these observations 1. Though Mr. Hotham seem to judge that this person accused had the white powder from some Spirit and that one also of the evil sort and upon a contract by the ingaging of his Soul we have before sufficiently proved the nullity of a visible and corporeal contract with the Devil neither was it yet ever proved that the Devil did any good either real or apparent but is the sworn enemy of all mankind both in their Souls and in their Bodies but this powder wrought that which was really good namely the curing of diseases and therefore rationally cannot be thought to be given from an evil spirit 2. Some there were that thought that the simple man told a plain and true story and that he had the powder from those people we call Fairies and there are many that do believe and affirm that there are such people of whom Paracelsus hath a Treatise of purpose holding that they are not of the seed of Adam and therefore he calls them non-Adamicks and that they have flesh and bones and so differ from spirits and yet that they can glide through walls and rocks which he calleth their Chaos as easily as we through the air and that they get children and are mortal like those that Hieronynus Cardanus relateth that appeared to his Father Facius Cardanus and these he calleth Pygmaei Silvestres Gnomi and Umbratiles but his proof of their existence to me doth not seem satisfactory what others may think of it I leave to their demonstrations if they have any 3. Some there were and those not of the meer ignorant sort that did judge that though the Man was simple yet that the story that he told was but framed and taught him the better to conceal the person from whom he received the white powder For they thought that some notable Chymist or rather an Adeptist had in charity bestowed that powder upon him for the relief of himself and family as we know it hath often happened to other persons at other times and places And this last opinion seems most consonant to reason and I the rather believe it because not many years after it was certainly known that there was an Adeptist in that Countrey and we ought not to fetch in supernatural causes to solve effects when natural causes may serve the turn 6. The last thing of this strange nature that we shall instance in is concerning the bleeding or cruentation of the bodies of those that have been murthered I mean of such as have been murthered by prepense malice and upon premeditated purpose for the bodies of others that are killed by chance-medley and by man-slaughter we do not read nor find any examples that ever their bodies did bleed And though we have not been ocular witness of any such bleeding yet are there records of such accidents given us by many learned and credible authors that a man might almost be accounted an Infidel not to give credit to them and that both of those that have bled when the murtherer hath not been present and also of those that have bled the murtherer being present And first of those bodies that have issued blood when the murtherer was not by Gregorius Horstius a Physician of great experience and learning and of no less integrity recordeth this story thus Englished In the year of our Lord 1604. the twenty sixth day of December a young Nobleman of twenty five years old was shot at with a Gun in the night time about nine a clock from an high window of an house in the Town of Blindmarck in lower Austria and the bullet entring his left breast went forth at his right side and so forthwith died in the place The dead body being viewed again and the wound considered the same quantity or bigness both of the entrance and out-going are found with great plenty of blood issuing The following day being the twenty seventh of December in the morning the body of the murthered young man hath other cloaths put upon it and so is kept quiet for the space of two days Furthermore upon the thirtieth of December he is laid upon the Bier and kept in the Church and that without any further motion where nevertheless from the upper wound the fresh blood did daily flow until the eighth of January 1605. from which time the Hemorrhage ceased But again the thirteenth of February about noon the flux of blood by the lower wound for an hour or two was observed to issue as though the slaughter had been newly done In the mean time the habit of the whole body was such as did most easily agree to what it was living the colour of his face remained even unto his burial ruddy and florid the vein appearing in his forehead filled with good blood no sign of an incipient putrefaction appearing for so many weeks no stink or ungrateful odour which otherwise doth accompany dead bodies within a few days was here found at all The fingers of the hands remained soft moveable or flexible without any wast the natural colour being not very much changed except that in process of time about the last week before burial they begun in a certain manner to wax livid in the extremities 7. This following he giveth to prove that as cold constringeth and shuteth up the veins so heat doth open them and cause the blood to flow and saith This is proved a few years since by experience in an infant slain by a most wicked Mother forthwith after it was born and thrown from the Tower of a Noble Baron of upper Austria into a ditch that was full with water which after five weeks by good fortune was found and taken out And forthwith he saith the Mother not present it being then not known who was the Mother when it felt the force of the external air it begun to distil forth very fresh blood because the pores which by reason of the cold were shut that the blood could not flow were then unlockt and opened by the heat of the ambient air And thus much of those that have bled the murtherers not being present 8. Next we shall give some examples of those that have bled when the murtherers have been brought into the presence of the body murthered or caused to touch it and this Franciscus Valeriola doth attest with an ample faith that he himself saw When he saith James of Aqueria a Senator of Arles was found dead of a wound that he that gave that wound was apprehended by the Magistrate and brought into the view of the dead body that he might acknowledge the person murthered and confess the fact by and by the bubling blood all the by standers looking on begun to come forth with much fervour and bubbles from the wound and the nostrils 9. Take this other as it is cited by Gothofredus Voigtius in this manner In the year 1607 the 25. of April a certain Shepherd in Spain
dependency upon another superior Cause there take away or deny the being of the first Cause and thereby you take away and deny the being of all the rest that depends upon it So he that denies the Being of a God doth necessarily deny the Being of Angels or Spirits but not on the contrary For he that denieth the Existence of Angels and Spirits doth not therefore necessarily take away or deny the Being of a God because the Being of a God is independent of either Angel or Spirit and doth exist solely by it self And therefore if Wierus or Scot had denied the Existence of Angels and Spirits which they did not yet it would not have inferred that they were Atheists and therefore are falsely accused by Dr. Casaubon and Mr. Glanvil And though they should have denied the Existence of Witches which they did not simpliciter sed tali modo yet it would not have inferred that they were guilty of Sadducism because Spirits or Demons have their Existence without any dependence of the being of Witches and therefore it is but a poor fallacia consequentiae to say he that denies a Witch denies a Demon or Spirit 4. The denying of the Existence of Spirits doth not infer the denying of the Being of a God because in the priority of duration God was when Spirits were not for they are not immortal à parte anté So likewise the denying of the Existence of Witches doth not infer the denial of the Being of Spirits for in the priority of duration Spirits were existent before Witches for Adam and Eve could not be ignorant that there were Spirits both good and bad and yet then there were no Witches So that a Spirit having in respect of duration a Being before that a Witch can have any the denying the Existence of the latter doth not infer the denying of the Being of the former but is meerly inconsequent agreeable to no Rules of Logick except that of Logger-head Colledge 5. Many properties or proper adjuncts may be ascribed unto a substance the denying of which adjuncts doth not infer the denying of the being of the substance So that to deny that a Horse hath fins like a fish or wings like a bird doth not infer the denying of the being of a Horse Therefore it is injurious and scandalous in Dr. Casaubon and Mr. Glanvil to charge Dr. Wierus and Mr. Scot with Atheism and Sadducism when indeed as we shall prove hereafter their own Tenents tend to blasphemy impiety vanity and uncharitableness Another thing that we oppose is that Apparitions are no warrantable ground for a Christian to believe the Existence of Angels and Spirits by but the Word of God which these cogent reasons do sufficiently prove 1. For to say that the Apparitions of Spirits good or bad do prove their Existence is but petitio principii a begging of the question that first is in doubt and ought to be proved For how come we to be assured that the Apparitions that are made and really by unquestionable Witnesses attested for truth not to speak of melancholy Fancies and Fables Knacks of Knavery and Imposture and other ignorant and gross mistakes which are often believed to be Apparitions when they are no such matter that they are made by good or bad Spirits for that is the thing in doubt and so is but a circular way of arguing by way of begging the question or proving ignotum per ignotius for Apparitions do not prove the Being of Spirits except it be first proved that those Apparitions be made or caused by Spirits 2. There are many Apparitions that are produced by natural and artifi◠Causes and need not be referred to supernatural ones as are all 〈◊〉 Idola Images or Species that we see in Glasses which cannot be denied to be Apparitions and yet arise from natural Causes So the Apparition of Comets new Stars and many other sort of strange Meteors as sometimes three Suns the Rain-bow Halones and the like that have natural Causes to produce them and are no proof of the Being of Spirits Nay as the best and most credible Historians have left upon Record and hath been known to be a certain verity in divers parts of these three Kingdoms within the space of these forty years strange and various Sights have been seen in the Air both of Men and Horses and Armies fighting one with another and yet were these no proof of the Existence of Spirits because they may and doubtlesly do proceed from other causes and not from the operation or efficiency of Angels or Spirits either good or bad 3. It is not certainly known what diversity of Creatures there may be that are mediae naturae betwixt Angels and Men that may sometimes appear and then vanish so that if it be granted that there be Apparitions really and truly yet it will not necessarily follow that these are caused by good or bad Angels because they may be effected by Creatures of another and middle Nature and so Apparitions no certain ground for the believing of the Existence of Angels or Spirits For the most learned Drusius gives us this account from one of the Commentators upon the Book Aboth Debet homo intelligere ac scire à terra usque ad firmamentum quod Rakia id est Expansum appellant omnia plena esse turmis praefectis insrà plurimas esse creaturas laedentes accusantes omnésque stare ac volare in aëre neque à terra usque ad firmamentum locum esse vacuum sed omnia plena esse praepositis quorum alii ad pacem alii ad bellum alii ad bonum alii ad malum ad vitam ad mortem incitant Ob id compositum fuit canticum occursuum quod incipit Sedet in occulto Supremus And if this be a truth here are orders and numbers enough of several sorts to make Apparitions and yet be neither the good or bad Angels And if there may any credit be given to the relation that Cardan gives of his Father Facius Cardanus which he had from his own mouth and also had left it in writing then there are mortal Demons that are born and do die as men do that can appear and disappear and are of such most tenuious bodies that they can afford us neither help nor hurt excepting terrors and spectres and knowledge And if there may be credit given to Plutarch so highly magnified by Dr. Casaubon the God Pan of the Heathens must have been one of these mortal Demons because he tells us upon the credit of Epotherses a Tale of hear-say That Thamus was by a voice thrice calling upon him commanded that when he came to Palodes he should tell them that the great God Pan was dead And that there are such mortal Demons is strongly asserted by Paracelsus and by him called Nymphae Sylphi Pygmaei and Salamandrae and that they are not of Adams Generation and that they have wonderful power
yea the Devils in the infernal pit and in the air do perform but without voice in a spiritual manner 3. If this opinion were true then the blessed Souls being divested from their Bodies should not have a communion one with another nor should jointly praise and glorifie God together which were false and absurd and therefore the learned Father said well It is to be holden stedfastly that the offices of the Heavenly Hoast are by no means performed in silence seeing we may read that the Angelical powers before the Throne of the Lord do sound forth his praise with unwearied voices 4. The sleights and subtil machinations for he hath his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or devices of Satans Kingdom could not be carried on if he had not a way and means to communicate them to the rest of the Crew of his inferiour Fiends and therefore doth plainly prove that there is a way of hidden Mystical and Spiritual discourse which the Devil might and did represent to the mind and understanding of Evah whereby she was seduced and that there was no need of a vocal and audible interlocution and so much in answer to his objection The next place of Scripture that is commonly brought and urged thereby to prove the great power of Devils and Witches is that of Pharaohs Magicians from whence they argue thus If the Magicians of Pharaoh were able by the power and assistance of the Devil to change their Rods into Serpents the Water into Blood and to produce Frogs Why may not Witches by the power and assistance of the Devil change themselves and other things into strange and several shapes and do the rest of the feats that are ascribed unto them But though this be but petitio principii a begging of the question that by the assistance of the Devil they did these things which is neither supposed nor granted but ought first to have been proved And though in the case of hardening Pharaohs heart there might be and was a peculiar dispensation from God at that time yet it will not follow that God doth always dispense with and give the Devil leave to operate the like things and so nothing firmly can be concluded from hence Yet I say though these be so we shall pretermit them and come to the full opening and discussion of the matter and that in these two particulars 1. How far the Devils power and assistance did concurr with the actions and performances 2. And wherein he did not concurr nor act at all 1. We shall grant that Pharaoh and the Magicians being Idolaters and worshippers of false gods their ends were principally to magnifie the power of their Idols and to manifest that their supposed gods could work and bring to pass as strange miracles or wonders as Moses and Aaron could perform by the assistance of the God of the Hebrews and in respect of this end they had all the assistance that Satan and his dark kingdom of Angels could afford them in a spiritual and hellish way for he is the Prince of the power of the air that worketh in the children of disobedience for such were both Pharaoh and his Magicians And to this purpose doth the Apostle tell us speaking of false and seducing teachers That they were like Jannes and Jaâ—bres that withstood Moses in their resisting of the truth so that the Magicians of Pharaoh were condemned for resisting the truth of that message that Moses and Aaron brought and of those real miracles that they performed and so in respect of the wicked end they aimed at they were assisted with the power and concurrence of the Devil and in that respect only were his servants and instruments But as for the second particular namely the efficient causes and â—eans of the producing of those thing that the Magicians did we affirm they were performed by the power of nature and art and that the Devil was no efficient cause of their production and that by these irrefragable arguments 1. Those that affirm that the Devil did or can produce such strange effects do also acknowledge that what he performeth in natural and elementary Bodies is done by applying natural agents to natural and fit patients which dotruly bring to pass such strange effects and that he doth no more but only make the local application of them From whence it must necessarily follow that the effects flow from natural agents and so no causality at all can be ascribed unto him except that fictitious one of being causa sine qua non which is as much as no cause And besides that there is no proof that he maketh this local application for if he be incorporeal then it is simply impossible that he should perform any such matter and however a man by natural power and means if he know the fit and apt actives and passives may perform them himself and so his assistance is needless and we have never yet met with any argument that bore any convincing force that might induce us to believe that he is so great a Naturalist 2. There are many persons that think themselves no mean sharers in the most sorts of learning and others that are very strait laced in their pretended zeal for godliness and in detesting the works of Satan that even startle and shew an abhorrency at the word Magick if it be but once named as though there were no Magick but what is diabolical or that which they call diabolical were any other way evil but only in the end and use for there are many plants and minerals that though poysonous are yet notwithstanding good in respect of their Creation and the good uses that may be made of them as to kill noxious animals that are hurtful unto man But if any forth of malice and wickedness should use them to poyson and destroy Men and Women it were wicked and diabolical in the end and use yet were the means lawful and natural So whatsoever the Devil may do by wicked Men his instruments in leading and drawing them to make use of the great magnalia naturae to work strange wonders by thereby to confirm Idolatry and Superstition or to resist the truth and such devilish ends though the end and use may be wicked and diabolical yet the efficient cause is natural and lawful And therefore we can find no other ground or reason of dividing Magick into natural and Diabolical but only that they differ in the end and use for otherwise they both work by a natural agency and means seeing the Devil can do nothing above or contrary to that course that God hath set in nature Therefore may men do without the aid of Devils whatsoever they can do seeing they have no advantage over us but operate only by applying active things to passive like as Men do And therefore said that most learned Philosopher Chymist and Mathematician our Countreyman Roger Bacon excellent well in these words non igitur oportet nos
be permitted and so could not be attributed unto him before the Creation 2. It is as improper to attribute permission unto God in respect of the Physical agency of second causes because he not only worketh all in all and by his Divine concourse and conservative power sustaineth all things by the word of his power and Job tells us If he gather unto himself his spirit and breath all flesh shall perish together and man shall turn again into dust Upon which place of the Hebrews S. Chrysostome saith thus Feratque inquit omnia hoc est gubernet omnia Siquidem cadentia ad nihilum tendentia continet Non enim minus est continere mundum quà m fecisse Sed si oportet aliquid quod admireris dicere adhuc amplius est Nam in faciendo quidem ex nullis extantibus rerum essentiae productae sunt in continendo verò ea quae facta sunt ne ad nihilum redeant continentur Haec ergo dum reguntur ad invicem sibi repugnantia coaptantur magnum valdè mirabile plurimaeque virtutis judicium declaratur But also because he hath set all natural things their bounds and ordered decreed and determined their ends in acting Now what he hath appointed ordered and decreed to be the agency of every creature and determinated its end in acting cannot properly be called permission but his will ordination and providence As if one should say he suffereth and permitteth the Sun and Moon to run their course it is an improper expression and injurious to his wisdom and power in his providential government of the creatures seeing that it is a certain truth Deus operatur in omni operante And he hath appointed the Moon for seasons and the Sun knoweth his going down And it is absurd to say he suffereth the Sea to Ebb and Flow when he hath set it a bound that it cannot passover For he commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind which lifteth up the waves thereof And said hitherto shalt thou come and no further And here shall thy proud waves be staid And again Will ye not tremble at my presence saith the Lord which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree that it cannot pass it and though the waves thereof toss themselves yet can they not prevail though they roar yet can they not pass over it And therefore we may conclude that the whole Creation in respect of Physical agency is ruled according to those orders and not by a fortuitous chance or a bare passive permission 1. For first all creatures have their Physical agency and the affections and properties thereof ordained by God in the Creation and according to this they constantly act except they be turned altered or suspended by the Creator himself and he doth immediately act in them all and they cannot properly be said to be permitted 2. They are upholden sustained and conserved in their several conditions by the word of his mighty power his continual concourse and divine emanation which if it should but cease one minute the whole Creation would fall into that nothing from whence his Eternal and Omnipotent Fiat did raise and call them forth so that we dare affirm with profound Bradwardine Quod necesse est Deum servare quamlibet Creaturam immediatiùs quacunque causa creata 3. When he pleaseth he doth suspend the effects and agency of natural causes as in making the Sun stand still in the victory of Joshua and of the three Children in the fiery Furnace Sometimes he causeth them to act contrary to their innate powers and qualities as in making the shaddow go ten degrees back in Ahaz sun-dial and in causing the waters of the red sea contrary to their natures which are to tend downwards to be divided and to go backward and to be as a wall on the right hand and on the left until Moses and the children of Israel were passed through And by many other wayes and means doth he alter and change the course of natural agents to serve his will and good pleasure in his mercy or in his justice and yet here is no bare or passive permission 4. Besides these he ordereth all the particular acts of natural agents to be subservient unto his will So when Jonah fled to Tarshish the Lord sent forth a great wind into the sea and raised a mighty tempest to overtake Jonah and when he was cast into the Sea the Lord prepared a great fish to swallow him up and also the Lord spake unto the fish and it vomited up Jonah upon the dry land Now the wind was not carried nor the storm raised by a permissive power but by the will and order of the Lord Jehovah who sent them and directed them either by his immediate power or by the ministry of his Angels and though they wrought according to their natural agency yet the special ordering as to the particular act was not by permission but by the will and appointment of his providence Neither did the great fish come by chance or permission but God in his merciful providence had prepared him for the preservation of Jonah and caused him to be vomited on the dry land so that all creatures do not only continue according to his ordinances but also all elementary and irrational creatures do praise the Lord by fulfilling his word will and providence And lest we be either censured to wrest the Scriptures or to be single in this opinion take the judgment of some few others S. Gregory as he is quoted by learned Bradwardine tells us thus much Quis de Deo ista vel desipiens suspicetur qui nimirùm dum sit semper omnipotens sic intendit omnibus ut assit singulis sic adest singulis ut simul omnibus nunquam desit sic itaque exteriora circundat ut interiora impleat sic interiora implet ut exteriora circundet sic summa regit ut ima non deserat sic imâ— praesens est ut à superioribus non recedat And Thomas Aquinas their great Schoolman as the same author cites him saith Quòd Deus immediatè ordinat omnes effectus per seipsum licet per causas medias exequatur sed in ipsâ executione quodammodò immediatè se habet ad omnes effectus in quantum omnes causae mediae agunt in virtute causae primae ut quodammodo ipse in omnibus agere videatur omnia opera secundarum caâ—sarum ei possunt attribui sicut artifici attribuitur opus instrumenti Therefore we will conclude this with that of S. Augustine Proculdubio nullus est locus ab ejus praesentia absens super omnem creaturam quippè praesidet regendo subtus est omnia sustinendo non pondere laboris sed infatigabili virtute quoniam nulla creatura ab eo condita per se subsistere valet nist ab illo sustentetur qui eam creavit Extra
there is another way more extraordinary wherein as an instrument he may be said to cause diseases and sometimes death as in that case of Davids numbring of the people where there died of the Pestilence seventy thousand and though this Pestilence was sent by Jehovah yet was a destroying Angel the instrument and minister in the execution of it for the Text saith And when the Angel of the Lord stretched forth his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it the Lord repented him of the evil and said to the Angel that destroyed the people It is enough now stay thy hand And Herod for assuming to himself that honour that was only proper to God was immediately smitten by the Angel of the Lord and was eaten up of worms and gave up the Ghost And the Psalmist saith He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger wrath indignation and trouble by sending evil Angels among them the Hebrew giveth it the emission or sending out of evil Angels From whence it is manifest that evil Angels are the organs and instruments of Gods wrath and as Ministers cause Plague Pestilence and other diseases 3. Thirdly there is another great question whether or not the Devil by his vassals to wit Sorcerers and Witches doth not cause diseases and death as is believed by those vomiting up of strange things exceeding the bigness of the Gullet to get either up or down of which we shall speak largely where we handle the opinion of Van Helmont concerning the actions of Witches Here only we shall say thus much that the Devil is author and causer of that hatred malice revenge and envy that is often abounding in those that are accounted Witches which desire of revenge doth stimulate them to seek for all means by which they may accomplish their intended wickedness and so they learn all the wicked and secret wayes of hurting poysoning killing but yet we affirm that what evil soever they perform it is by causes and means that work naturally and so the evil is only in the use and application and not in the efficients or means And whereas he holdeth that Devils as they can cause Diseases so they can cure them and take them away we must crave to be excused if we cannot subscribe to his opinion and that for these reasons 1. Because of their causing of Diseases we have sufficient evidence in the Scriptures but of their curing of any we have not any mention at all and though some will think this but weak because it is negative yet it is not probable but as it expresseth the one fully so it would have given some hint of the other if there had been any such matter 2. But the Scriptures do inform us that the gift of healing or curing Diseases is not in the power of Devils by their Creation much less since as a gift bestowed upon them but floweth solely from God by the Ministry of good Angels of whom Raphael that is the Medicine or health of God is the chief And that it is reckoned amongst the gifts of the Holy Ghost is most plain For to one is given by the spirit the word of wisdom to another the word of knowledge by the same spirit To another saith by the same spirit to another the gifts of healing by the same spirit but these gifts of healing are not given to Devils but to the chosen ones of God And the Psalmist where he is speaking how God afflicted and brought low the people of Israel by reason of their sins saith Their soul abhorred all manner of meat and they drew near unto the gates of death but he sent his word and healed them And God declareth that if his people Israel would keep his Statutes he would bring none of those Diseases upon them that he had threatned for he saith I am the Lord that healeth thee and this he doth by the ministry of good Angels or by natural means and not by Devils 3. That Devils are no causers or instruments in curing Diseases is manifest because that were to make him act contrary to his original destination after his fall wherein in his own propriety he is a murderer from the beginning and that both of souls and bodies and never did nor doth any good to mankind either spiritual or natural either real or apparent for that were to act contrary to his will nature and disposition and contrary to the Ordinance and appointment of God who hath Created the destroyer to destroy Therefore-Satan after his fall was not ordained of God to be an healer preserver or sanator of diseases but to be a destroyer a wounder and murderer for his nature is be come so wicked and malignant that his whole endeavour is the destruction of mankind both in souls and bodies and so no healer no not of the least infirmity 4. But he is that grand Impostor that by lying cheating and delusion laboureth to make his Vassals and others believe that he can cure and heal Diseases when he can do no such thing and therefore hath and still doth amongst the Pagans by the wicked Priests his Slaves make the people believe that if the sick persons be brought before their Idols and there worship and pray that they shall be Cured when there is not any jot performed in the way of sanation but what is by natural means fancy and imagination or what is pretended to be done so by cheating counterfeiting and imposture And the very same thing is practised by the Papists unto this day in the pretence of their false and lying Miracles fathered upon their Saints and Images which are nothing else but lying cheats and Impostures as we shall fully make manifest hereafter 5. The Devil internally deludeth the minds of men in making them believe that Pictures Charms Amulets and such other inefficacious and ridiculous means have power to Cure these and these Diseases when indeed they are meerly inoperative and effect nothing at all but yet the Witchmongers will needs have them to be media operativa when they are utterly inefficacious and are only means of seduction and delusion to alter change or fortifie the imagination by which alone the Cures if any such be effected are brought to pass and not by any power of the Devil at all and he operateth nothing at all in them except a mental and internal delusion in making the Witchmongers and others believe that those things are wrought by a Diabolical Power which are only performed by the force of imagination and a natural agency and virtue 6. Again where there are many occult and wonderful effects wrought by natural causes and agents as by appensions of vegetables animals or their parts and minerals by magnetism as the Hoplochrism Sympathetic Powder by Transplantation and many other very abstruse and secret wayes and means the Devil laboureth to take away the glory of these sanative effects both from God and his Instrument which is Nature and to have it
warm This he also poureth upon the Frogs whereupon they die After some time the servant of another Nobleman is afflicted with miserable torments and there is suspicion of a Philter given by a person of quality They exhibite Mares urine and she vomiteth up two Lizards and two Frogs By which it is manifest that such strange vomitings up of Frogs Lizards Askers and the like though attributed to Witchcraft and the operation of Satan do but proceed from natural causes And doubtless the sperme or ova ranarum were but conveyed into the Apple that so by the heat of the Stomach and the Chylus that is like warm milk they might grow and increase And this kind of witching or secret poysoning we grant to be too frequent and common because those persons commonly accounted Witches are extreamly malicious and envious and do secretly and by tradition learn strange poysons philters and receipts whereby they do much hurt and mischief Which most strange wayes of poysoning tormenting and breeding of unwonted things in the stomach and bellies of people have not been unknown unto many learned men and Philosophers but they respecting the good of mankind and the multitude of evil minded persons have altogether forborn openly to mention such dangerous receipts in their writings or at the best so to publish them that not one of a thousand could understand what they intended and so these secrets of mischief are for the most part kept in obscurity amongst old women superstitious ignorant and melancholy persons and by them delivered over from hand to hand and commonly one learns it of another according to the Proverb Popery and Witchcraft go by Tradition And to this very purpose I cannot but insert that remarkable passage of Paracelsus in these words Possent equident ait peculiarem de ipsis tractatum edere ut artes ac machinae illarum manifestarentur Sed propter malitiosos ista talia pennâ seu calamo minimè evulganda sunt multa enim â—agitiosa simul induci possent quae satius est reticeri And that strange productions may be brought to pass and stupendious effects brought into action from secret and hidden natural causes that are better known to those malicious persons that are accounted Witches than others may be made manifest by another observation set down by the forementioned Salmuth and is this Galen and others have recorded that the saliva or spittle of a mad dog if it touch an human body and be not forthwith washed off may cause madness But in the Hydrophobia there is so great force of the poyson that the persons that are bitten do also piss or void by urine little whelps or pieces of flesh like them as Avicenna lib. 3. Fen. 6. tr 4. c. 7. hath delivered though doubted of by others But he saith I certainly know notwithstanding that of such saliva or spittle only left in the Garment after biting have Worms been breed plainly resembling little Whelps with their heads For a mad Dog did meet a Servant Maid of an honest Matrons going to the Market and flies furiously and violently at her feet She that she might avoid the danger inclineth her self and a little bendeth her knees whereupon the Dog doth with his teeth catch hold of her Garment and especially the seam or low selvidge and did bark a little while and forthwith ran away Which being done the Maid remained terrified and at the first doubted whether the Dog was mad or not but having recollected her self she suspecteth his rabiousness because he had been very familiar even almost domestick with her Therefore she returneth home and hangeth the torn Garment upon a piece of wood in the House But afterwards upon the fourth day she goeth to it with an intent to mend it But oh a wonderful thing she findeth Worms altogether like little Whelps in the head to be bred in those places of the hem in which the Dog had fastned his teeth and those as a new Miracle as they did call it were shewed unto certain of the Neighbours being called together 4. Another instance to prove the strange effects that may be produced by natural Causes and yet are so occult stupendious and unusual that they are commonly fathered upon Devils when they have no more at all to do in or about them but only the mental perswading of the persons to use them to wicked and destructive ends as those wonderful compositions that produce the Plague and such like grievous Diseases and Symptoms For this kind of veneficium call it Witchcraft if you please is and hath been often practised by most horrible malevolent and wicked persons who by an art more than Diabolical especially in respect of the end and use have so framed and prepared and commixed things naturally that in the form of unguents have produced the Plague and divers other most pernicious and venefical Diseases which may be confirmed by undeniable examples of which we shall give some few Josephus Quercetanus that famous Chymist and Physician to Henry the Fourth of France tells us thus much The Contagion of the Plague is not only contracted by the mediation of the air and water things in a manner universal or from other things more particular as vestments linnen and other moveable things inquinated by the attraction of pestiferous Atomes But also by the detestable Crafts and Diabolical Arts of certain most wicked persons which we call poysoners or witches by means of which they contemperate and mix certain poysons into the form of an unguent and use to rub some of it upon the handle of doors so that those that do but lightly touch them are forthwith infected with the Plague this subtile poison forthwith creeping by the pores of the skin into the extremities of the veins is quickly communicated to the heart to which human industry can hardly administer any remedy Unto which the Lord Verulam gives this cautious attestation Pestem quoque excitavit januarum rimarum aliorumque inunctio non tam ex contactu quam quod homini in more positum si quid humidi adhaerescat digitis naso illud admovere Moneri sepatientur apud quos ea inolevit consuetudo ut praecaveant Johannes Wierus a learned Physician and a person of credit and veracity reciteth this History from Antonius Sabellicus Ennead 4. lib. 4. This strange venefice or witchcraft was practis'd at Casal in the City of Salassia a Region of Italy in the year of our Lord God 1536. About forty persons men and women amongst whom there was one Hangman had combined and sworn together That seeing the Plague had ceased that before did rage they would compound an unguent with which the handles of the doors being besmeared they should be infected that touched those handles They did also prepare a Powder which being secretly sprinkled in the Garments should produce the Plague The Villany lay hid for some certain time and many were taken away of such as were joined in
to the act of Venery and thought themselves maleficiated or bewitched when as before they had afforded themselves sufficiently strenuous in that warfar also with their Wives But both being he saith handled and cured by me as persons melancholick and Hypochondriacal have afterwards sufficiently laughed at themselves But I did conjecture them to be melancholick by this because they did complain that about that act they were overwhelmed with an heap of Cogitations From whence it is manifest from what cause that effect did proceed And therefore it is deservedly doubted of Wierus whether or no there be any true impotency at all but what is from natural Causes 7. That the most of those vomitings of strange things is only caused from natural Causes as poysonous Potions Philters and the like is manifest by another example given us by that famous Chymist and learned Physician of Frisuiga in Bavaria Martinus Rulandus which is this David Held Student in the Arts about the twentieth year of his Age did receive from a wicked Woman Cakes which he did eat and departing from her forthwith in the way he began to doat and being brought home he began to rage more and fell into madness And to help this madness the Students came unto me and declare the insanity the Philter that he had taken and his being infected or brought into that madness by it and desire some help against it To oppose which he saith I gave six Ounces of my Aqua Benedicta which I commanded straightway to be given him in the name of Jesus And this being taken soon after by vomiting he cast up the Philter or invenomed Cakes that he had swallowed which being cast upon the Earth they did with the admiration of the by-standers begin to wax hot and to boil as meat with the fire doth grow hot and boil So that this poison being cast up as a thing unhoped for soon after the insanity is driven away and within two days his understanding was perfectly restored and by the power of the Almighty did totally recover So that it is manifest that these kind of people that are commonly called Witches are indeed as both the Greek and Latin names do signifie Poysoners and in respect of their Hellish intentions are Diabolical but the effects they procure flow from natural Causes If any require more ample satisfaction in this point they may find divers Histories recorded in Schenkins his Observations lib. 7. de venenis to verifie this particular 8. There is no one Argument that doth more confirm that what effects soever Devils or those called Witches do bring to pass in humane bodies are wrought by natural means and proceed from natural causes Because what diseases soever are cured by natural causes and agents must of necessity be brought into humane bodies by natural means But many diseases attributed to the Devil or Witches as instruments have been cured by natural means and applications as we shall prove both by authorities and matters of fact And therefore those diseases must of necessity grow and arise from natural causes And for authority we find Helmont affirming thus much And also partly the curing of these diseases is to be had by certain Simples to which the omnipotent goodness hath given a gift from the beginning of the Creation of resisting preventing and correcting of Veneficia Witchcrafts or poysonings and of bringing forth things injected For he saith certain Simples do drive away evil spirits a miserable company of Men who give worship to Gods that are not able to resist the natural efficacy of Simples and reckons some that take away the penetration of the formal light tied to the excrements Some do hinder the touch entrance or application And that there are many such like that do correct the poysons and kill them And chiefly he commendeth the Electrum minerale immaturum of Paracelsus the Phu of Dioscorides being a kind of Valerian with purple flowers and likewise there commemorateth diverse others To confirm this assertion of Helmonts we shall transcribe what the Honourable person Mr. Boyle hath set down to this purpose Since the beginning of this Essay he saith I saw a lusty and very sprightful Boy child to a famous Chymical Writer I judge it to be Joachimus Poleman who as his Father assured me and others being by some enemies of this Physicians when he was yet an infant so bewitcht that he constantly lay in miserable torment and still refusing the breast was reduced by pain and want of food to a desperate condition the experienced relator of the story remembring that Helmont attributes to the Electrum minerale immaturum Paracelsi the virtue of relieving those whose distempers come from Witchcraft did according to Helmonts prescription hang a piece of this noble mineral about the infants neck so that it might touch the pit of the Stomach whereupon presently the child that could not rest in I know not how many dayes and nights before fell for a while asleep and waking well cried for the Teat which he greedily suckt from thenceforth hastily recovering to the great wonder both of the Parents and several others that were astonisht at so great and quick a change And though I am not forward he saith to impute all those diseases to Witchcraft which even learned Men father upon it yet it 's considerable in our present case that whatsoever were the cause of the disease the distemper was very great and almost hopeless and the cure suddenly performed by an outward application and that of a Mineral in which compacted sort of bodies the finer parts are thought to be lockt up Another example he giveth us in these words The same Henricus ab Heer among his freshly commended observations hath another of a little Lady whom he concludes to have been cast into the strange and terrible distemper which he there particularly records by Witchcraft Upon so severe an examination of the Symptomes made by himself in his own house that if notwithstanding his solemn professions of veracity he mis-relate them not I cannot wonder he should confidently impute so prodigious a disease to some supernatural cause But though the observation with its various circumstances be very well worth your perusing yet that for which I here take notice of it is what he adds about the end of it concerning his having cured her after he had in despair of her recovery sent her back to her Parents by an outward medicine namely an Oyntment which he found extolled against pains produced by Witchcraft in a Dutch book of Carrichter's where also I remember I met with it set down a little differently from what he delivers But to conclude this tedious particular I shall only add one observation more from learned Salmuth which is this The servant Maid he saith of Caesars à Breitenbach was taken with a most intense pain of her left arm which when it did not at all remit or abate but that the dolour was augmented
more and more and that no tumour nor any other preternatural thing did outwardly appear the beholders did fear some sort of venefice or Witchcraft Therefore they apply a well tryed medicine which in such a case is said to be much approved to wit red Corals well beaten with the leaves of Oak and with Rose-water brought into the form of a Cataplasm and leave it on for the space of 24 hours In which space of time the place is brought to suppuration and within as many more hours the same remedy being applyed again the abscess is broken and in it needles hairs and burnt coals are found All these together with the Amulet they put into an hole made with an Augur or Gimlet in the root of an Oak towards the East in the morning before the Sun rise and they stopped up the same hole with a wedge or pin made of the wood of the same Tree The pain thereupon plainly ceaseth and the place is with other medicaments brought to Cicatrization But some deriding such things and thinking them to be prestigious delusions do pull them forth of the hole again Hereupon forthwith that miserable servant was again afflicted with cruel pains more raging than the former Therefore they repeat the former medicaments and more copious matter doth issue forth which being taken together with the Amulet and put in the former place in the Oak all the pains did forthwith vanish and she afterwards lived altogether sound And so I conceive that by these reasons authorities and instances of matters of fact it is sufficiently proved that what Devils or Witches work in humane bodies or in corporeal matter is by applying fit actives to suitable passives and so the effects are only produced by natural causes and means which was the thing I undertook to make good The next thing that in this Chapter we have to consider and examine is the opinion of Johannes Baptista van Helmont that great Physician Philosopher and Chymist which we shall open in these particulars 1. He reciteth a large Catalogue of things that are in a most strange manner brought or injected into the bodies of Men and Women as darts thorn-pricks or pins chaff hairs dust of wood that hath been sawed little stones egg-shels and pieces of pots hulls and husks or swads insects things of linen needles and the instruments of artificers which have been injected insensibly and entred altogether in an invisible manner but were detained and ejected with direful pains and tortures And that sometimes they are greater than the holes or passages by which they are intromitted 2. And to confirm this assertion he bringeth instances of matters of fact as these following For he saith of late there was a part of an Oxe-hide injected by the pores of the skin it being intire which the Chirurgeon did draw forth with a pair of Forceps it being of the magnitude of the ball of a Mans hand the Apostume first being ripened And a Witch burned at Bruges did confess that she had injected that hide into the good man So he saith we have in times past seen at Lira the children of Orphans to have cast up by vomit an artificial Horse and Cart drawn forth by the hands of the by-standers to wit a four footed board accompanied with its ropes and wheel And what way soever it were placed it was easily greater than the double throat Further he saith I have seen at Antwerp in the year 1622. a young Maid who had vomited perhaps two thousand pins conglomerated together and with them hairs and filth Another Maid he saith at Mechlin in the year 1631 who we being present did vomit up shavings of wood or chips cut off in plaining with the Hatchet with much slimy stuff to the magnitude of two fists It is he saith a frequent thing every where admitted by learned Men. Upon which we will only give these Animadversions 1. That things as strange as these that Helmont seems to avouch of his own sight and knowledge are also attested by other persons of great learning and credit as besides what we have immediately before shewed from Salmuth of the needles hairs and burnt coals that came forth of the Maids arm these examples may ratifie We will pass by Sprenger Bodin Remigius and Del Rio as Pontificial Authors and therefore partial and interested only in the first place we shall give this from Alexander Benedictus who telleth this That he saw two Women his neighbours upon one day being infected by potions of evil medicaments who afterwards were wonderfully tormented with strange vomitings That the one cast up with great strainings an head bodkin very great bended like an hook with a great lump of Womens hair wrapped with the pairing of nails who died the day following The other vomited up a Womans Quoif pieces of glass with three dried pieces of a Dogs tail that was hairy so that she had voided by vomiting as much if set together as would have equalized the quantity of the whole tail But the most strange story that possibly can be read is recorded by Thomas Bartholinus who was Physician to Frederick the third King of Denmark of Anna Erici who vomited up at several times a piece of sharp wood great store of black blood an hem or fring of silk or linen cloath of a blew colour sowed with a green thred in which were hid three pieces of lead two pieces of glass three Almonds three pieces of a Tobacco-pipe and white stones or flints And afterwards many other horrid strange and incredible things that may be read in the place quoted in the Margent 2. It would seem a point of strange Scepticism or infidelity to distrust and reject these relations as lies and fictions seeing the Authors that recite them do for the most part attest them upon their own view or knowledge or at least from unquestionable eye-witnesses and that they were Men of great Reputation and Credit that lived in several Countrys and in different times and therefore could not conspire in a lie 3. But notwithstanding all this we find persons of great learning and sober judgments to use much hesitation about these things and either to suspend their belief of them as having never seen any such things themselves and therefore may well conclude as many Wise Men do that he that hath seen a thing may better believe it than he that hath not seen it or else are utterly diffident and believe no such matters of fact at all And indeed there is no greater folly than to be very inquisitive and laborious to find out the causes of such a Phenomenon as never had any existence and therefore Men ought to be cautious and be fully assured of the truth of the effect before they adventure to explicate the cause And I find both my Lord Bacon and that honourable and learned person Mr. Boyle when they have occasion to mention these things do it with extream caution
to the Oaken pin that it had not by nature for in probability it will constantly by a natural power produce the same effect only thus far the Devil had a hand in the action to draw some wicked person to fix the pin there where the Man was accustomed to make water thereby to hurt and torture him and so was only evil in respect of the end 3. We observe and affirm that whatsoever effects are brought to pass by that which is commonly called and accounted Witchcraft if they be not brought to pass by jugling confederacy delusion and imposture as the most of them are if not all then they are performed either by meer natural causes or the strength of the Witches fancy and most vehement desire of doing of mischief to those she hateth or by both joined together and that Satan is no further an author or actor but as he leadeth and draweth the minds of the Witches to do such mischievous actions and pusheth on to seek about to learn of others such secret poysons charms images and other hidden things that being used so or so may produce such destructive ends as their wicked and diabolical purposes are led to and in this sense they are his clients and bounden vassals and not otherwise 4. The stories that he relateth are either all to be taken to be true or none of them and if they be all alike equally to be credited then it will undeniably follow that they were all alike produced by natural causes and so no need at all of the Devils assistance in performing of them no more than by working upon the minds of such as used those natural means to a wicked and mischievous end For first he giveth these instances of things that were very strange that were voided either by vomit or stool by the ordinary power of nature without suspicion of diabolical cooperation as the voiding of the piece of the brass Cannon with its letters with the Eele wrapped in its secundines The Dragon that the Oxe voided by taking three herbs with a tail like an Eele a body like or of leather with a Serpentine head and not less than a Partridge The knife that the Thieves forced a man to swallow which he voided by an Apostume in the side and was after sound also the arrow head of three fingers broad strucken into the back and after voided by stool with diverse such which we recited before And that these being solid bodies should have penetrated and passed through parts that are impatient of wounds and in which a wound is mortal must of necessity be very wonderful and might as soon and upon as rational grounds be taken to be diabolical as those that he enumerateth to be so For from these it is manifest that either nature put to her last pinch doth make penetration of dimensions or else so inlarge the pores that those solid bodies may pass without wound which if seriously considered is a stupendious operation and effect And as there needeth no cooperation of a diabolical power for the performing of these no more needeth there any concurrence of Devils to the others that to that purpose he relateth Only here is all the difference these are wrought by the ultimate endeavour of the Archaeus to save life without the concurrence of external causes the others that are therefore called diabolical are commonly wrought for a bad end namely to hurt or to take away life and have an external cause to wit the force of the Witches imagination and strong desire of doing of mischief which is stirred up to that end by Satan and therefore in regard of the end are devilish though they be both wrought by the agency of nature the one in the body of the imaginant the other in the body that the Witch intendeth to hurt by the force of her imagination and vehement desire whereby a seminal Idea is created or formed which is sufficiently operative to accomplish the end intended 5. The arguments that he bringeth to prove penetration of dimensions to be in nature or something equivalent thereunto seem to be strong and convincing For in the generation of things whosoever shall seriously and strictly mark shall find as he alledgeth that the spirit of the Archeus though not altogether incorporeal doth in the seeds of things penetrate it self and their parts one another which he further maketh good by the instance of Gold generated of water for it must of necessity be that more than fifteen parts of water must fall in or penetrate one another that from thence one part of Gold may be made for weight is not of nothing but argueth the matter ponderous in the Ballance Therefore naturally the water must so oft penetrate its body as the Gold doth preponderate the water And though it be granted that the water hath pores yet notwithstanding it cannot contain so much as fourteen times it whole And therefore he irrefragably concludeth Est ergo ordinarium in natura quod aliquae partes aquae se penetrent in unicum locum And this he backs with an unanswerable story of a Woman that longing for Muscles did in greediness eat some of them with the shells twice or thrice broken with her teeth and that she brought forth a child with the same half eaten shells and a wound in the belly therefore those shells had penetrated the stomach womb and secundines or otherwise the force of the Archeus had opened the pores and letten them pass in an unconceiveable manner So that if these things be granted to be true and we confess we know not how they can be answered then there need no diabolical power be brought to solve the injecting of strange things into mens bodies seeing nature is sufficient of it self and therefore we can allow no power at all unto Devils in effecting these things if they be truly done and be not delusions but only in drawing the minds of the Witches to these wicked and mischievous courses and therefore the Lord Bacon said profoundly and wisely these words Ut in operationibus illis earumque causis error cavendus est ita quoque danda vel imprimis opera est ne effecta nobis imponant temere judicantibus talia esse quae eousque nondum processerunt Sic prudentes judices praescripta velut norma fidem haberi temere nolunt confessionibus sagarum nec etiam factorum contra illas probationi Sagas enim turbat imaginationis vertigo ut putent se illud facere quod non faciunt populumque hîc ludit credulitas ut naturae opera imputent fascino 6. And to confirm this point he addeth far more stupendious matters of fact than the former of things that were within being taken to without or invisibly conveyed away as the woman at Mechlin that saw the Souldier in a conflict lose his hand and forthwith brought forth a Daughter wanting an hand which was never found and the wench died of the Haemorrhage
what the matter was the people told me that it was the Boy that discovered Witches upon which I went to the house where he was to stay all night where I found him and two very unlikely persons that did conduct him and manage the business I desired to have some discourse with the Boy in private but that they utterly refused then in the presence of a great many people I took the Boy near me and said Good Boy tell me truly and in earnest did thou see and hear such strange things of the meeting of Witches as is reported by many that thou dost relate or did not some person teach thee to say such things of thy self But the two men not giving the Boy leave to answer did pluck him from me and said he had been examined by two able Justices of the Peace and they did never ask him such a question to whom I replied the persons accused had therefore the more wrong But the Assizes following at Lancaster there were seventeen found guilty by the Jury yet by the prudent discretion of the Judge who was not satisfied with the evidence they were reprieved and his Majesty and his Council being informed by the Judge of the matter the Bishop of Chester was appointed to examine them and to certifie what he thought of them which he did and thereupon four of them to wit Margaret Johnson Francis Dicconson Mary Spenser and Hargraves Wife were sent for up to London and were viewed and examined by his Majesties Physicians and Chirurgeons and after by his Majesty and the Council and no cause of guilt appearing but great presumptions of the boys being suborned to accuse them falsely Therefore it was resolved to separate the Boy from his Father they having both followed the women up to London they were both taken and put into several prisons asunder Whereupon shortly after the Boy confessed that he was taught and suborned to devise and feign those things against them and had persevered in that wickedness by the counsel of his Father and some others whom envy revenge and hope of gain had prompted on to that devillish design and villany and he also confessed that upon that day when he said that they met at the aforesaid house or barn he was that very day a mile off getting Plums in his Neighbours Orchard And that this is a most certain truth there are many persons yet living of sufficient reputation and integrity that can avouch and testifie the same and besides what I write is the most of it true upon my own knowledge and the whole I have had from his own mouth more than once Thus having brought these unquestionable Histories to manifest the horrid cheats and impostures that are practised for base wicked and devillish ends we must conclude in opposing that objection proposed in the beginning of this Chapter which is this That though some be discovered to be counterfeitings and impostures yet all are not so to which we surther answer 1. That all those things that are now adayes supposed to be done by Demoniacks or those that pretend possessions as also all those strange feats pretended to be brought to pass by Witches or Witchcraft are all either performed by meer natural causes for it is granted upon all sides that Devils in corporeal matter can perform nothing but by applying fit actives to agreeable passives And miracles being long since ceased it must needs follow that Devils do nothing but only draw the minds of Men and Women unto sin and wickedness and thereby they become deceivers cheats and notorious impostours so that we may rationally conclude that all other strange feats and delusions must of necessity be no better or of any other kind than these we have recited except they can shew that they are brought to pass by natural means Must not all persons that are of sound understanding judge and believe that all those strange tricks related by Mr. Glanvil of his Drummer at Mr. Mompessons house whom he calls the Demon of Tedworth were abominable cheats and impostures as I am informed from persons of good quality they were discovered to be for I am sure Mr. Glanvil can shew no agents in nature that the Demon applying them to fit patients could produce any such effects by and therefore we must conclude all such to be impostures 2. It is no sound way of reasoning from the principles of knowing either thereby to prove the existence of things or the modes of such existence because the principle of being is the cause of the principle of knowing and not on the contrary and therefore our not discovering of all Impostures that are or have been acted doth not at all conclude the rest that pass undiscovered are diabolical or wrought by a supernatural power for it ought first to be demonstrated that there are now in these days some things wrought by the power of Devils that are supernatural in elementary and corporeal matter which never was nor can be as from the testimonies of all the learned we have shewed before And therefore a man might as well argue that there are no more thieves in a Nation but those that are known and brought to condign punishment when there may be and doubtless are many more so likewise there are many hundreds of Impostures that pass and are never discovered but that will not at all rationally conclude that those must be diabolical that are not made known CHAP. XV. Of divers Creatures that have a real existence in Nature and yet by reason of their wonderous properties or seldom being seen have been taken for Spirits and Devils BEfore we come to speak of Apparitions in general we shall premise some few things by way of caution because there is not one subject that we know of in the World that is liable to so many mistakes by reason of the prepossessed fancies of men in adhering to those fictions of Spirits Fairies Hobgoblins and many such like which are continually heightned by ignorant education and vain melancholy fears We shall not mention those many apparitions that are frequently practised by forgery and confederacy for base ends and interests as have been commonly used in the time of Popery and attempted in our dayes though with little success As also by other persons for base lucre or worse intents of which we have known some notorious ones that have been discovered Neither shall we speak of those feigned ones that have been practised to hide thievery and roguery as we once knew that certain persons who stole mens sheep in the night did carry them away upon a thing made like a Bier covered with a white sheet by which means those that saw them took it to be an apparition and so durst not come near them and so the most part of the people of 3 or 4 Villages were terrified and the report was far spred that it was a walking spirit and yet at last discovered to be a cunning piece of
President of a National Synod in those parts to whom also the said Perreaud was well known who was a religious well poised venerable Divine And M r Boyle saith that he had had converse with this pious Author at Geneva and had inquired after the Writer and some passages of the Book which overcame all his setled indisposedness to believe strange things The Character given of this Author and the assent of such learned persons to the things related have gained an ample suffrage to give credit to them also But notwithstanding all this there are many passages in the relation that a quick-sighted Critick would find to be either contradictory or inconsistent and it cannot rationally be thought that he was a Cacodemon his actions were so harmless civil and ludicrous and if he were to be believed and in some things he did speak truth and the Minister himself M r Perreaud did in some things give credit to him he was no Devil but hoped to be saved by Jesus Christ. But whether a Devil or not yet the story for substance doth sufficiently prove the existence of such kind of Demons that can work strange and odd feats 4. M r Baxter a person of great learning and piety whose judgment bears great sway with me speaking of Apparitions saith thus I know many are very incredulous herein and will hardly believe that there have been such Apparitions For my own part he saith though I am as suspicious as most in such reports and do believe that most of them are conceits or delusions yet having been very diligently inquisitive in such Cases I have received undoubted testimony of the truth of such Apparitions some from the mouths of men of undoubted honesty and godliness and some from the report of multitudes of persons who heard or saw Were it fit here to name the persons I could send you to them yet living by whom you would be as fully satisfied as I Houses that have been so frequently haunted with such terrors that the inhabitants successively have been witnesses of it 7. Though some of these last recited testimonies might sufficiently convince the most obstinate and incredulous that there are Apparitions and some other such strange accidents that cannot be solved by the supposed principles of matter and motion but that do necessarily require some other causes that are above or different from the visible and ordinary course of nature yet because it is a point dark and mystical and of great concern and weight we shall add some unquestionable testimonies either from our own Annals or matters of fact that we know to be true of our own certain knowledge that thereby it may undoubtedly appear that there are effects that exceed the ordinary power of natural causes and may for ever convince all Atheistical minds of which in this order 1. In the first year of Edward the Sixth Anno Domini 1551. on St. Valentines day at Feversham in Kent one Arden a Gentleman was murthered by procurement of his own Wife for the which fact she was the fourteenth of March burnt at Canterbury Michael M r Arden's Man was hang'd in Chains at Feversham and a Maiden burnt Mosbie and his Sister were hanged in Smithfield at London Greene which had fled came again certain years after and was hanged in Chains in the High-way against Feversham and black Will the Ruffian that was hired to do that act after his first escape was apprehended and burnt on a Scaffold at Flushing in Zealand The same horrid murther is more at large related by Hollingshead who lived at that time and had information of all the particulars who saith thus much more This one thing he faith seemeth very strange and notable touching M r Arden that in the place he was laid being dead all the proportion of his body might be seen two years after and more so plain as could be for the grass did not grow where his body had touched but between his legs between his arms and about the hollowness of his neck and round about his body And where his legs arms head or any part of his body had touched no grass growed at all of all that time So that many strangers came in that mean time beside the Townsmen to see the print of his body there on the ground in that Field which Field he had as some have reported cruelly taken from a Woman that had been a Widdow to one Cooke and after Married to one Richard Read a Marriner to the great hinderance of her and her Husband the said Read for they had long enjoyed it by a Lease which they had of it for many years not then expired Nevertheless he got it from them for the which the said Reads Wife not only exclaimed against him in shedding many 〈◊〉 salt tear but also cursed him most bitterly even to his face wishing many a vengeance to light upon him and that all the World might wonder on him which was thought then to come to pass when he was thus murthered and lay in that Field from midnight till the morning and so all that day being the Fair-day till night all the which day there were many hundreds of people came wondring about him From whence we may take this Observation As it is most certain that this is a true and punctual relation given us by Hollingshead as being a publick thing done in the face of a Nation the print of his body remaining so long after and viewed and wondered at by so many so that it hath not left the least starting hole for the most incredulous Atheist to get out at So likewise it may dare the most deep-sighted Naturalist or unbelieving Atheist that would exalt and so far deifie Nature as to deny and take away the existence of the God of Nature to shew a reason of the long remaining of the print of his body or the not growing of the grass in those places where his body had touched for two years and more after Could it be the steams or Atoms that flowed from his body then are why not such prints left by other murthered bodies which we are sure by sight and experience not to be so And therefore we can attribute it justly to no other cause but only to the power of God and divine vengeance who is a righter of the oppressed fatherless and Widdows and hears their cries and regardeth their tears 2. In the second year of the Reign of King James of famous memory a strange accident happened to the terror of all bloody murtherers which was this One Anne Waters enticed by a lover of hers consented to have her Husband strangled and then buried him secretly under the Dunghil in a Cow-house Whereupon the man being missing by his Neighbours and the Wife making shew of a wondering what was become of him it pleased God that one of the inhabitants of the Town dreamed one night that his Neighbour Waters was strangled and buried under the
by ten or twelve thrown into one pit and yet not one of them have issued any fresh and pure blood Only from some of their wounds some sanious matter would have flowed putrefaction beginning by reason of the moisture and acidity in the air but no pure blood and therefore is not a common accident to all humane bodies that die naturally or violently but only is peculiar to some and especially to those that are murthered by prepensed malice as appeareth in the Histories recited above 2. We shall acknowledge with Gregorius Horstius Sperlingius and Gothofredus Voigtius that sometimes the bodies of those that have been murthered do bleed when the murtherer is not present as is manifest from the sixth History recited from Horstius of the young Man of twenty five years old that bled so long and so often though the murtherer was not present from whence they conclude that the presence of the murtherer is not a necessary cause of the bleeding of the murthered body and therefore that the bleeding of the body is not always a certain and infallible sign of discovering the murtherer To which we reply that the issuing of fresh and crimson blood from the wound or the nostrils of the persons body that hath been murthered is always a certain sign that the Corps that doth so bleed was murthered because those that die naturally or violently by chance man-slaughter or in the war do not bleed as hath been proved before Again if the murtherer be certainly known or have confessed the crime in regard of the final cause which is discovery there is no reason why the Corps should bleed And though the presence of the murtherer may not be the efficient cause why the Corps doth bleed yet is it the occasional as is manifest undeniably by sundry of the Histories that we have related where the murtherers had not been certainly known but by the bleeding of the body murthered 3. Whereas the three Authors above named thinking they have sufficiently confuted those that ascribed this effect of the bleeding of the dead body to Sympathy or Antipathy or to the moving of the bodies or heat in the air have assigned the cause to be the beginning of putrefaction in the bodies murthered by which a new motion is caused in the humors and so in the blood by which means it floweth afresh against this these two reasons oppose themselves 1. Must putrefaction needs begin at that very moment when the murtherer toucheth the body For in divers of them there was no bleeding until the murtherers were present or did touch the bodies and their touching could not cause the beginning of putrefaction and soon after their removing the bleeding hath ceased so that putrescence in fieri cannot be the cause of the fresh bleeding 2. Putrefaction beginning could not be the cause why the murthered Shepherds body in the ninth History should with its hands point to the wound and to the murtherers nor that the hands of the Wench murthered by the Jews in the tenth History should be stretched forth to the Prince of Baden or that the Lips and Nostrils of the Body of Gawkley should work and open at the touch of the murtherer How this must of necessity proceed from some higher cause than putrefaction or any other they have laid down 4. But though it should be acknowledged that in some of these bleedings there were something that were extraordinary or supernatural yet as learned Horstius tells us It is he saith an inconvenient Tenent of those that hold that the Souls of those that are murthered wandering about the Bodies by reason of the hatred they bear towards those that were their murtherers do cause these bleedings but this in Philosophy cannot stand because the separate form can by no means operate upon the subject any longer And he saith the same thing in Theologie seems to be very impious because the Souls of the dead are without mundane conversation as is sufficiently manifest from the History of the Rich Man and Lazarus Luke 16. 5. And if some should refer these effects immediately unto God as many learned Authors have done as though God by this means would sometimes make known those that are guilty or to refer this unto the Devil as though he would sometimes elude the Judges and to do this that so the innocent might be punished with the wicked We answer he saith to this briefly by adding this only that a supernatural cause is not rashly to be feigned where a natural one is ready at hand And if there be such examples which cannot be reduced to these aforesaid natural causes of which sort many are related by Libanius part 2. sol 172. then we can by no reason be repugnant but that they are preternaturally brought to pass And of this opinion are most of the Pontificial Writers that thereby they might the better maintain their Tenent that miracles are not ceased though we do not understand that if we should grant that in these things there should be some concurrence of Divine Power more than ordinary that therefore it must be a miracle for it is yet not infallibly concluded what a miracle is and every wonderful thing is not therefore concluded to be a miracle and a miracle being not absolutely defined what is not one cannot be certainly resolved 6. Some there are that ascribe these strange bleedings of murthered bodies and of their strange motions with the sweating of blood as upon the Pedlars bended dagger or knife mentioned in the eleventh History unto the Astral or Sydereal spirit and that not improbably that being a middle substance betwixt the Soul and the Body doth when separated from the Body wander or hover near about it bearing with it the irascible and concupiscible faculties wherewith being stirred up to hatred and revenge it causeth that ebullition and motion in the blood that exudation of blood upon the weapon and those other wonderful motions of the Body Hands Nostrils and Lips thereby to discover the murtherer and bring him to condign punishment Neither is any Tenent yet brought by any that is more rationally probable to solve these and many other wonderful Phenomena's than this of the Astral Spirit if it can be but fully proved that there is such a part of Man that doth separately exist which we shall endeavour to prove ere we end this Chapter 7. But it is granted upon all sides that if the murtherer be brought to the presence or touch of the person murthered and not quite dead that then the wounds though closed and staid from bleeding or the nostrils will freshly break forth and bleed plentifully The reason is obvious because the Soul being yet in the Body retaining its power of sensation fancy and understanding will easily have a presension of the murderer and then no marvail that through the vehement desire of revenge the irascible and concupiscible faculties do strongly move the blood that before was
and were not exempted from the common frailty of Mankind who are all subject to errours And therefore unless they were assured that their Ancestors in former Ages held the certain and undoubted grounds of truth it is nothing of reason in them but meer perversness of will rather obstinately errare cum patribus than to learn to follow the truth with those that are coetaneous with them which is foolish and irrational Further there are more helps now and means to attain the knowledge of Verity than were in the days when their Ancestors lived and it must be a kind of the greatest madness to shut their eyes that the light of truth may not appear unto them 2. This kind of reasoning hath no more of reason in it than if one should say that because his Grandfather and great Grandfather were blind or lame therefore they will be so too or that their Ancestors never learned the Greek or Latine Tongues nor to write or read neither will they learn any more than they did or that their Predecessors were ill husbands and unthrifts and that therefore they will continue the same courses or that because their Forefathers followed drunkenness and luxury therefore they will continue the same cariere of vices as many of our debauched persons do now adays having no better reasons to alledge for their exorbitant and vicious courses but what the Prophet condemned The fathers have eaten sowr grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge 3. How far would they run back to state the beginning of their Ancestors If as far as their first Originals then they must all be Savages Barbarians and Heathens And if they state it distant from their first Originals then their Predecessors had the same reason to have continued as those did that preceded them But if their Ancestors varied from and left the steps and opinions of those that went before them then if they will do as their Ancestors did they must leave their courses and opinions as they had done of those that preceded them 4. Some say they cannot recede from the opinions of their Predecessors because it would be a shame and disgrace unto them But that which we call shame and disgrace consists in the opinion of others and we ought not to receive errour or reject truth by reason of the censures or opinions of others Si de veritate scandalum sumitur utilius permittitur nasci scandalum quà m veritas relinquatur And to leave an errour to entertain truth is so far from being a shame and a disgrace that there cannot be a greater honour or glory for errare humanum est sed in errore perseverare belluinum ac diabolicum est 4. Those effects that seem strange and wonderful either in respect of Art or Nature require much diligence truly to discover and find out their causes and we ought not rashly to attribute those effects to the Devil whose causes are latent or unknown unto us and that for these grounds 1. It hath been common almost in all Ages not only for the vulgar but also for the whole rabble of Demonographers and Witchmongers to ascribe those strange and wonderful effects whether arising from Art or Nature unto the worst of Gods Creatures if they did not themselves understand their causes and to censure the Authors that writ of them as Conjurers and Magicians as I have made manifest in my former Instances and might be further made good and illustrated by the effects of healing by the Weapon-salve the Sympathetick Powder the Curing of divers Diseases by Appensions Amulets or by Transplantation and many other most admirable effects both of Art and Nature which by these self conceited Ignorants are all thrown upon the Devils back and he made the Author and effector of them as though he had a kind of omnipotent power of which the learned Philosopher and Physician Van Helmont gives us this account Credo equidem cum pietate pugnare si Diabolo tribuatur potestas naturam superans Verum naturae ignari praesumunt se naturae secretarios per librorum lectionem quicquid autem ipsos latet vel adynaion vel falsum vel praestigiosum atque diabolicum esto And a little after he adds this Pigritiae saltem enim immensae inventum fuit omnia in Diabolum retulisse quae non capimus nec velim Diabolum invocatum ut nostris satisfaciat quaestionibus per temerariam potestatum attributionem 2. Whosoever shall read Pancirollus de rebus memoralibus noviter repertis may easily be satisfied what strange and stupendious things Art and the Inventions of men have produced in these latter Ages And no man can rationally doubt but that many more as strange or far more wonderful may in Ages to come be found out and discovered for there is a kind of bottomless depth in Arts whether Liberal or Mechanical that yet hath not been sounded but lye hid and unknown unto men And if these for their wonderfulness should as former Ages have ignorantly done be ascribed unto the power of Satan and their Authors accused of Conjuring and Diabolical Magick no greater wrong could be done unto Art and Artists and it would be a kind of blasphemy to attribute these stupendious effects as the Vulgar and Witchmongers use to do unto the Devil the worst of Gods Creatures and the Enemy of Mankind 3. The third argument I shall take from Mr. Glanvil which is the greatest piece of truth in all his Treatise and convert and retort it against him and is this he saith We are ignorant of the extent and bounds of Natures Sphere and Possibilities Now if we be ignorant of the extent and bounds of Natures Sphere and Possibilities then it must needs be folly madness and derogative against Gods power in Nature to attribute those effects to wicked fallen and degenerated Demons that we do not know but are produced by the course of Nature And to ascribe the products of Nature to such wicked Instruments is blasphemous in depriving Nature of the honour due unto her and robbing God of the honour and glory belonging unto him for the wonderful power wherewith he hath endowed his Creatures who were all made to shew forth his power and Godhead and the Heavens declare the glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy work and as one said very well Natura creatrix est quaedam vis potentia divinitùs insita alia ex aliis in suo genere producens So that the honour that is due unto the Creator Conserver and Orderer of Nature ought not to be ascribed unto the Devils for in doing this the Witchmongers become guilty of Idolatry and are themselves such Witches as are mentioned in the Old Testament who by their lying Divinations led the people after them to follow Idols therefore the effects that belong unto Nature are to be attributed to Nature and the effects that Devils produce are to be ascribed unto them and
drew the people to Idolatry the thing that God most hateth and against which he hath pronounced the most severe and terriblest judgments of all Nay these people were the very false Prophets especially of one sort and the very Priests to the Idols as is manifest in the wicked and filthy Idolatry of all sorts set up and practised by Manasses even all the sorts or the most of them mentioned in the Scriptures And God declareth himself to be a jealous God and that he will not give his glory to another but is the only Lord God and him only we ought to serve and therefore will most severely punish those that attribute that unto Idols that is only proper unto himself and for this cause and upon this ground are all those terrible Comminations used in the Scriptures and especially against this sort of people who were the chief Instruments of promoting Idol-worship ascribing the power of a Deity unto them when the Prophet tells us Their Idols are silver and gold the work of mens hands they have mouths but they speak not eyes have they but they see not they have ears but they hear not noses have they but they smell not they have hands but they handle not feet have they but they walk not neither speak they through their throat neither is there any breath in their mouths 3. That many great and abstruse things may be lawfully done by Natural Magick is well known to the best Naturalists and how great Feats may be performed by the Mathematicks and Mechanical Arts are well known to the Learned and that there is and may be a lawful use of Astrology and many things may be foretold by it few that are judicious are ignorant that the Prognosticks in the Art of Medicine are necessary and of much use and certainty all learned Physicians know very well that observing of times and many other such like things may for divers respects be lawfully practised But if all or any of these be used to draw people to Idolatry and their strange effects ascribed unto dumb and dead Idols then what horrible sin and abomination were this and no punishment could be too heavy for it And so it is in the case of these sort of people called Witches or Diviners they perswaded the multitude that their false Gods or rather Devils in their Idols could foretel life or death and so led the people a whoring after them as Abaziah sent to inquire of the god of Ekron whether he should recover or not and therefore he had that sharp judgment That he should not come down from that bed whither he was gone up but should surely dye And did not the Priests of Baal which were the same rabble named Deut. 18. 10 11 12 13 c. obstinately labour to make Ahab and all the people believe that the Gods or Devils that they worshipped in their Idols could and would answer by fire and pertinaciously persisted in their obstinacy cutting themselves with knives and lancets from morning until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice and yet nothing was effected so that they were justly guilty of that punishment which they received which was death for ascribing that to a dead Idol that none could perform but the only true God of Israel and yet in the mean time could neither by their own skill nor the skill of their Idols foresee that sudden death that fell upon them which punishment fell deservedly upon them for labouring to deceive the people and confirm them in Idolatry in ascribing that unto a dead stock which was only in the power of the Almighty to perform So if all those sine Knacks and neat Tricks that Athanasius Kircher performed at Rome by the help and means of the Loadstone and mentioned in his Book de Arte Magnetica had been by him ascribed unto some Saint thereby to have drawn the people to the adoration of that Saint and so to Idolatry it had been active imposture deceit and knavery in him and he might justly have been inrolled in the Catalogue of these Witches or Diviners and had really been an active Impostor as they were and so had deserved the same punishment when on the contrary for ascribing effects unto their true and proper causes and clearly shewing the manner and means of producing those effects he hath justly deserved the title of a learned and honest man And though a common Hocus Pocus man or one that playeth Tricks of Leger-de-main or slight of hand to get a livelihood by do labour to make the ignorant multitude believe that he doth his Feats by virtue of his barbarous terms or non-significant words or by the help of some familiar Spirit must therefore a prudent or learned person believe the same and not labour to understand that those pretences are but used the better to deceive the senses of the beholders and so that pretence but a cheat and imposture 4. We affirm that all these mentioned in the Scriptures nay and that the Priests attending all the so famoused Oracles were but meer Cheaters and Impostors and that for these reasons 1. They could not be nor were ignorant that all their numerous Idols were but the works of mens hands and that they could not of themselves move see hear smell or breathe much less eat and drink and therefore were notorious Cheaters and Impostors in labouring to make the people believe the contrary 2. They could not be ignorant but what answers were given and what acts were done were performed by themselves and not by the Idols and yet they laboured to make the people believe the contrary as the Bramines and Priests do to this day all over the Eastern parts of Asia and in many other places and so must needs be notorious Knaves and Cheaters because as Isaiah saith With part of the wood whereof he hath made himself an Idol he maketh a fire and warmeth himself 3. They could not be ignorant that their Idols could not nor did declare any thing truly that was to come but what Answers were given or Divinations were uttered were of their own devising and invention and no other Devil in the case but Diabolical inspirations in their minds And this is manifest by their pitiful shuffling equivocations especially of all the Oracles their responsions being always ambiguous and bearing a double sense which caused Cardan to say Oracula si non essent ambig◠non essent oracula And commonly if not always they were given in the favour of those that gave the largest gifts which made Demosthenes say that the Oracle at Delphos did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it always spoke in favour of Philip and his proceedings And it was with the Oracles as with the Temple of Neptune All the Offerings of those that escaped shipwrack were preserved and to be seen but of those that had suffered shipwrack there was no memorial nor knowledge of their number so many have noted some
Giffard and divers others who have from one to another lickt up the Vomit of the first Broacher of this vain and false opinion and without due consideration have laboured to obtrude it upon others Yet was it in a manner rejected by the most of the Learned who had duly weighed the matter and read the strong and convincing arguments of Wierus Tandlerus Nymannus Biermannus Gutierrius Mr. Scot and the like until of late years Dr. Casaubon and Mr. Glanvil have taken up Weapons to defend these false absurd impossible impious and bloody opinions withal against whose arguments we now principally direct our Pen and after the answering of their groundless and unjust scandals we shall labour to overthrow their chief Bulwarks and Fortifications CHAP. III. The denying of such a Witch as is last described in the foregoing Chapter doth not infer the denying of Angels or Spirits Apparitions no warrantable ground for a Christian to believe the Existence of Angels or Devils by but the Word of God HAving declared in what sense and acceptation we allow of Witches and in what notion we deny them lest we be misunderstood we shall add thus much That we do not as the Schools speak deny the existence of Witches absolutè simpliciter sed secundùm quid and that they do not exist tali modo that is they do not make a visible Contract with the Devil he doth not suck upon their bodies they have not carnal Copulation with him and the like recited before and in these respects and not otherwise did Wierus Gutierrius and Mr. Scot deny Witches that is that neither they nor their supposed Familiars could perform such things as are ascribed unto them And that Dr. Casaubon and Mr. Glanvil should charge those that hold this opinion with Atheisth or Sadducism is to me very strange having no ground connexion or rational consequence so to do yet doth Dr. Casaubon affirm it in these words Now one prime foundation saith he of Atheism as by many ancient and late is observed being the not believing the existence of spiritual Essences whether good or bad separate or united subordinate to God as to the supreme and original Cause of all and by consequent the denying of supernatural operations I have I confess applied my self by my examples which in this case do more than any reasoning and the Authority of the holy Scriptures laid aside are almost the only convincing proof And Mr. Glanvil is so confident I might justly say impudent that he styled his Book A Blow at modern Sadducism which I confess is so weak a blow and so blindly levell'd and so improperly directed that I am sure it will kill or hurt no body and tells us this boldly and roundly And those that dare not bluntly sâ—y There is no God content themselves for a fair step and introduction to deny there are Spirits or Witches Which sort of Iâ—fidels though they are not 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 looser Gentry and the small Pretenders to Philosophy and Wit are generally deâ—iders of the belief of Witches and Apparitions And the whole design of his Book is to prove those men to be guilty of Sadducism that deny the existence of Witches understood in his sense and this we oppose and the state of the question we lye down thus That the denying the existence of Angels or Spirits or the Resurrection doth not infer the denying of the Being of God nor the denying of the existence of Witches in the sense before laid down infer the denying of Angels or Spirits and that they do unjustly charge the Authors of this opinion with Sadducism we shall prove with irrefragable Arguments 1. There can be no right deduction made nor no right consequence drawn where there is no dependency in causality nor no connexion of dependency For as in the Relative and Correlative the denying of the one necessarily destroys the other yet fundamentum Relationis non destruitur so a father without a child as a father doth neither exist nor is known and yet the foundation of those two terms of Paternity and Childship which is Man doth remain So he that denieth Creation doth destroy the Relative which is Creator yet the foundation which is God doth remain and the denying of the Creation doth not infer the necessary conclusion of denying the Being of a God because there might be a God though there were no Creation because God is supposed to be both in respect of causality and duration before Creation So what relation can Mr. Glanvil feign betwixt the Being of God and the Being of Angels or Spirits For they both belong to the Predicament of Substance and not that of Relation and there is less relation betwixt the Being of a Witch and the Being of Spirits so that the denying of the one doth not infer the denying of the other And though there were relation which Mr. Glanvil cannot shew the foundation of that Relation which is so necessary that Relatives cannot subsist without it might remain though the Relatives were taken away and therefore the denying of the existence of Angels or Spirts doth not infer the denying of the Being of God and therefore the Authors of this opinion are wrongfully and falsely charged with Atheism and the denying of the existence of a Witch in the sense specified doth not infer the denying of the Being of Spirits and therefore Scot Osburne and the like are falsely and wrongfully charged with Sadducism 2. Though it be a true Maxime that de posse ad esse non valet argumentum yet on the contrary the possibility of that can never be rationally denied that hath once been in esse But it is apparent that the Sadducees denied the Resurrection and that there were either Angels or Spirits that is they denied that Angels or Spirits whether good or bad did separately exist and that they were nothing but the good or bad motions in mens minds yet these men were no Atheists for though they denied the Resurrection and held that there were no Angels or Spirits yet they held and believed there was a God and did allow of and believed the five Books of Moses else would not our Saviour have used an argument whose only strength was drawn from a sentence in the third Chapter of Exodus the sixth verse So that even the denying of the Existence of Angels and Spirits doth not infer the denying of a God much less doth the denying the Existence of a Witch infer the denial of the Being of Angels and Spirits and therefore the charge of Atheism and Sadducism is false injurious and scandalous 3. Those things that in their Beings have no dependence one upon another the denying of the one doth not take away or deny the being of the other but where the being doth meerly exist in
So that the Scriptures do plainly inform us of the truth in this particular as For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him For this is only proper to God to search the heart and to understand the cogitations as saith the Text For thou only knowest the hearts of the children of men he only knoweth them and neither Angels nor men and though the heart be deceitful and desperately wicked yet God doth search the heart and try the reins So that if the good Angels do not know the cogitations desires and affections of Mens hearts except God either reveal them unto them or they be made manifest by signs and effects much less must the bad Angels know or understand them 3. Those things that are meerly contingent and those which depend upon free will cannot be known of the Angels unless they be revealed by God as is manifest by the Text. Produce your cause saith the Lord bring forth your strong Idols or Diviners saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth and shew us what shall happen let them shew the former things what they be that we may consider them and know the later end of them or declare us things for to come Shew the things that are to come hereafter that we may know that ye are Gods yea do good or evil that we may be dismayed and behold it together And as the good Angels know not contingent things or those that depend upon free will much less do the faln Angels understand them as is manifest in these examples The Angel that was sent of God to warn Joseph to take the child Jesus and fly into Aegypt did not of his own innate knowledge either in it self or in its cause as the Schoolmen speak know that Herod would seek the child to destroy him because it was truly a contingent thing and did only depend upon the free act of Herods will and therefore by Divine Goodness and Providence it was revealed to the Angel thereby to preserve the life of the child and to fulfil the Scriptures Neither do the faln Angels know future events that are contingent or depend upon the free will of men as is manifest in Satans tempting and afflicting of Job which he intended to have been his destruction and therefore did falsly divine and foretel that Job would curse God to his face but the event was not according to his lying conjecture but to the manifestation of Jobs Faith and Patience and produced his glorious restoration So the lying spirit in the mouth of Ahabs Prophets did not know that Ahab would go up to Ramoth Gilead or that he should be slain there but that God did reveal it unto him and sent him forth with a powerful commission to prevail So that all the predictions and Divinations of the Devil or his Angels are nothing but lying guesses and uncertain conjectures for what can be expected from him who was a liar from the beginning and the father of lies Neither were his Idol-priests Wizzards Diviners or Prophets any better but meer conjecturers and lyars as was most manifest in all those Oracles that were amongst the Grecians which uttered nothing but cheats lies equivocations and ambiguous responsions And those amongst the Jews were no better who took upon them to foretel and divine for others but could not or did not foresee their own destruction as is manifest in Ahabs Prophets slain by Elijah and the Priests of Baal slain by Jehu and therefore must all those needs be deceived that run to Divining Witches and Wizzards of which sort of couzeners we have too many And if against this it be objected that the Devils did know and confess that Jesus was the Son of God and therefore if they could tell this that was so great a mystery much more easily may they know other inferior things and so may foretel future contingencies to which we give this responsion 1. We only affirm that Devils did not know Christ by their innate or inbred knowledge but they might know him by the revelation of the Father and by the things that were written of him by the Prophets and by the observation of those things that were manifested at his birth and shewed and done in his life time 2. And it is manifest that God did not altogether intend to have him hidden from the knowledge of Devils because he ordered that the spirit should lead him into the wilderness that he might be tempted that his power and victory might be shown over the Prince of darkness And the end that the wisdom of God had in this was that the Devils to their greater terror and horror might know their Conquerour and by whose power they should be tormented and thrown into the Abyss or bottomless pit and this made them cry out saying Art thou come to torment us before the time and also force us not into the Abyss or deep 3. The Devils might know this because the Angels had proclaimed his birth to the Shepherds and told them that unto them was born that day in the City of David a Saviour which was Christ the Lord And they might know it from the appearing of the Holy Ghost in the form of a Dove and resting upon him and by the voice which said from Heaven this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased And they might know it by the conquest that Christ had over the Devil and by their daily being cast out by the power of his word and command as by the finger of God 4. The mysteries of Salvation cannot be known unto the good Angels but by Divine Revelation much less unto the bad ones as witnesseth the Text For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him even so the things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God The mysteries therefore of Salvation as they have been decreed by himself in his eternal counsel are not known unto the Angels but by the revelation of the spirit of God and the complement and fulfilling of his promises So concerning the restauration or precise day and hour of the coming of Christ do not the Angels in Heaven know though their knowledge be vast and great and therefore much less those faln and rebellious Angels that are chained in everlasting darkness untill the judgment of the great day 5. And as that which is not understood of the blessed and elect Angels must needs be unknown unto the faln Angels so likewise there are many things known to the good Angels that are hidden or but conjectured at by the bad ones as may be manifest in these instances 1. The blessed Angels know and see the face of the Father in beatifical vision as saith the Text Take heed that ye offend not one of these little ones for I say unto you that in heaven their Angels do alwayes
or an effective dominion over them by which he doth actually afflict vex and torment Men sundry and diverse ways Neither is the word Dâ—monizomenos translated or understood by learned Men of an essential or personal possession of Devils to be inherently in men but only of an effective dominion in afflicting and tormenting of them 3. And this is most manifest that as the Text saith that Christ may dwell in your hearts by Faith where it were absurd to understand by Christs dwelling in the hearts of the faithful a personal essential or substantial dwelling but only an effective one because he worketh effectually in them by his spirit Even so were it absurd to take the other places of entring into and dwelling there in so gross and literal a sense as personally to inhabite but only effective by his power and dominion For though the Text saith that after the sop Satan entred into Judas yet in the same Chapter the Evangelist expoundeth what manner of entrance it was not a personal one but an effective one by putting or darting it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into Judas heart to betray his Master And whereas it is said that Satan had filled the heart of Ananias to lie to the Holy Ghost no man can rationally understand it of a personal and essential repletion but only of an effective one having by his power seduced the heart of Ananias and filled it with deceit by his effectual operation and not otherwise And whereas it is said by S. Luke and S. Mark of the legion of Devils that our Saviour did cast out that they entred into the swine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Matthew makes it clear saying they went into the herd of swine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in gregem or as Tremellius renders it ad gregem porcorum by which it is manifest that they did go amongst or into the herd of Swine and put them into such a fright or fury by an effective power working upon them that they ran down a steep place into the Sea and perished in the waters but not that they did personally and essentially enter into the bodies of the Swine for that were absurd and needless for the Swineherd can with his Horn and Whip drive them without creeping into their bellies and much more might the Devils drive them into the Sea according to the Proverb They must needs run whom the Devil drives without a personal and local being in their bellies as though a Piper cannot effectively play several tunes upon his Pipes except he creep into them CHAP. XII If the Devil or Witches have power to perform strange things whether they do not bring them to pass by meer natural means or otherwise And of Helmonts opinion concerning the effects caused by Devils or Witches HAving handled the knowledge and power of the faln Angels as far forth as there is any thing manifested in the Scriptures or that may be deducted from thence by sound reason and finding their knowledge and power to be much less in these inferior bodies and elements than is commonly supposed we are now to proceed to examine what they do simply of their own power and what they perform by natural means And first it cannot be denyed but that they can of themselves dart in evil thoughts suggestions and temptations into the minds of Men immediately of their own power as also to allure Men to sin by the irritation of external objects presented to the senses as also by means of the phantasie and especially by the melancholy humour which is Balneum Diaboli But secondly the great question is what they work in elemental and corporeal things and whether it be not only by natural means as the applying of fit actives to agreeable passives whereby the acts ascribed unto them are performed or not Which we affirm from these grounds 1. Because it is the common and unanimous opinion of Philosophers Theologues and Physicians that what the Devils operate in sublunary bodies or in causing diseases in humane bodies is by the applying fit actives to convenient passives by which the effects are brought to pass And this is an argument sufficiently pressive and convincing if there be any force in arguments brought from humane authority especially considering that no other causes besides what are natural could ever yet be assigned much less proved 2. And this is more plain if we consider what thâ— Author quoted last in the Margent saith to the same purpose Daemon propria virtute nequit transmutare materiam corpoream nisi adhibeat illi activa proportionata effectibus quos intendit As for example the Devil may cause burning by reason that there is a combustible subject as also a fiery and burning agent in nature and this agent being fire being applyed to combustible matter would produce that effect which we call cremation or burning But if there were no combustible matter in nature or that there were no igneous agent then it is plain the Devils could produce no burning at all and so where there is no agent and patient in nature to produce the effect intended as in pretended fascination there is neither there such an effect could not possibly be produced so that from hence it must necessarily follow that Devils can operate nothing in corporeal matter but by applying fit agents to convenient patients and therefore Helmont said well Quasi Satanas supra naturam esset operareturque naturae impossibilia Dono quidem modum operando exoticum at sane ad intra naturam coerceri oportet 3. And that many strange things that are vomited up by such as are supposed to be bewitched do proceed from natural causes and that the Devil worketh no more in them but by instigation to move wicked persons such as are commonly those that are accounted Witches to give and administer strange things Philters or secret poisons to such as they would kill torment make mad or draw to unlawful love or rather lust as may be made manifest from the testimonies of persons of unquestionable veracity and judgment some few of which we shall here relate Philip Salmuth chief Physician to the Prince of Anhalt recordeth this which we shall give in English The Daughter of a certain Inkeeper was desperately in love with a principal Nobleman To whom going away she offers a most beautiful apple This he suspecteth and throweth into a Basket After three days he remembers it and looks at it and then it altogether appeared blackned He expecteth for the space of other three days and then findeth abundance of little Frogs there Therefore he returneth into that Inn where the Maid lived and doth counterfeit sickness and huge torments The Maid willeth him to use warm milk That he poureth upon the Frogs who take it greedily and by little and little do increase But he every day feigneth greater pains whereupon the Maid pitying him doth will him to take the urine of a Mare newly made and
wrist do appease the Hemicrany and swimming of the head which comes again if they be laid away as he saith the most illustrious Nobleman Cassianus à Puteo most worthy of Roman Purple hath told me The same Noble Puteus he saith hath shewed me the picture of a Meirmaid in his Closet which not many years before was driven to the shore of Malta A certain Spaniard he saith told me that Meirmaids were seen in India having the Genital members of Women like those of humane kind so that the Fishers do bind themselves with an Oath to the Magistrate that they have no copulation with them Bernardinus Ginnarus lib. 1. c. 9. de Indico itinere edit Neap. 1641. doth relate that Meirmaids are seen in the vast River Cuama near the head of Good hope which in the middle superior part are like to the form of men that is with round head but immediately joyned to the breast without a neck with ears altogether like ours and so their eyes lips and teeth And that their dugs being pressed do send forth most white milk Therefore he concludeth There is he saith so great difference of the form of Meirmaids with the Ancients and Moderns that it is no wonder that some do account them figments We have he saith the hands to be seen with eyes and we shew the Meirmaids to be such as in truth they are seen to be Neither do the hands and ribs deceive whose Pictures we have given framed according to the truth of nature 5. But besides these there are other Fishes or Sea-monsters that in all parts resembled Men and Women as these examples make manifest Alexander ab Alexandro a person of great learning and experience relateth That in Epirus a Triton or Sea-Man was found who forth of the Sea did ravish Women being alone upon the shore But being taken by cunning he did resemble a Man with all his members but did refuse meat being offered so that he died with hunger and wasting as being in a strange element 6. Also Ludovicus Vives doth tell us this story In our age he saith with the Hollanders a Sea-Man was seen of many who also was kept there above two years he was mute and then begun to speak But being twice smitten with the Plague he is let loose to the Sea rejoicing and leaping 7. In the year of our Lord 1403. there was taken a Sea-woman in a lake of Holland thrown thither forth of the Sea and was carried into the City of Haerlem she suffered her self to have garments put upon her and admitted the use of bread milk and such like things Also she learned to spin and to do many other things after the manner of Women also she did devoutly bend her knees to the image of Christ crucified being docible to all things which she was commanded by her Master but living there many years she alwayes remained mute 8. To these we shall conclusively add one story of sufficient credit from our own English Annals which is this In the year 1187. being the 33th year of the Reign of Henry the second near unto Oreford in Suffolk certain Fishers of the Sea took in their nets a fish having the shape of a man in all points which fish was kept by Bartholomew de Glanvile Custos of the Castle of Oreford in the same Castle by the space of six months and more for a wonder he spake not a word All manner of meats hâ— did gladly eat but most greedily raw fish after he had crushed out all the moisture Oftentimes he was brought to the Church where he shewed no tokens of adoration At length when he was not well looked to he stole away to the Sea and never after appeared The learned Antiquary Mr. Camden tells this same story from Radulphus Coggeshall an ancient writer and that Capillos habebat barbam prolixam pineatam circa pectus nimium pilosus erat hispidus and concludeth Quicquid nascatur in parte naturae ulla in mari esse non omninò commentitium est By all which examples we may be rationally satisfied that though these creatures have a real existence in nature yet because of their strange natures shapes and properties or by reason of their being rarely seen they have been and often are not only by the common people but even by the learned taken to be Devils Spirits or the effects of Inchantment and Witchcraft And therefore men that would judge aright must take heed that they be not deceived and imposed upon by relations of this nature and also of all such things as may be acted by Imposture and confederacy and those other Physical things that are brought to pass by natural causes divers sorts of which are recited by Ludovicus Lavaterus very largely to which I recommend those that desire further satisfaction in those particulars CHAP. XVI Of Apparitions in general and of some unquestionable stories that seem to prove some such things Of those apparitions pretended to be made in Beryls and Crystals and of the Astral or Sydereal Spirit IN this Treatise we have before sufficiently proved that the denying of the existence of such a Witch as doth make a visible contract with the Devil or upon whose body he sucketh or that hath carnal copulation with a Demon and that is transubstantiated into a Cat or a Dog or that flyeth in the air doth not inferr the denial of Spirits either good or bad nor utterly overthrow the truth of apparitions or of such things as seem to manifest some supernatural operations And therefore here we shall fully handle the question of Apparitions and things that seem to be of that nature and that in this order 1. We shall not meddle with Apparitions in the large extent of the word for so it may comprehend the appearing of new Stars Comets Meteors and other Portents and Prodigies which though unusual and wonderous have yet their production from natural causes But only here we shall treat of such apparitions as are taken to be performed by supernatural creatures or in such a way and by such creatures as we commonly account to be different from if not above the power of ordinary and visible nature as of Angels good or bad the Souls of men departed or their Astral Spirits or of some oâ—her creatures that are or may be of a middle nature 2. As for the apparitions of good Angels sent by God in times past both in sleep and otherwise the Scriptures do give us most full and ample assurance as these few instances may undeniably demonstrate 1. That an Angel of the Lord that is a good Angel did appear visibly unto Manoah and his wife and did vocally and audibly talk and discourse with them both and did after in both their sights openly and visibly ascend in the flame that did arise from the altar Now a more plain and indubitable apparition visibly seen and audibly heard than this
it were immoveable until not by any deceit or ambushes but only stretching their hands they had taken them and strangled them This is from his own sight and he a Man of undoubted veracity 5. Another take from the credit of Dr. Casaubon who fathers it upon Remigius but confesseth that at the time of his writing the story he could not find it in Remigius his Book and is this I have seen a Man saith he who from all the neighbourhood or confines would draw Serpents into the fire which was inclosed within a magical circle and when one of them bigger than the rest would not be brought in upon repetition of the charms before used he was forced and so into the fire he did yield himself with the rest and with it was compassed 6. To these we shall adjoin another story written from Wierus by Dr. Moore thus And he saith Wierus tells us this story of a Charmer at Saltzburg that when in the sight of the people he had charmed all the Serpents into a ditch and killed them at last there came one huge one far bigger than the rest that leap◠upon him and winded about his waste like a girdle and pulled him into the ditch and so killed the Charmer himself in the conclusion And this great Serpent the Doctor taketh in his Appendix to be a Devil or a Serpent actuated and guided by him but upon what grounds of reason I can no way understand These are the most material passages that in our reading we can find in credible and learned Authors to prove thereby the effects of charms de facto and we confess they are all short and not sufficiently evidential as such a case may justly require and therefore we shall here add some testimonies of good Authors that do strongly affirm and aver the same As not to stand upon the authorities of the Cabalists Platonists or Arabians we find the truth of the charming of Serpents avouched by Paracelsus whose credit in this point may be equivalent to any others who saith thus But he saith answer me from whence is this that a Serpent in Helvetia Algovia or Suevia doth understand the Greek Idions Osy Osya Osy c. When notwithstanding the Greek tongue is not so common in this age with the Helvetians Algovians or Suevians that the venenous worms should be able to learn it Tell me he saith how where and from what causes Serpents do understand these words or in what Academics have they learned them that they should forthwith at the first hearing of those words stop their ears with their tail turned back lest they should be compelled to hear the words again reiterated For assoon as they hear them they contrary to their nature and cunning do forthwith lie immoveable and do pursue or hurt no man with their venemous biting when notwithstanding otherwise they on the sudden fly from the noise of a mans going as soon as they hear it and turn into their holes From whence it is manifest that Paracelsus knew of his own experience that the charm which it seems he knew would make Serpents lie immoveable and so that there was power and efficacy in words naturally without superstition to work and operate Also the learned person Tobias Tandlerus Doctor of Physick and publick Professor at Witteberge in his smart and pithy Oration de fascino incantatione tells us this That Tucci◠a Woman belonging to the Temple of Vesta being accused of Incest did by the help of prayer carry water in a sieve as Pliny witnesseth lib. 28. c. 2. natur Histor. Who there with many examples doth extol the efficacy of words And further saith They are found that stay wild beasts with words that they efcape not the throwing of the dart And those that render Rats being seen in any place stupid with secret murmuring that they may be taken with the hand and strangled Augerius Ferrerius whom Thuanus calls Medicus Doctissimus in his treating of Homerical medication after he hath quoted Galen's recantation from Trallianus and divers arguments and examples to prove the efficacy of words charms and characters from him from Aetius and others he concludeth thus Quorum experientiam cum ob oculos positam tot illustrium virorum authoritate confirmata videris quid facies Nam iis quae sensibus exposita sunt contravenire sani hominis non est Doctorum vero experimenta infirmare temerarium Lastly for authorities sake we shall add the opinion of sagacious Helmont who writ a Book by him styled In verbis herbis lapidibus est magna virtus and of the efficacy of words saith only thus much De magna virtute verborum quaedam ingenuè dixi quae magis admiror quam applico By which it is manifest that though Helmont did not make use of words or charms yet knowing the efficacy of them he could not but admire them These authorities joyned with the examples may suffice to convince any rational man that at some times and places and by some persons the using of charms have produced strange effects and therefore taking the matter of fact to be a truth we should come to examine the cause of these effects but first it will be necessary to premise some cautions and necessary considerations which we shall pursue in this order 1. We are to consider the intricacy and difficulty of this point which hath exercised the wits of the learned in all ages and forced Pliny to say Maximae quaestionis semper incertae est valeantne aliquid verba incantamenta carminum And again more particularly Varia circa haec opinio ex ingenio cujusque vel casu mulceri alloquio foras quippe ubi etiam Serpentes extrahi cantu cogique in poenas verum falsumne sit vita non decreverit It seems by Pliny that learned men of old have been very much divided in their opinions about this matter insomuch that he dares not take upon him to decide it but leaves it free to every man to believe as they shall see cause And therefore we ought not to be condemned if we do not absolutely decide it neither it is enough if we bring so much light to the matter that it may be better understood though not absolutely determined In magnis voluisse sat est 2. Again we are to note that some Authors of great credit and learning do hold these things to be but meer Aniles fabulae of which opinion it seems Aristotle and Galen were though Trallianus doth affirm though some say falsly that he made a retractation of that opinion and this was the judgment of the learned Spaniard Valesius who in his book De sacra Philosophia hath taken great pains to perswade men though he deny not supernatural operations by Devils and Spirits that inchanting by magical words are impossible and whatsoever is alledged by any ancient or late writer to that purpose he doth reject as meerly fabulous But