly to suggest some things that may render the possibility of such performances conceivable in order to the removal of this Objection that they are Contradictions and impossible For the first then That the
like by which the contagious Quality may be transmitted as we see Diseases often are by the touch Now in this way of conjecture a good account may be given why Witches are most powerful upon Children and timerous Persons viz. because their Spirits and Imaginations being weak and passive are not able to resist the fatal Influence whereas Men of bold Minds who have plenty of strong and vigorous Spirits are secure from the Contagion as in pestilential Airs clean Bodies are not so liable to Infection as other tempers Thus we see 't is likely enough that very often the Sorceress her self doth the mischief and we know de facto that Providence doth not always secure us from one anothers Injuries And yet I must confess that many times also the Evil Spirit is the Mischievous Agent though this Confession draw on me another Objection which I next propose V. V. IT may be said that if Wicked Spirits can hurt as by the Direction and at the desire of a Witch one would think they should have the same power to do us injury without instigation or compact and if this be granted 't is a wonder that we are not always annoyed and infested by them To which I Answer 1. That the Laws Liberties and Restraints of the Inhabitants of the other World are to us utterly unknown and in this way we can only argue our selves into confessions of our Ignorance which every Man must acknowledge that is not as immodest as ignorant It must be granted by all that own the Being Power and Malice of Evil Spirits that the security we enjoy is wonderful whether they act by Witches or not and by what Laws they are kept from making us a Prey to speak like Philosophers we cannot tell Yea why they should be permitted to tempt and ruine us in our Souls and restrain'd from touching or hurting us in our Bodies is a Mystery not easily accountable But 2. though we acknowledg their Power to vex and torment us in our Bodies also yet a reason may be given why they are less frequent in this kind of mischief viz. because their main Designs are levell'd against the interest and happiness of our Souls which they can best promote when their Actions are most sly and secret whereas did they ordinarily persecute Men in their Bodies their Agency and wicked Influence would be discover'd and make a mighty noise in the World whereby Men would be awaken'd to a sutable and vigorous opposition by the use of such means as would engage Providence to rescue them from their rage and cruelties and at last defeat them in their great purposes of undoing us eternally Thus we may conceive that the security we enjoy may well enough consist with the power and malice of those Evil Spirits and upon this account may suppose that Laws of their own may prohibit their unlicenc'd Injuries not from any goodness there is in their Constitutions but in order to the more successful carrying on the projects of the Dark Kingdom as Generals forbid Plunder not out of love to their Enemies but in order to their own success And hence 3. we may suppose a Law of Permission to hurt us at the instance of the Sorceress may well stand with the polity of Hell since by gratifying the wicked Person they encourage her in malice and revenge and promote thereby the main ends of their black Confederacy which are to propagate Wickedness and to ruine us in our eternal Interests And yet 4. 't is clear to those that believe the History of the Gospel that Wicked Spirits have vexed the Bodies of Men without any instigation that we read of and at this day 't is very likely that many of the strange Accidents and Diseases that befal us may be the infliction of Evil Spirits prompted to hurt us only by the delight they take in mischief So that we cannot argue the improbability of their hurting Children and others by Witches from our own security and freedom from the Effects of their Malice which perhaps we feel in more Instances than we are aware of VI. VI. ANother Prejudice against the belief of Witches is a presumption upon the enormous force of Melancholly and Imagination which without doubt can do wonderful Things and beget strange Perswasions and to these Causes some ascribe all the Effects of Sorcery and Witchcraft To which I reply briefly and yet I hope sufficiently 1. That to resolve all the clear Circumstances of Fact which we find in well-attested and confirm'd Relations of this kind into the power of deceivable Imagination is to make Fancy the greater Prodigy and to suppose that it can do stranger Feats than are believed of any other kind of Fascination To think that Pins and Nails for instance can by the power of Imagination be convey'd within the Skin or that Imagination should deceive so many as have been Witnesses in Objects of Sense in all the Circumstances of Discovery This I say is to be infinitely more credulous than the Assertors of Sorcery and Demoniack Contracts By the same reason it may be believ'd that all the Battels and strange Events of the World which our selves have not seen are but Dreams and fond Imaginations and like those that are fought in the Clouds when the Brains of the deluded Spectators are the only Theatre of those fancied Transactions And 2. to deny evidence of Fact because their Imagination may deceive the Relators when we have no reason to think so but a bare presumption that there is no such thing as is related is quite to destroy the Credit of all Humane Testimony and to make all Men liars in a larger sense than the Prophet concluded in his haste For not only the Melancholick and the Fanciful but the Grave and the Sober whose Judgements we have no reason to suspect to be tainted by their Imaginations have from their own knowledge and experience made reports of this Nature But to this it will possibly be rejoyn'd and the Reply will be another prejudice against the belief for which I contend viz. VII VII THat 't is a suspicious circumstance that Witchcraft is but a Fancy since the Persons that are accused are commonly poor and miserable old Women who are over-grown with discontent and melancholy which are very imaginative and the Persons said to be bewitch'd are for the most part Children or People very weak who are easily imposed upon and are apt to receive strong Impressions from nothing whereas were there any such thing really 't is not likely but that the more cunning and subtil Desperado's who might the more successfully carry on the mischievous Designs of the Dark Kingdom should be oftener engaged in those black Confederacies and also one would expect Effects of the Hellish Combination upon others than the Innocent and the Ignorant To which Objection it might perhaps be enough to return as hath been above suggested that nothing can be concluded by this and such-like arguings but that the
and Illusions To make a due return to this we must consider a great and difficult Problem which is What is a Real Miracle And for answer to this weighty Question I think 1. That it is not the strangeness or unaccountableness of the thing done simply from whence we are to conclude a Miracle For then we are so to account of all the Magnalia of Nature and all the Mysteries of those honest Arts which we do not understand Nor 2. is this the Criterion of a Miracle That it is an Action or Event beyond all Natural Powers for we are ignorant of the Extent and Bounds of Nature's Sphere and Possibilities And if this were the character and essential Mark of a Miracle we could not know what was so except we could determine the extent of natural causalities and fix their Bounds and be able to say to Nature Hitherto canst thou go and no further And he that makes this his measure whereby to judge a Miracle is himself the greatest Miracle of Knowledge or Immodesty Besides though an Effect may transcend really all the Powers of meer Nature yet there is a world of Spirits that must be taken into our Account And as to them also I say 3. Every thing is not a Miracle that is done by Agents Supernatural There is no doubt but that Evil Spirits can make wonderful Combinations of Natural Causes and perhaps perform many things immediately which are prodigious and beyond the longest Line of Nature but yet these are not therefore to be called Miracles for they are Saecred Wonders and suppose the Power to be Divine But how shall the Power be known to be so when we so little understand the Capacities and extent of the Abilities of Lower Agents The Answer to this Question will discover the Criterion of Miracles which must be supposed to have all the former Particulars viz. They are unaccountable beyond the Powers of meer Nature and done by Agents Supernatural And to these must be superadded 4. That they have peculiar Circumstances that speak them of a Divine Original Their mediate Authors declare them to be so and they are always Persons of Simplicity Truth and Holiness void of Ambition and all secular Designs They seldom use Ceremonies or Natural Applications and yet surmount all the Activities of known Nature They work those wonders not to raise admiration or out of the vanity to be talkt of but to seal and confirm some Divine Doctrine or Commission in which the Good and Happiness of the World is concern'd I say by such Circumstances as these Wonderful Actions are known to be from a Divine Cause and that makes and distinguisheth a Miracle And thus I am prepared for an Answer to the Objection to which I make this brief return That though Witches by their Confederate Spirit do those odd and astonishing things we believe of them yet are they no Miracles there being evidence enough from the badness of their Lives and the ridiculous Ceremonies of their Performances from their malice and mischievous Designs that the Power that works and the end for which those things are done is not Divine but Diabolical And by singular Providence they are not ordinarily permitted as much as to pretend to any new Sacred Discoveries in Matters of Religion or to act any thing for confirmation of Doctrinal Impostures So that whether Miracles are ceased or not these are none And that such Miracles as are only strange and unaccountable Performances above the common Methods of Art or Nature are not ceas'd we have a late great evidence in the famous GREATREX concerning whom it will not be impertinent to add the following account which I had in a Letter from Dr. G. R. Lord Bishop of D. in the Kingdom of Ireland a Person of singular Piery and Vertue and a great-Philosopher He is pleased thus to write THe great discourse now at the Coffee-Houses and every-where is about M.G. the famous Irish Stroker concerning whom it is like you expect an account from me He undergoes various Censures here some take him to be a Conjurer and some an Impostor but others again adore him as an Apostle I confess I think the Man is free from all Design of a very agreeable Conversation not addicted to any Vice nor to any Sect or Party but is I believe a sincere Protestant I was three weeks together with him at my Lord Conwayes and saw him I think lay his hands upon a thousand Persons and really there is something in it more than ordinary but I am convinc'd it is not miraculous I have seen pains strangely fly before his hand till he hath chased them out of the Body Dimness cleared and Deafness cured by his Touch twenty Persons at several times in Fits of the Falling-Sickness were in two or three minutes brought to themselves so as to tell where their pain was and then he hath pursued it till he hath driven it out at some extream part Running Sores of the Kings-Evil dried up and Kernels brought to a Suppuration by his hand grievous Sores of many months date in few dayes healed Obstructions and Stoppings removed Cancerous Knots in the Breast dissolved c. But yet I have many Reasons to perswade me that nothing of all this is Miraculous He pretends not to give Testimony to any Doctrine the manner of his Operation speaks it to be natural the Cure seldom succeeds without reiterated Touches his Patients often relapse he fails frequently he can do nothing where there is any decay in Nature and many Distempers are not at all obedient to his Touch. So that I confess I refer all his Vertue to his particular Temper and Complexion and I take his Spirits to be a kind of Elixir and Vniversal Ferment and that he cures as Dr. M. expresseth it by a Sanative Contagion This Sir was the first Account of the Healer I had from that Reverend Person which with me signifies more than the Attestations of multitudes of ordinary Reporters and no doubt but it will do so likewise with all that know that excellent Bishop's singular Integrity and Judgment But besides this upon my inquiry into some other Particulars about this Matter I received these further Informations from the same Learned Hand As for M.G. what Opinion he hath of his own Gift and how he came to know it I Answer He hath a different apprehension of it from yours and mine and certainly believing it to be an immediate Gift from Heaven and 't is no wonder for he is no Philosopher And you will wonder less when you hear how he came to know it as I have often received it from his own Mouth About three or four years ago he had a strong impulse upon his Spirit that continually pursued him from what-ever he was about at his Business or Devotion alone or in company that spake to him by this inward Suggestion I have given thee the Gift of Curing the Evil. This Suggestion was so importunate that he
complained to his Wife That he thought he was haunted She apprehending it as an extravagancy of Fancy but he told her he believed there was more in it and was resolved to try He did not long want opportunity There was a Neighbour of his grievously afflicted with the Kings-Evil He stroked her and the Effect fucceeded And for about a twelve-month together he pretended to cure no other Distemper But then the Ague being very rife in the Neighbourhood the same Impulse after the same manner spoke within him I have given thee the Gift of curing the Ague and meeting with Persons in their Fits and taking them by the Hand or laying his Hand upon their Breasts the Ague left them About half a year after the accustomed Impulfe became more general and suggested to him I have given thee the Gift of Healing and then he attempted all Diseases indifferently And though he saw strange Effects yet he doubted whether the Cause were any Vertue that came from him or the Peoples fancy To convince him of his incredulity as he lay one night in Bed one of his Hands was struck dead and the usual Impulse suggested to him to make tryal of his Vertue upon himself which he did stroking it with his other hand and then it immediately returned to its former liveliness This was repeated two or three Nights or Mornings together This is his Relation and I believe there is so much sincerity in the Person that he tells no more than what he believes to be true To say that this Impulse too was but a result of his temper and that it is but like Dreams that are usually according to Mens Constitutions doth not seem a probable account of the Phaenomenon Perhaps some may think it more likely that some Genius who understood the Sanative Vertue of his Complexion and the readiness of his Mind and ability of his Body to put it in execution might give him notice of that which otherwise might have been for ever unknown to him and so the Gift of God had been to no purpose This is my Learned and Reverend Friend's Relation I shall say no more about it but this That many of those Matters of Fact have been since critically inspected and examined by several sagacious and wary Persons of the Royal Society and other Very Learned and Judicious Men whom we may suppose as unlikely to be deceived by a contrived Imposture as any others whatsoever I Have now done with my Considerations on this Subject which I could wish were less seasonable and necessary than I have reason to believe they are But alas we live in an Age wherein Atheism is begun in Sadducism And those that dare not bluntly say There is no God content themselves for a fair step and Introduction to deny there are Spirits or Witches Which sort of Insidels though they are not so ordinary among the meer Vulgar yet are they numerous in a little higher rank of Understandings And those that know any thing of the World know That most of the small Pretenders to Wit are generally deriders of the belief of Witches and Apparitions Which were it only a slight or meer speculative Mistake I should not trouble my self or them about it But I fear this Error hath a Core in it worse than Heresie And therefore how little soever I care what Men believe or teach in Matters of Opinion I think I have reason to be concern'd in an Affair that toucheth so near upon the greatest Interests of Religion And really I am astonisht sometimes to think into what a kind of Age we are fallen in which some of the greatest Impieties are accounted but Buggs and terrible Names Invisible Tittles Piccadillo's or Chimera's The sad and greatest Instances are Secriledge â—…ellton and â—…hcrast For the two former there are a sort of Men that are far from being profest Enemies to Religion who I do not know whether they own any such Vices We find no mention of them in their most particular Confessions nâ—…r have I observed them in those Sermons that have contained the largest Catalogues of the Sins of our Age and Nation 'T were dangerous to speak of them as Sins for fean who should be found guilty But my Business at present is not with these but the other Witchcraft which I am sure was a Sin of Elder Times and how comes it about that our Age which so much out-does them in all other kinds of Wickedness should be wholly innocent in this That there may be Witches and Apparitions in our days notwithstanding the Objections of the Modern Sadduce I believe I have made appear in the foregoing Considerations in which I did not primarily intend direct Proof but Defence Against which if it should be Objected That I have for the most part used only Supposals and conjectural Things in the vindication of the Common Belief and speak with no point-blank assurance in my particular Answers as I do in the General Conclusion I need only say That the Proposition I defend is Matter of Fact which the Disbelievers impugne by alledging That it cannot be or it is not likely In return to which if I shew how those things may be and probable notwithstanding their Allegations though I say not down-right that they are in the particular way I offer yet 't is enough for the Design of Defence though not for that of Proof for when one saith a thing cannot be and I tell him how possibly it may though I hit not the just manner of it I yet defeat the Objection against it and make way for the evidence of the thing de Facto But after all this I must confess there is one Argument against me which is not to be dealt with viz. A mighty Confidence grounded upon nothing that swaggers and Huffs and swears there are no Witches For such Philosophers as these let them enjoy the Opinion of their own Superlative Judgments and enter me in the first rank of Fools for crediting my Senses and those of all the World before their sworn Dictates If they will believe in Scott Habbs and Osborne and think them more infallible than the Sacred Oracles the History of all Ages and the full experience of our own who can help it They must not be contradicted and they are resolved not to be perswaded For this sort of Men I never go about to convince them of any thing If I can avoid it I throw nothing before them lest they should turn again and rend me Their Opinions came into their Heads by chance when their little Reasons had no notice of their entrance and they must be let alone to go out again of themselves the fame way they entred Therefore not to make much noise to disturb these infallible Huffers and they cannot hear a little for their own I softly step along leaving them to believe what they think I have only this further to add That I appear thus much concerned for the justification of the belief of