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
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
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
shining into his understanding and so is become wilfully blind To such as these we shall only propose the example and practice of the Apostle who saith When I was a child I spake as a child I understood as a child I thought as a child But when I became a man I put away childish things And I advise them not to refuse the counsel of S. Augustine who saith Ad discendum quod opus est nulla aetas sera videri potest quia etsi senes magis decet docere quà m discere magis tamen decet discere quam ignorare And they need not be ashamed to imitate Socrates who did wax old every day learning something 5. As we have not intended this Treatise and Introduction for such conditioned persons as we have enumerated before so there are others to whom we freely offer and present it and shall shew the grounds and causes that moved us to undertake such a mysterious and dangerous subject And those are such as have an humble lowly and equal mind that they commonly read Books to be informed and to learn those truths of which they are ignorant or to be confirmed in those things they partly knew before It is to such as these only that we offer our labours and therefore shall candidly declare unto them the causes and reasons of our undertaking which are these 1. Though there be a numerous company of Authors that have written of Magick Witchcraft Sorcery Inchantment Spirits and Apparitions in sundry ages of divers Countrys and in various languages yet have they for the most but borrowed one from another or have transcribed what others had written before them So that thereby there hath been no right progress made truly to discover the theory or ground of these dark and abstruse matters nor no precise care taken to instance in matters of fact that have been warrantably and sufficiently attested But only rhapsodies and confused heaps of stories and relations shuffled together when not one of an hundred of them bore the face either of verity or truth-likeliness whereby the understandings of Readers have remained uninlightned their memories confounded and their brains stuffed with Whimsies and Chimera's And though there be nothing more common than disputes of Witches and Witchcraft both in words and writing yet not one of great multitudes that hath plainly told us in what notion or under what acceptation they take the words nor what description is agreed upon of either of these that their existence or not being their power and operations might be known and determined But all the disputes as yet concerning them have been loose wild and in vagum And therefore to remedie this as far as such a subject would allow and our abilities stretch we were moved and have attempted to clear those difficulties And if we do not which is epidemical to mankind flatter and deceive ourselves we have in some measure reasonably attained as having plainly laid down the notion and acceptation of the words Witches and Witchcraft in which we grant them an existence and in what sense and respect we grant them none which is more as we conceive than yet hath been performed by any And though our instances of matters of fact be neither so punctual nor full as might be wished for things of this nature are deep and hid yet are they the best we could select or chuse and this is one chief reason why I undertook to treat of this subject 2. Though the gross absurd impious and Popish opinions of the too much magnified powers of Demons and Witches in this Nation were pretty well quashed and silenced by the writings of Wierus Tandler Mr. Scot Mr. Ady Mr. Wagstaff and others and by the grave proceedings of many learned Judges and other judicious Magistrates yet finding that of late two persons of great learning and note who are both as I am informed beneficed Ministers in the Church to wit Dr. Casaubon and Mr. Glanvil have afresh espoused so bad a cause and taken the quarrel upon them And to that purpose have newly furbished up the old Weapons and raked up the old arguments forth of the Popish Sink and Dunghills and put them into a new dress that they might appear with the greater luster and so do with Tooth and Nail labour to maintain the old rotten assertions the one in his Book called A Treatise proving Spirits and Witches c. the other in a Treatise called A blow at modern Sadducism c. Finding these I say as two new Champions giving defiance to all that are of a contrary judgment I was stirred up to answer their supposed strong arguments and invincible instances which I have done I confess without fear or any great regard to their Titles Places or Worldly Dignities but only considering the strength or weakness of their arguments proofs and reason For in this particular that I have to deal it is not with the men but their opinions and the grounds they would lay their foundations upon And if I be censured for dealing too sharply and harshly with them they must excuse me for I profess I have no evil will at all against their persons no more than against a non-Entity but was justly zealous for the truth and bitter against such opinions as they have vented which to me seem dangerous and in some respect impious as I suppose I have fully proved And this was another reason of my writing about this subject 3. Another reason that made me undertake this subject was the horrid absurdities the tenent of the common Witchmongers brings along with it as not only tending to advance superstition and Popery but also to be much derogatory to the Wisdom Justice and Providence of the Almighty and to cry up the power of the Kingdom of darkness to question the verity of the principal Article of the Christian Faith concerning the Resurrection of Christ in his true numerical Body and generally to tend to the obstruction of the practice of Godliness and Piety These after I had seriously weighed and considered them did move me to labour as far as the light of Gods word the grounds of true Theology and the clear strength of reason would guide and direct me to undertake the confutation of them as far as I was able and if I have failed I humbly desire those that are more able to handle the matter more fully if possible If any be moved that I seem to maintain some things that are Paradoxes I hope I may crave leave as well to discede from the opinions of others as others have done from those that went before them And I desire them not so much to consider either the novelty or strangeness of the opinions as the weight and strength of the reasons that are laid down to support and statuminate them for if the arguments be sound and valid the Tenents built thereupon cannot be weak and tottering And however I acknowledge my self to have humane frailties and so
which he found out the universal Medicine by a certain Aurum potabile by which he prolonged his life to the 145. year of his age in which year he suffered Martyrdom This I have produced to shew how inconsiderately and ignorantly the best learned of an Age may be and often are wrongfully and falsely traduced and slandered which may be a warning to all persons to take heed how they pass their censures until they understand perfectly all that is necessary to be known about the Subject they are to give judgment of before they utter or declare their sentence 5. Roger Bacon our Country-man who was a Franciscan Fryar and Doctor of Divinity the greatest Chymist Astrologer and Mathematician of his time yet could not escape the injurious and unchristian censure of being a Conjurer and so hard put to it that as Pitts saith he was twice cited to Rome by Clement the Fourth to purge himself of that accusation and was forced to send his Optical and Mathematical Instruments to Rome to satisfie the Pope and the Conclave which he amply performed and came off with honor and applause To vindicate whom I need say little because it is already performed by the Pens of those learned persons Pitts Leland Selden and Nandaeus only I shall add one Sentence forth of that most learned Treatise De mirabili potestate artis naturae de nullitate magiae Where he saith thus Quicquid autem est praeter operationem naturae vel artis aut non est humanum aut est fictum sraudibus occupatum Another of our Country-men Dr. John Dee the greatest and ablest Philosopher Mathematician and Chymist that his Age or it may be ever since produced could not evade the censure of the Monster-headed multitude but even in his life time was accounted a Conjurer of which he most sadly and not without cause complaineth in his most learned Preface to Euclid Englished by Mr. Billingsley and there strongly apologizeth for himself with that zeal and fervency that may satisfie any rational Christian that he was no such wicked person as to have visible and familiar converse if any such thing can be now adays with the Devil the known Enemy of Mankind of which take this short passage where he saith O my unkind Country-men O unnatural Country-men O unthankful Country-men O brain-sick rash spiteful and disdainful Country-men why oppress you me thus violently with your slandering of me contrary to verity and contrary to your own consciences Yet notwithstanding this and his known abilities in the most parts of abstruse Learning the great respect that he had from divers Princes Nobles and the most Learned in all Europe could not protect him from this harsh and unjust censure For Dr. Casaubon near fifty years after Dr. Dees death hath in the year 1659. published a large Book in Folio of Dees conversing for many years with Spirits wicked ones he meaneth But how Christian-like this was done to wound the mans reputation so many years after his death and with that horrid and wicked slander of having familiarity with Devils for many years in his life time which tends to the loss both of body and soul and to register him amongst the damned how Christian-like this is I leave all Christians to judge Besides let all the World judge in this case that Dr. Casaubon being a sworn Witchmonger even to the credulity of the filthiest and most impossible of their actions cannot but allow of the Law that doth punish them for digging up the bones of the dead to use them to Superstition or Sorcery what may he then think the World may judge him guilty of for uncovering the Dormitories of the deceased not to abuse their bones but to throw their Souls into the deepest pit of Hell A wickedness certainly beyond the greatest wickedness that he can believe is committed by Witches It is manifest that he hath not published this meerly as a true relation of the matter of fact and so to leave it to others to judge of but that designedly he hath laboured to represent Dee as a most infamous and wicked person as may be plainly seen in the whole drift of his tedious Preface But his design to make Dee a Converser with evil Spirits was not all he had another that concerned himself more nearly He had before run in a manner by labouring to make all that which he called Enthusiasm to be nothing else but imposture or melancholy and depraved phantasie arising from natural causes into the censure of being a Sadducee or Atheist To wash off which he thought nothing was so prevalent as to leap into the other end of the balance the mean is hard to be kept to weigh the other down by publishing some notorious Piece that might as he thought in an high degree manifest the existence of Spirits good and bad and this he thought would effect it sufficiently or at least wipe off the former imputation that he had contracted But that I may not be too tedious I shall sum up briefly some others by which it may be made clear that those dauntless Spirits that have adventured to cross the current of common opinion and those that have handled abstruse Subjects have never wanted opposition and scandal how true or profitable soever the things were that they treated or writ of Trithemius that Honour and Ornament of Germany for all sorts of Literature wanted not a Bouillus to calumniate and condemn him of unlawful Magick from which all the Learned in Europe know he is absolved by the able and elegant Pen of him that styles himself Gustavus Silenus and others Cornelius Agrippa run the same Fate by the scribling of that ignorant and envious Monk Paulus Jovius from whose malicious slander he is totally acquitted by the irrefragable evidence of Wierus Melchior Adams Nandaeus and others Who almost have not read or heard of the horrid and abominable false scandals laid upon that totius Germaniae decus Paracelsus by the malevolent Pen of Erastus and after swallowed up with greediness by Libanius Conringius Sennertus and many others for not only labouring to bring in a new Theory and Practice into the Art of Medicine but also for striving to purge and purifie the ancient natural laudable and lawful Magick from the filth and dregs of Imposture Deceit Ceremonies and Superstitions yet hath not wanted most strong and invincible Champions to defend him as Dorne Petrus Severinus Smetius Crollius Bitiscius and many others Our Country-man Dr. Fudd a man acquainted with all kinds of Learning and one of the most Christian Philosophers that ever writ yet wanted not those snarling Animals such as Marsennus Lanovius Foster and Gassendus as also our Casaubon as mad as any to accuse him vainly and falsely of Diabolical Magick from which the strength of his own Pen and Arguments did discharge him without possibility of replies We shall now come to those that have treated of Witchcraft and strongly
opposed and confuted the many wonderful and incredible actions and power ascribed unto Witches and these crossing the vogue of the common opinion have not wanted their loads of unworthy and unchristian scandals cast upon them of which we shall only name these two Wierus a learned person a German and in his time Physician to the Duke of Cleve the other our Country-man Mr. Reginald Scot a person of competent Learning pious and of a good Family what is said against them in particular I shall recite and give a brief responsion unto it 1. There is a little Treatise in Latine titled Daemonologia fathered upon King James how truly we shall not dispute for some ascribe it to others where in the Preface these two persons are intimated to be Witches and that they writ against the common opinion concerning the Power of Witches the better to shelter and conceal their Diabolical skill But indeed this groundless accusation needs no confutation but rather scorn and derision as having no rational ground of probability at all that they should be such cursed Hypocrites or dissembling Politicians the one being a very learned and able Physician as both his Writings do witness and that upright and unpartial Author Melchior Adams in his life hath most amply declared the other known as not living so very many years ago to be a godly learned and an upright man as his Book which he calleth The Discovery of Witchcraft doth most largely make it appear if his Adversaries had ever taken the pains to peruse it So that all rational persons may plainly see that it is but a lying invention a malicious device and a meer forged accusation 2. These persons are accused to have absolutely denied the existence of Witches which we shall demonstrate to be notoriously false by these following reasons 1. Could ever any rational man have thought or believed that Mr. Glanvil a person whopretends to such high parts would have expressed so much weakness and impudence as to have charged Mr. Scot with the flat denial of the existence of Witches as he doth in these words speaking of him and pretends this to be a Confutation of the being of Witches and Apparitions and this he intimates in divers other places but without any quotation to shew where or in what words Scot doth simply deny the Being of Witches which he doth no where maintain so confident are many to charge others with that which they neither hold noâ— write 2. Mr. Scot and Wierus do not state the Question An sint Whether there be Witches or not but Quomodo sint in what manner they act So that their Question is only What kind of power supposed Witches have or do act by and what the things are that they do or can perform so that the state of the question is not simply of the Being of Witches or de existentia but only de modo existendi wherein it is plain that every Dispute de modo existendi doth necessarily grant and suppose the certainty of the Existence otherwise the Dispute of the manner of their Being Properties Power or Acts would have no ground or foundation at all As if I and another should dispute about the extent buildings and situation of the great City Peking in China or about the length breadth and height of the great Wall dividing China from Tartary we both do take for granted that there is such a City and such a Wall otherwise our Dispute would be wild vain and groundless like the two Wise-men of Gotham who strove and argued about the driving of sheep over a bridge the one affirming he would drive his sheep over the bridge and the other protesting against it and so begun one as it were to drive and the other to stay and stop them when there were no sheep betwixt them And this might be a sufficient document to Mr. Glanvil to have been more sober than to have charged Scot so falsely And do not the ancient Fathers differ in their opinions circa Angelorum modum existendi some of them holding them to be corporeal and some incorporeal yet both these parties did firmly hold their existence so that this is a false and improper charge and hath no basis to stand upon at all 3. What man of reason and judgment could have believed that Mr. Glanvil or Dr. Casaubon being persons that pretend to a great share of Learning and to be exact in their ways of arguing would have committed so pitiful and gross a fault as is fallacia consequentis For if I deny that a Witch cannot flye in the air nor be transformed or transsubstantiated into a Cat a Dog or an Hare or that the Witch maketh any visible Covenant with the Devil or that he sucketh on their bodies or that the Devil hath carnal Copulation with them I do not thereby deny either the Being of Witches nor other properties that they may have for which they may be so called no more than if I deny that a Dog hath rugibility which is only proper to a Lion doth it follow that I deny the being of a Dog or that he hath latrability this is meer inconsequential and hath no connexion So if I deny that a man cannot flye by his natural abilities in the air like a Bird nor live continually in the Sea as a fish nor in the earth as a Worm or Mole this doth not at all infer that I deny the existence of man nor his other properties of risibility rationality or the like But this is the learned Logick and the clear ways of arguing that these men use 3. A third scandal Mr. Glanvil throws upon him is this where he saith thus For the Author doth little but tell odd tales and silly Legends which he confutes and laughs at and pretends this to be a confutation of the Being of Witches and Apparitions In all which his reasonings are trifling and childish and when he ventures at Philosophy he is little better than absurd Dr. Casaubon though he confesseth he had never read Scots Book but as he had found it by chance in friends houses or Book-sellers Shops yet doth rank him amongst the number of his illiterate Wretches and tells us how Dr. Reynolds did censure him and some others To these though they be not much material we shall give positive and convincing answers 1. There is no greater sign of the weakness of a mans cause nor his inability to defend it than when he slips over the substance of the question in hand and begins to fall foul upon the adverse party to throw dirt and filth upon him and to abuse and slander him this is a thing very usual but exceeding base and plainly demonstrates the badness of their cause 2. If Mr. Scot hath done little but told odd tales and silly Legends Mr. Glanvil might very well have born with him for I am sure his story of the Drummer and his other of Witchcraft are as odd and silly as any
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
tentabant dicere demonstrat Illi enim volebant ostendere quòd non propriâ virtute ejecit Daemones Ipse autem ostendit quòd non solùm Daemones sed eorum Principem ligavit quod manifestum est ab his quae fact a sunt Qualiter enim Principe non victo hi qui subjacent Daemones direpti sunt 5. Lastly he concludeth He that is not with me is against me And he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad And it 's proverbially known saith Dr. Hammond that he that is not on ones side that brings Forces into the field and is not for a mans assistance he is certainly for his Enemy engages against him doth him hurt and consequently my casting out Devils shews that I am Satans declared Enemy By all which arguments he flatly overthrows the false supposition of the Pharisees 4. These Tenents do overthrow the chief Articles of the Christian Faith to wit the rational and infallible evidence of the Resurrection of Christ in the same individual and numerical body in which he suffered and this we shall elucidate in these particular Considerations 1. The whole strength of the Christian Religion consists in the certainty of Christs Resurrection in his true and individual body For as the Apostle argueth And if Christ be not risen then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain yea and we are found false witnesses of God because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ whom he raised not up if so be that the dead rise not For if the dead rise not then is not Christ risen And if Christ be not risen your faith is vain ye are yet in your sins Then also they which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable So that all these sad consequences must needs follow and the whole Christian Religion be found a lye if Christ be not truly risen from the dead 2. And though the Apostle do enumerate sufficient Witnesses of his Resurrection and appearance after death and that he was seen of Cephas then of the Twelve after that he was seen of above five hundred Brethren at once then of James then of all the Apostles and lastly of himself Yet all this Cloud of Witnesses will prove little but dissolve into vapour if there were or are either Angels or Spirits that in their own or assumed bodies may appear in his form shape and likeness and to sight and tangibility be in all properties as his body was to have flesh and bones the print of the nails in the hands and feet and to eat and drink 3. That the Apostles held the opinion that there was Apparitions and Spirits that did shew themselves in any form or likeness is most plain and evident for when they saw Christ walking upon the Sea they supposed it had been a Spirit or Apparition for the Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and cryed out That is either being cruelly affrighted and amazed their Phantasies did represent strange thoughts in their minds or else which doubtless was the truth seeing Christ walking upon the Sea which they thought was not possible for a man to do without sinking or drowning they in great fear cryed out and forgetting his former Miracles did vainly suppose it some Spirit that had made an apparition in his likeness But it is most strange that the Disciples that had seen and been eye-witnesses of so many Miracles wrought by him during his life and those that accompanied him at his death as the renting of the veil of the Temple from the top to the bottom and the Earth-quake and the renting of the Rocks and the Darkness that was over the Land from the sixth hour unto the ninth and that after his Resurrection the Graves were opened and many bodies of Saints that slept arose and came out of the Graves and went into the holy City and appeared unto many of which they could not be ignorant It is I say most wondrous strange that after all these they could doubt of the verity of his Resurrection and imagine that it was a Spirit in his form and likeness And most especially considering that his Sepulchre was made sure the stone sealed and a Watch set to attend it of which they could not be ignorant and likewise the certain affirmation and evidence of the two Maries from the mouth of the Angel and their own sight who worshipped him and held him by the feet and Peters finding the Sepulchre empty and his appearing to the two Disciples that went to Emmaus and yet for all this at his next appearance not to be satisfied but to be terrified and affrighted and to suppose they had seen a Spirit is beyond all wonder but that doubtless the heavenly Father had so ordained it in his inscrutable Wisdom that the infallible certainty of his Resurrection might be more evidently and punctually proved For at his next appearing when they were all together Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and said unto them Peace be unto you But they were terrified and affrighted and supposed they had seen a Spirit there the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now the cause of this supposing that they had seen a Spirit doubtless was because as St. John tells us That Jesus twice had stood in the midst of them the doors being shut because of the Jews and therefore they could not possibly imagine that he could have a body that could make penetration of dimensions not considering that he had an omnipotent Power and therefore nothing could be impossible unto him Though it may well be conceived to be done without penetration of dimensions because by his Almighty Power he might inperceptibly both open and shut the doors and so enter and suddenly stand in the midst of them and no humane sense be able to discern it But however it was the Disciples did not then believe that it was Christ with his individual body in which he suffered but either as some of the Fathers believed that it was his very Spirit that he yielded up upon the Cross that appeared in his figure or shape that was so pure fine and penetrable that it could pass through any Medium though never so dense or solid or some other Spirit that assumed his form and shape which is far more probable and sound But howsoever it was they did believe that it was some Spirit in his likeness and not he himself in that very numerical body in which he suffered as may be apparently gathered from the words of Thomas called Didymus who strongly affirmed saying Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails and put my fingers into the print of the nails and thrust my hand into his side I will not believe 4. To the grounds of all these doubts our Saviour gives a demonstrative and infallible solution which we shall explain in
things to come and more difficult to declare all the subjects from whence they gathered the signs of their Predictions The chiefest that the old Romans used were Augurium quasi Avigerium dictum vel Avigarium ab avium scilicet garritu quem auspicantes observabant And so Auspicium quasi Avispecium ab avibus spectandis And these observations were taken either from the feeding flying or noise of the birds So they had their Haruspices Harioli and Haruspicina which was derived ab haruga hostia ab hara in qua concluditur servatur 5. But all these sorts of Observations Guessings and Conjectures may be considered these three ways 1. Some of them are natural rational and legal as is the Prognostick part of the Art of Medicine Political Predictions of the change fall and ruine of Kingdoms States and Empires Some Civil taken from the course and carriage of men as when one seeth a rich young Heir that followeth nothing but vice luxury and all sorts of debauchery it is easie to foretel that his end will be beggery and misery Some from the due observation of beasts and fowls which live sub dio may easily conjecture the alteration of the weather And so by observing the change or colour of the Stars and Planets the Clouds and Elements may easily foretel the change of weather And we find that these predictions from the Signs gathered from natural causes are not condemned by our Blessed Saviour who saith When it is evening ye say it will be sair weather for the skie is red And in the morning it will be foul weather to day for the skie is red and lowring And again When ye see a cloud rise out of the West straightway ye say there cometh a showre and so it is And when ye see the South wind blow ye say there will be heat and it cometh to pass 2. There are some conjectures that are false groundless and superstitious as were and are all the predictions taken from the feeding flying or noise of Fowls or the signs appearing in the intrails of Beasts for in all such like there is no connexion betwixt the cause and effect and they therefore are false and vain and this was one of the reasons why they were forbidden amongst the Jews 3. There were some that in regard of their use and end were wicked and Idolatrous and in this respect all divinations and predictions are wicked and unlawful if they be used as was and is yet among the Heathen to lead the people unto or confirm them in the worship of Idols and false Gods And from all this it appeareth that yet we can find no proper or fit word for such a kind of Witch whose existence we have denied and are disproving 5. The next word in this place of Deuteronomy is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Umechascheth which our Translators render a Witch but in what sense or propriety I think few can conjecture for it comes from the Hebrew root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coscheth which Avenarius rendreth Fascinavit effascinavit but Schindlerus translates it Praestigias maleficia aut magiam exercuit mutavit aliquid naturale ad aspectum oculi ut aliud appareat quà m est And by Buxtorfius it is rendred Praestigiae and the derivations from it through the whole Old Testament which is the most certain propriety of the word as these following considerations will make manifest 1. That the most of the Translators in rendering this word whether in this place or in others have been very inconstant and one place not agreeing with another as Arias Montanus in this place gives it maleficus but in Exodus he makes it Praestigiatores and in the 22 and 16 of the same Book he makes it Praestigiatricem and in another place where the very same word is used in the Hebrew he saith of Manasseh Praestigiis vacabat And yet in another place he rendereth the very same word veneficia So uncertain was this learned Man and so inconsiderate in his versions wherein he ought to have had a more special care Now Tremellius in all the places named before doth use the words Praestigiatorem and the words from the same derivation in the Latine which sheweth certainty and constancy 2. The most of all the translations in the Polyglott do render this word doubtful and various As maleficus magus praestigias faciens Incantator and the like which are all dubious and various and no certainty can be produced from them Only those we call the Septuagint do keep close to words of the same signification deducted all from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly doth signifie no more than venenum poison though the circumstances do manifest that they were but Jugling and Imposture And the High-Dutch Low-Dutch French and Italian translations do all render it with the same uncertainty so that nothing sure can be drawn from them 3. But to leave these uncertainties it is manifest that this word doth signifie as Burtorfius and Schindlerus do render it for they are best to be trusted because they are not guilty of contradiction as the most of the others are That is a Jugler or one that by himself or the help of his Confederates doth by sleight of hand and such like conveyances perform strange things to the astonishment of the beholders And therefore doth Mr. Goodwyn tell us this A Witch properly a Jugler The original he saith signifieth such a kind of Sorcerer who bewitcheth the senses and minds of men by changing the forms of things making them appear otherwise than indeed they are And these Dr. Willet saith speaking of Pharaohs Magicians were Praestigiatores whom we call Juglers which deceived mens senses And though learned Masius speaking of those that Nebuchadnezzar called to interpret his dream doth make this objection that if this word be translated Praestigiatores he doth not see quid illi ad explicandum somnium adferre suâ arte potuissent quae tota fallax delusoria est Yet is this of little or no force at all for the rest that were called were as well Impostors as these if not more and the King and those with him knew not certainly as the event shewed that they could perform any such matter but was ignorant of the manner of their delusions and cheats and was only led by common rumour and belief grounded upon the vain and lying boasts that such sort of people are apt to give out of themselves and the wonders they pretend to perform So that from his and his Courtiers opinions of either the matter or manner of what they pretended to do will no consequence be drawn from what they truly could do because belief and action are two different things as might be manifested by the vain credulity of the vulgar that those kind of deceivers can do strange things but in trial and experiment they are found to be Cheaters and Impostors 4. But that this word doth
have the Spirit of Python was to undertake such Divinations as the Priests used at the Pythian Oracle at Delphos and that was no more in truth and effect but Cheaters and Impostors 3. Those that we call the Septuagint expressing the manner of the performance of this kind of Imposture do as Masius confesseth and is true constantly call them by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they did speak forth of their Breasts or Bellies that was by turning their voices backwards down their Throats which some of the Latines imitating the Greek word have not unfitly called them ventriloquos that is speaking in their Bellies And that there were such in ancient times is witnessed by Plutarch who saith speaking of the ceasing of Oracles thus That it is alike foolish and childish to judge that God himself as the Engastrimuthoi that is to say the Genii hariolating forth of the Belly which in times past they did call Eurycleas now Pythonas hiding himself in the Bodies of the Prophets and using their mouth and voice as instruments should speak From whence we may note these things 1. That in Plutarch time who lived in the Reign of Trajan there were of these persons that could speak as it were forth of their Bellies 2. That though Plutarch was a very learned sagacious person yet he either knew not or else concealed the manner how these ventriloquists performed this speaking in their Breasts or Bellies it being nothing but a cheat and artificial imposture as we shall shew anon of whom his learned Translator Adrianus Turnebus and of these vanities speaketh thus Therefore he saith we condemn all sorts of Divinations which are not received from the sacred writings and do judge them to have been found out either by the craftiness of men or the wickedness of Devils but we rejoice to our selves that being Divinely taught we here see far more than the most learned Plutarch did who beheld but little light in this his disputation of the defect of Oracles 3. We may note that these words that is to say the Genii hariolating forth of the Belly which we have inclosed in a Parenthesis are not found in the Greek written by Plutarch but are only added as the conjecture of Turnebus 4. Plutarch doth hold it childish to believe that God doth hide himself and speak in the belly of these couzening Diviners and therein though an Heathen was wiser than many that profess Christianity now who believe it to be some Spirit when it is nothing but the cunning Imposture of those persons that by use have learned that artifice of turning their voices back into their Throats and Breasts 5. As to matter of fact it is manifest that in the time of Plutarch there were those that practised this cunning trick thereby to get credit or money by the pretence of Predictions and Divinations and such an one doubtless was the Woman at Endor and the Maid mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles of which we shall speak presently Also Tertullian a grave Author affirmeth that he had seen such Women that were Ventriloquists from whose secret parts a small voice was heard as they sate and did give answers to things asked And so Caelius Rhodiginus doth write that he often saw a Woman Ventriloquist at Rhodes and in a City of Italy his own Country from whose secrets he had often heard a very slender voice of an unclean Spirit but very intelligible tell strangely of things past or present but of things to come for the most part uncertain and also often vain and lying which doth plainly demonstrate that it was but an humane artifice and a designed Imposture But most notable is that story related by Wierus from the mouth of his Sons who had it from the mouth of Adrianus Turnebus who did openly profess that before-time he had seen at Paris a crafty fellow very like Euricles mentioned by Aristophanes who was called Petrus Brabantius who as oft as he would could speak from the lower part of his Body his Mouth being open but his Lips not moved and that he did deceive many all over by this cunning which whether it be to be called an art or exercitation or the imposture of the Devil is to be doubted And further relateth that at Paris he deceived a Widow Woman and got her to give him her Daughter in Marriage who had a great Portion by counterfeiting that his so speaking in his Breast or Belly was the voice of her deceased Husband who was in Purgatory and could not be loosed thence except she gave her Daughter in Marriage unto him By which deceitful knavery he got her and about six Months after when he had spent all her Portion the Wife and Mother-in-law being left he fled to Lions And there hearing that a very rich Merchant was dead who was accounted living a very wicked man who had gotten his riches by right and wrong this Brabantius goeth to his Son called Cornutus who was walking in a Grove or Orchard behind the Church-yard and intimateth that he was sent to teach him what was fit for him to do But while that he telleth him that he ought rather to think of the Soul of his Father than of his Fame or Death upon the suddain while they speak together a voice is heard imitating his Father's Which voice although Brabantius did give out of his Belly yet he did in a wonderful manner counterfeit to tremble But Cornutus was admonished by this voice into what state his Father was faln by his injustice and with what great torments he was tortured in Purgatory both for his own and his Sons cause for that he had left him the Heir of so much ill gotten goods and that he could be freed by no means unless by a just expiation made by the Son and some considerable part of his goods distributed to charitable uses unto those that stood most need such as were Christians made Captives with the Turks Whereupon he gave credit to Brabantius with whom he discoursed as a Man that was to be sent by Godly persons to Constantinople to redeem the prisoners and that he was sent unto him by Divine Power for the same purpose But Cornutus though a Man no way evil and although having heard these things he understood not the deceit yet notwithstanding because of the word that he should part with so much money made answer that he would consider of it and willeth Brabantius to repair the day following to the same place In the mean time being staggered in his thoughts he did much doubt in respect of the place where he had heard the voice because it was shadowy and dark and subject to the crafty treacheries of Men and to the Eccho Therefore the next day he leadeth Brabantius into another open plain place neither troubled with shadows nor bushes Where notwithstanding the same tale was repeated during their discourse that he had heard before This also being added
say unto you seek unto them that are Ob or Oraclers and unto wizards that peep and that mutter should not a people seek unto their God for the living to the dead do fully prove as much for the sense must be this That the people of God ought to seek unto their own God who was and is a true and a living God and to his Law Testimonies and not to those peepers and mutterers that seek counsel of the dead Idols only and doubtless this is the true meaning of consulting the dead 4. This exposition includeth no absurdity nor bringeth any inconvenience and is genuine and not wrested whereas the other doth hurry in a whole heap of most absurd doubts questions and opinions But if in this exposition we be Heterodoxal we crave pardon and referr it to the judgment of those that are learned of what perswasion soever they be 10. Another word that is used in divers places of Scripture is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which though Avenarius doth derive from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stilus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 claâ—sit yet the learned person Masius saith Est autem aliarum nationum vocabulum ab Hebraea lingua alienum peregrinum usurpatum tamen ab Hebraeis And also the judicious Polanus is of the same opinion that it is a word strange and foreign from the Hebrew language The Translators are all so various about the proper derivation and signification of it that it were but lost time and labour to recite them But it is manifest that it was a general word for one that was skilful in all or divers sorts of these Divinations and might best be constantly rendred magos and that for these reasons 1. It is the opinion of Masius and Mr. Ady that it is a general word and signifieth one that hath skill in many of these kind of arts if they may be so called the latter of which saith thus It is taken in the general sense for magus a Magician that hath one or all these crafts or Impostures And the former quoting the sentence of Rabbi Isaac Natar saith Hoc nomine vocatos esse ab Hebraeis quosvis qui inter gentes singularem prositebantur sapientiam praesertim cùm ea ad superstitionem pertineret 2. Because that in Exodus 7. 13. those that there are called Hachamim and Mechassephim that is sapientes praestigiatores as Tremellius renders it which is most proper and genuine are there called Hartummim Mezeraim that is Magos Aegypti the Magicians of Aegypt by which it appeareth plainly that it is a general name and may most properly be rendered a Magician 3. It may most properly be taken for a Magician because those that acted before Pharaoh are called by that name and excepting their opposing of Moses and their superstition it doth not appear that they dealt with unlawful Magick as we shall prove undeniably hereafter 11. There is also another word which is used in divers places which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mussitavit he hath muttered or murmured and is taken generally for any kind of murmuring for any cause whatsoever as in this place But when David saw that his servants whispered And again All that hate me whisper together against me And in another place Fuderunt submissam orationem a low whispering prayer In which places it is taken for any kind of low speaking whispering or muttering Of this we may observe these things 1. Sometimes by a Metonymie it is taken for a low and modest speech the art of Oratory or Eloquence as Isaiah 3. 3. intelligentem vel peritum eloquentiae and sometime for an ear-ring inaâ—ris as in the 20. verse of the same Chapter 2. It is also ascribed unto Charmers or Inchanters as in the Psalm That doth not hearken unto the voice of the charmers Where it is plain that all Charmers were whisperers and mutterers but not on the contrary that all whisperers or mutterers are Charmers 3. And whereas our English translation readeth it Surely the serpent will bite without inchantment and a babler is no better It may as well be read as Arias Montanus translates it Si mordeat serpens in non susurro vel absque susurro If the Serpent bite without hissing or sibilation And Schindlerus to the same purpose Si mordebit serpens absque incantatione vel murmure id est sibilo And so Avenarius Si mordeat serpens absque susurratione id est absque sibilo And though Tremellius and the whole troop of Translators do render it as our English Translators do yet that will not make sense for it would inferr that as a Serpent will bite except it be charmed so will a babler do also But who ever heard of a bablers being charmed So that truly considered that cannot be the sense of the place But if it be taken exactly according to the Hebrew then the sense runs thus If the Serpent bite without or in not hissing and excellency is not to him that hath a tongue that is The Serpent doth hurt with his biting without making a noise with his tongue but a babler doth make a noise but effecteth nothing or speaketh to no purpose 4. There is another Text in Jeremy which is commonly rendered thus For behold I will send serpents cockatrices among you which will not be charmed and they shall bite you saith the Lord. But it may be as fitly read To whom there is no hissing and they shall bite you And whether way soever it be read the sense is good that is their enemies shall be so fierce and cruel that no words can stay or appease their fury or that they shall be so sly and cunning that they shall destroy you before they speak or give you warning And whether way soever it be there is a pronoun in the Hebrew which is superfluous a thing that is usual in that language 5. But if in both places it be taken for charming yet will it not prove the being and existence of such a kind of Witch as we have denied and confuted nor doth it shew any fit appellation for such a one 12. Moreover there is another word as much mistaken and as falsly translated as any of the rest and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Inflammatus est flammescebat and is understood a shining brightness as in the Psalm Who maketh his Angels spirits his ministers flaming fire And in another place inflammabit â—os dies veniens The day cometh that shall burn as an oven From whence we may note these things 1. From this root doth come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Flamma Metaphorically as Schindlerus saith a polished and shining piece of Metal as a Sword or the like But Avenarius tells us it is Flamma rutilans lamina fulgens vibrans as And he placed at the East of the garden of Eden Cherubims and a flaming or bright shining sword which turned every way to keep the way
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
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
being feeding his flock was slain by two Noblemen and his body thrown into a company of bushes The Judges of the same place having much and daily sought the Shepherd after four days at length find his body in the bushes But because that murder was committed no witnesses being by the suspicion fell upon the two Noblemen inhabiting in the nearest place who being taken were haled to the body of the person murthered But what comes to pass The first scarce with his eyes had looked upon the dead body but behold the blood in plenty begun to flow from thence But the other coming near the very right hand of the person murthered did first of all shew to those that were by the wound and afterward the murderer himself Which being done forthwith the two Gentlemen or Nobles did of their own accord confess that they were the Authors of the murther and did receive the punishment that was worthy of their deeds 10. Another very remarkable one we have from the same Author cited from Cantipratanus lib. 2. mirac c. 29. in this manner It happened the Author saith in the year of Christ 1271. in the Town Psorizheim that a certain most wicked old Woman familiar with the Jews did sell them a girl of seven years old and without parents to be slain Her therefore in secret her mouth being stopt setting her upon linnen cloaths they wound almost in all the junctures of the members with incisions and with great endeavour press forth the blood and receive it most diligently in the linnen cloaths But she being dead after great pains the Jews throw her body into a running water near the Town and laid an heap of Stones upon it But after the third or fourth day her body is found by Fishers by means of her hand stretched forth towards Heaven and carried into the Town the people with abomination crying forth that so great a wickedness was perpetrated by the Jews And the Marquiss of Baden being near went unto the Corps and straightway the body standing upright did stretch forth its hands unto the Prince as though it would implore the revengment of blood or perhaps mercy But after half an hour it disposed it self upon its back after the manner of those that are dead Therefore the wicked Jews being brought to the spectacle forthwith all the wounds of the body burst forth and in testimony of the horrid murder poured forth great plenty of blood whereupon the Jews were put to death 11. Another the same Author relateth from Jacobus Martinius in Disp. de Cognitione sui propl 8. who saith In the year of our Saviour 1503. a certain Inn-keeper by name Buggerlinus with whom a certain poor Merchant or Pedlar had laid up his money or stock occasion being taken by the Inn-keeper he kills him in a Wood and buries him privately but afterwards when he was found the suspicion of the murther fell upon the Inn-keeper For that Pedlar had a bended knife or dagger at his girdle which they took and shewed to the Inn-keeper asking him if he knew it But behold assoon as he took it in his hand it sweat drops of blood whereby the murtherer being affrighted confessed the murther and so was Executed 12. We have also a punctual History to this purpose related by Holling shead Stow and Sir Richard Baker from Roger of Winchester of King Henry the second which is this This King when he was carried forth to be buried was first apparelled in his Princely Robes having his Crown on his Head Gloves on his Hands and Shoes on his Feet wrought with Gold Spurs on his Heels a Ring of Gold on his Finger a Scepter in his Hand a Sword by his Side and so was laid uncovered having a pleasant countenance which when it was told to his Son Richard he came with all speed to see him and as soon as he came near him the blood gushed out of the nose of the dead Corps in great plenty even as if the spirit of the dead King had disdained and abhorred the presence of him who was thought to be the chief cause of his death Which thing caused the said Richard to weep bitterly and he caused his Fathers body to be honourably buried at Fonteverard 14. The last story that we shall relate of this nature is from a Minister that is learned sincere and of great veracity who had it from those that were eye-witnesses and is this In the year of our Lord God 1661. January 30th on Saturday at night about nine of the Clock did John How of Bruzlington-Bank at the foot of an Hill which is about two miles distant from Bishop-Awkland murther Ralph Gawkley who was a Glover in Bishop-Awkland This How was the next day apprehended and brought to touch Gawkleys Corps the lips and nostrils of the dead body wrought and opened as he touched which made him afraid to touch the second time then presently the Corps bled abundantly at the nostrils in the sight of Mr. Robert Harrison the Coroner now Tenant at Bishop-Awkland to Mr. Franckland from whom I had the relation of Anthony Cummin and his Brother c. of the Jury and of a great many towns people who were then present So How was Executed the next Assizes after at Durham Witnesses against him were Anne Wall whom he also wounded yet she escaped with her life and How 's own Wife at the motion of her own Father a very honest Man who bid her tell the truth and she should never want help Some may think that I have been too large and tedious in heaping so many stories concerning the bleeding of the bodies of those that have been murthered but I did it for this reason because there are many that think it but to be a Fable of the credulous vulgar and others think that it is but an ordinary matter that happens to any bodies that are dead and no extraordinary or supernatural thing in it at all But whosoever shall but use so much patience as seriously to read and consider these select Histories that we have recited may easily be satisfied both that such bleeding is absolutely true de facto and also that there is something more than ordinary in it and therefore we shall inlarge in these observations 1. It will not be found to hold touch upon diligent observation and strict inquiry that all dead bodies do bleed fresh and rosie blood especially after the third or fourth day or after some weeks as divers of the instances above given do manifestly prove and therefore is an accident incident to some dead bodies and no to all And it will as far fail that wounded bodies that have been slain in the wars after the natural heat be gone will upon motion bleed any fresh or crimson blood at all for we our selves in the late times of Rebellion have seen some thousands of dead bodies that have had divers wounds and lyingnaked and being turned over and over and
charms there is any force or efficacy and this we shall endeavour from the best and most punctual Authors that have come within the compass of our knowledge or reading and that in this order to which we shall add some observations 1. I think there are few that have been or are Students or Practitioners in the Art of Medicine that have not either heard or read the writing of that most able and learned person Johannes Fernelius who was Physician to the most Christian King of France Henry the second who in that most profound piece that he writ De abditis rerum causis gives us as an ocular witness this relation I have he saith seen a certain Man who by the virtue or force of words did brings various Specters or Apparitions into a looking-glass which did there so clearly express forthwith either in writing or in true images whatsoever he commanded that all things were readily and easily known to those that were by 1. From hence we may observe that Fernelius seeing this as he saith with his eyes cannot being so great a Scholar and a circumspect person be imagined to have been deceived or imposed upon though as much as he relates might have been brought to pass by the artificial placing of the glass and having several images and things written moved by a confederate placed in some secret corner where the images might fitly be reflected from the glass to the sight of the by-standers or by some other means performed by the optical science and confederacy And it is no sure ground to introduce a Demon to act the business when artificial means may rationally solve the matter neither was it impossible but he might mistake in the conjecture of the cause of those Phenomena 2. And though he seems by his preceeding discourse to believe it to have been caused but by a league and compact betwixt the person that shewed it and some Cacodaemon yet he bringeth no better proof for it than the rotten authority of Porphyrius and Proclus and no convincing argument that Demons can perform any such strange matters And however if they were the meer apparitions of evil spirits it is much to be wondered that Fernelius would be present at any such sinful and dangerous sights or have such familiar conversation with any of that damned crew seeing he there saith Quae omnes prorsus vanae captiosae sunt artes 3. If these Apparitions were caused by Cacodaemons then there was no efficacy in the words at all they were nothing but the sign of the league betwixt the evil spirit and the person that represented them and then he need not have said that they were derived into the glass vi verborum and so this will not prove that it was effected by force of the words But if all this that he relates did proceed but from lawful and natural causes as Paracelsus strongly holds the glass being but made as that which he saw in Spain of the Electrum that he mentions then the words might be efficacious and so it is a punctual instance to prove that words are operative which is the thing de facto that we here seek after 2. The next History to this purpose we shall take from Antonius Benevenius as we find him quoted by that learned person Marcellus Donatus and likewise Dr. Casaubon for I have not the book by me who renders it thus A Souldier had an arrow shot through the left part of his breast so that the iron of it stuck to the very bone of the right shoulder Great endeavours were used to get it out but to no purpose Benevenius doth shew that it was not feasible without present death The Man seeing himself forsaken by Physicians and Chirurgeons sends for a noted Ariolus or Conjurer who setting his two fingers upon the wound with some Charms he used commanded the iron to come out which presently without any pain of the patient came forth and the Man was presently healed And this the Doctor who I presume had the book saith that Benevenius saith vidimus we have seen it which Marcellus Donatus saith the Author ascribed to the virtue of the words and others to the force of imagination 1. Here we may observe that this may either be brought to pass by the efficacy of the words or charms that he muttered and then we must needs confess that charms are of great and stupendious force or that it might be effected by the imagination of the Charmer and then we must suppose which the most do deny that the imagination of the person imaginant hath power to operate upon ex traneous bodies if it had power to cause the iron to come without harm forth of the wounded Souldiers body or it may be caused and that in most probability by the imagination of the party wounded being excited and roused up by the uttering of the charm in which the patient in all likelihood had no small confidence And so however the charm was an accidental cause or as they use to say causa sine qua non of the bringing forth of the iron 3. Another History we must borrow from the aforesaid two Authors Donatus and Dr. Casaubon which they have transcribed forth of Johannes Baptista Montanus because I have not the Author by me and is this My self with mine eyes you may he saith believe me have seen it A certain man who when he had made a circle and drawn some characters about it and uttered some words he did call together above a hundred Serpents And further saith that though he did murmur certain words yet he holdeth that the bringing of the Serpents together was not performed by the force of the words but by the power of a strong imagination and that some by the strength of imagination not ofwords are said to draw forth darts and to cure wounds 1. And here we may take notice that this is a punctual and positive History plainly declaring the matter of fact in calling together above an hundred Serpents and this must be done either by the force of the words or by the strength of the persons imagination or both unless we must admit the Devil to perform it which may vainly be supposed but cannot be proved by what natural means he should bring it to pass But however the relation is very credible Montanus being a famous Physician and Professor at Padua and affirms it as seen with his own eyes 4. To these we may add one of sufficient credit from the learned Masius as it is cited by Wierus and Dr. Casaubon which may be we have related before but not to this purpose and is this I also he saith have seen them who with words or charms could stop wild beasts and force them to await the stroak of the dart who also could force that Domestick beastly creature which we call a Rat as soon as seen amazed and astonished to stand still as
names of ancient wise men thereby to allure the curious and to deceive the unwary which with great care and consideration we ought to eschew To the same purpose Paracelsus doth caution us in this point Cuilibet ergo promptum sit characteres verba quaevis discernere posse 4. But for all this as we have often intimated before charms and characters though in themselves of none effect may conduce to heighten the fancy and confidence of a Patient and render him more willing to take those things that may cure And to this purpose the forementioned Author Roger Bacon from Constantine the Physician tells us thus much But it is to be considered that a skilful Physician or any other that would excite and stir up the mind may profitably make use of charms and characters though feigned not because the characters or charms themselves do operate any thing but that the medicine may be received with more desire and devotion and that the mind of the Patient may be stirred up and may confide more freely and may hope and rejoice Because the Soul being excitated can renew many things in its proper body so that from infirmity it may be restored to health by joy and confidence If therefore he saith a Physician to magnific his work that the Patient may be raised up to hope and confidence shall do any thing of this nature not for fraud but because of this that he may confide that he may be healed it is not to be condemned We brought this authority to confirm what we had asserted before and that these things are wonderfully prevalent we have before shewed examples 1. There are some that to prove that words and characters have a natural efficacy do alledge some passages of Scripture which we shall propose as very probable but not as necessarily convincing and the first is this And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel and I will bless them Which some understand that the name Jehovah which they call Tetragrammaton was worn upon them and that thereby they were blessed and from thence they suppose that Hebrew names especially that are very efficacious and powerful Another is The man cloathed in linnen that had the Ink-horn by his side is commanded to set a mark or as some read it a Tau upon those that mourned This is the name of a letter the last in the Alphabet and hath in the old books of the Hebrews as Schindlerus tells us the figure of a cross and such like the Samaritans use to this day From whence by Tau some in Ezekiel do understand the figure of the Cross of Christ. 2. But to explicate what is meant by charms and characters we are to note that it is not to be understood of those words that are by humane institution significant according to the imposition of men nor of any sort of charms or characters but of such as by wise men are duly fitted and joined together in and under a right and favourable constellation for it is from the Influence of the Stars as we have proved before that words charms images and characters do receive their energie and virtue And to this purpose is the true rendition of the words in the Psalm Which hearkeneth not to the voice of those that mutter the conjunction of the learned joyner That is that the Serpent doth not hearken unto or obey the charms that are framed or joined together by the learned joiner or framer of charms So that there is a great learning required to frame and compose charms rightly that they may be efficacious For Paracelsus witnesseth that Serpents once hearing an efficacious charm do forthwith stop their ears lest they should hear the words repeated again Of both these sorts the learned Roger-Bacon doth tell us this Of characters therefore according to the first manner it is so to be judged as we have shewed in common speech But of sigills and characters of the second manner unless they be made in elected seasons they are known to have no efficacy at all And therefore he that doth practise them as they are described in books not respecting but only the figure that the exemplar doth represent is judged of every wise man to do nothing But those which know to perform their work in fit constellations according to the face of the Heavens those may not only dispose characters but all their works both of Art and Nature according to the virtue of the Stars But because it is a difficult thing to understand the certainty of Celestials in these things therefore in these things there is much error with many and there are few that understand to order any thing profitably and truly And to this purpose Paracelsus tells us Certain Chirurgical Arts invented of the first improvers of Astronomy by which admirable things were by an Ethereal virtue performed But these after the decease of the ancient Magicians were so lost were as scarce any footsteps do now remain But it was the Art of Celestial impressions that they might draw down the influent action into some corporeal substance The thing is plain by example The seed of a Rose doth obtain the virtue and nature of a Rose yet for all that it is not a Rose but when being put into the earth it doth sprout then at the last it produceth a Rose By the same reason there are certain celestial virtues and actions in being which being sown into Gemms which were called of the ancient Magicians Peantides and Gamahii otherwise gemmae huyae from whence they have afterwards sprung up no otherwise than seed which doth fall from the Tree and doth regerminate This was that Astronomie of the ancient Aegyptians and Persians by which they did adorn Gemms with celestial virtues Neither are these things forthwith to be reputed impossible For if we believe that the Heaven doth send the Plague and other diseases upon us why may we not hope that the benignity of its virtues may be communicated to us also In like manner if the Heaven doth act upon the bodies of men why may we not think that they may wrest their darts into stones Many are touched with such like celestial darts which a Magician who hath skill of the Firmament may easily if they be noxious shun or if they be benign shall by putting some body communicate it to that body that now that body may fully obtain into it self the virtue of that dart or influence From whence stones are found amongst the Aegyptians which being born do cause diseases But again there are others that do throughly make sound those diseases So he saith we have seen Gemmâ—s Huyâ— that is Peantides wherein the sign of the Sagittary was insculped against weapons which were prevalent against wounds made with Swords Also we have known he saith that Magicians have rendered stones efficacious to cure Feavers nor only to have made them strong to cure diseases but also