Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	body_n	place_n	soul_n	9,010	5	5.3607	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42820	A philosophical endeavour towards the defence of the being of vvitches and apparitions. In a letter to the much honoured, Robert Hunt, esq; by a member of the Royal Society.	Glanvill, Joseph, 1636-1680.	1666 (1666)	Wing G817A; ESTC R223679	26,849	66

particular is onely this that he cannot conceive how such things can be performed which onely argues the weakness and imperfection of our knowledge and apprehensions not the impossibility of those performances and we can no more from hence form an Argument against them then against the most ordinary effects in Nature We cannot conceive how the Faetus is form'd in the womb nor as much as how a Plant springs from the Earth we tread on we know not how our Souls move the Body nor how these distant and extreme natures are united And if we are ignorant of the most obvious things about us and the most considerable within our selves 't is then no wonder that we know not the constitution and powers of the Creatures to whom we are such strangers Briefly then matters of fact well proved ought not to be denied because we cannot conceive how they can be perform'd Nor is it a reasonable method of inference first to presume the thing impossible and thence to conclude that the fact cannot be proved On the contrary we should judge of the action by the evidence and not the evidence by the measures of our fancies about the action This is proudly to exalt our own opinions above the clearest testimonies and most sensible demonstrations of fact and so to give the Lie to all Mankind rather then distrust the little conceits of our bold imaginations But yet further 3. I think there is nothing in the instances mention'd but what may as well be accounted for the Rules of Reason and Philosophy as the ordinary affairs of Nature For in resolving natural Phaenomena we can only assign the probable causes shewing how things may be not presuming how they are And in the particulars under our Examen we may give an account how 't is possible and not unlikely that such things though somewhat varying from the common rode of Nature may be acted And if our narrow and contracted minds can furnish us with apprehensions of the way and manner of such performances though perhaps not the true ones 't is an argument that such things may be effected by creatures whose powers and knowledge are so vastly exceeding ours I shall endeavour therefore briefly to suggest some things that may render the possibility of these performances conceivable in order to the removal of this Objection that they are contradictions and impossible For the First then That the confederate Spirit should transport the Witch through the Air to the place of general Rendezvous there is no difficulty in conceiving and if that be true which great Philosophers affirm concerning the real separability of the Soul from the Body without death there is yet less for then 't is easie to apprehend that the Soul having left its gross and sluggish Body behind it and being cloath'd onely with its immediate vehicle of Air or more subtile matter may be quickly conducted to any place it would be at by those officious Spirits that attend it And though I adventure to affirm nothing concerning the truth and certainty of this supposition yet I must needs say it doth not seem to me unreasonable And our experience of Apoplexies Epilepsies Extasies and the strange things men report to have seen during those deliquiums look favourably upon this conjecture which seems to me to contradict no principle of Reason or Philosophy since Death consists not so much in the actual separation of Soul and Body as in the indisposition and unfitness of the Body for vital union as an excellent Philosopher hath made good On which Hypothesis the Witches annointing her self before she takes her flight may perhaps serve to keep the Body tenantable in fit disposition to receive the Spirit at its return These things I say we may conceive though I affirm nothing about them and there is nothing in such conceptions but what hath been affirm'd by men of worth and name and may seem fair and accountable enough to those who judge not altogether by the measures of the popular and customary opinion And there 's a saying of a great Apostle that seems to countenance this Platonick opinion what is the meaning else of that expression Whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell except the Soul may be separated from the Body without death which if it be granted possible 't is sufficient for my purpose And 2 The Transformations of Witches into the shapes of other Animals upon the same supposal is very conceivable since then 't is easie enough to imagin that the power of imagination may form those passive and pliable vehicles into those shapes with more ease then the fancie of the Mother can the stubborn matter of the Foetus in the womb as we see it frequently doth in the instances that occur of Signatures and monstrous Singularities And perhaps sometimes the confederate Spirit puts tricks upon the senses of the spectators and those shapes are onely illusions But then 3 when they feel the hurts in their gross bodies that they receive in their aery vehicles they must be supposed to have been really present at least in these latter and 't is no more difficult to apprehend how the hurts of those should be translated upon their other bodies then how diseases should be inflicted by the imagination or how the fancy of the Mother should wound the Foetus as several credible relations do attest And 4 for their raising storms and tempests they do it not be sure by their own but by the power of the Prince of the Air their friend and allie and the Ceremonies that are injoin'd them are doubtless nothing else but entertainments for their imaginations and are likely design'd to persuade them that they do these strange things themselves And lastly for their being suck'd by the Familiar I say 1 we know so little of the nature of Daemons and Spirits that 't is no wonder we cannot certainly divine the reason of so strange an action And yet 2 we may conjecture at some things that may render it less improbable For some have thought that the Genii whom both the Platonical and Christian Antiquity thought embodied are recreated by the reeks and vapours of humane bloud and the spirits that derive from them Which supposal if we grant them bodies is not unlikely every thing being refresh'd and nourish'd by its like And that they are not perfectly abstract from all body and matter besides the reverence we owe to the wisest antiquity there are several considerable arguments I could alledge to render it exceeding probable Which things supposed the Devil 's sucking the Sorceress is no great wonder nor difficult to be accounted for Or perhaps 3 this may be onely a diabolical Sacrament and Ceremony to confirm the hellish covenant To which I adde 4 That which to me seems most probable viz. That the Familiar doth not onely suck the Witch but in the action infuseth some poisonous ferment into her which gives her imagination and spirits a magical tincture

of Divinity are there in our Saviour's shewing himself in the midst of his Disciples when the Doors were shut and his Transfiguration in the Mount Miracles are the great inducements of Belief and How shall we distinguish a Miracle from a Lying Wonder a Testimony from Heaven from a Trick of the Angels of Hell if they can perform things that astonish and confound our Reasons and are beyond all the Possibilities of Humane Nature This Objection is spiteful and mischievous but I thus endeavour to dispatch it 1. The Wonders done by Confederacy with wicked Spirits cannot derive a suspition upon the undoubted Miracles that were wrought by the Author Promulgers of our Religion as if they were performed by Diabolical Compact since their Spirit Endeavours and Designes were notoriously contrary to all the Tendencies Aims and Interests of the Kingdome of Darkness For as to the Life and Temper of the Bles●ed and Adorable IESUS we know there was an incomparable sweetness in his Nature Humility in his Manners Calmness in his Temper Compassion in his Miracles Modesty in his Expressions Holiness in all his Actions Hatred of Vice and Baseness and Love to all the World all which are essentially contrary to the Nature and Constistitution of Apostate Spirits who abound in Pride and Rancour Insolence and Rudeness Tyranny and Baseness universal Malice and Hatred of Men. And their Designes are as opposite as their Spirit and their Genius And now Can the Sun borrow its Light from the bottomless Abyss Can Heat and Warmth flow in upon the World from the Regions of Snow and Ice Can Fire freeze and Water burn Can Natures so infinitely contrary communicate and jump in projects that are destructive to each others known Interests Is there any Balsome in the Cockatrice's Egge or Can the Spirit of Life flow from the Venome of the Asp Will the Prince of Darkness strengthen the Arm that is stretcht out to pluck his Usurp't Scepter and his Spoyls from him And will he lend his Legions to assist the Armies of his Enemy against him No these are impossible Supposals No intelligent Being will industriously and knowingly contribute to the Contradiction of its own Principles the Defeature of its Purposes and the Ruine of its own dearest Interests There is no fear then that our Faith should receive prejudice from the acknowledgment of the Being of Witches and power of evil Spirits since 't is not the doing wonderful things that is the onely Evidence that the Holy IESUS was from God and his Doctrine true but the conjunction of other circumstances the holiness of his Life the reasonableness of his Religion and the excellency of his Designes added credit to his Works and strengthned the great Conclusion That he could be no other than the Son of God and Saviour of the World But besides I say 2. That since infinite Wisdome and Goodness rules the World it cannot be conceiv'd that they should give up the greatest part of men to unavoidable deception And if evil Angels by their Confederates are permitted to perform such astonishing things as seem so evidently to carry God's Seal and Power with them for the confirmation of Falshoods and gaining credit to Impostors without any counter-evidence to disabuse the World Mankind is exposed to sad and fatal delusion And to say that Providence will suffer us to be deceived in things of the greatest concernment when we use the best of our care and endeavours to prevent it is to speak hard things of God and in effect to affirm That He hath nothing to do in the Government of the World or doth not concern Himself in the affairs of poor forlorn Men. And if the Providence and Goodness of God be not a security unto us against such Deceptions we cannot be assured but that we are always abused by those mischievous Agents in the Objects of plain sense and in all the matters of our dayly Converses If ONE that pretends he is immediately sent from God to overthrow the ancient Fabrick of Established Worship and to erect a New Religion in His Name shall be born of a Virgin and honour'd by a miraculous Star proclaimed by a Song of seeming Angels of Light and Worshipped by the wise Sages of the World Revered by those of the greatest austerity and admired by all for a miraculous Wisdome beyond his Education and his Years If He shall feed Multitudes with almost nothing and fast himself beyond all the possibilities of Nature If He shall be transformed into the appearance of extraordinary Glory and converse with departed Prophets in their visible Forms If He shall Cure all Diseases without Physick or Endeavour and raise the Dead to Life after they have stunk in their Graves If He shall be honoured by Voyces from Heaven and attract the universal Wonder of Princes and People If he shall allay Tempests with a Beck and cast out Devils with a Word If He shall fore-tell his own Death particularly with its Tragical Circumstances and his Resurrection after it If the Veil of the most Famous Temple in the World shall be rent and the Sun darkened at his Funeral If He shall within the time fore-told break the bonds of Death and lift up his Head out of the Grave If Multitudes of other departed Souls shall arise with Him to attend at the Solemnity of His Resurrection If He shall after Death visibly converse with eat and drink with divers persons who could not be deceived in a matter of clear sense and ascend in Glory in the presence of an astonisht and admiring Multitude I say if such a One as this should prove a Diabolical Impostor and Providence should permit him to be so credited and acknowledged What possibility were there then for us to be assured that we are not always deceived yea that our very Faculties were not given us onely to delude and abuse us And if so the next Conclusion is That there is no God that judgeth in the Earth and the best and most likely Hypothesis will be That the World is given up to the Government of the Devils But if there be a Providence that superviseth us as nothing is more certain doubtless it will never suffer poor helpless Creatures to be inevitably deceived by the craft and subtilty of their mischievous Enemy to their undoing but will without question take such care that the works wrought by Divine Power for the Confirmation of Divine Truth shall have such visible Marks and Signatures if not in their Nature yet in their Circumstances Ends and Designes as shall discover whence they are and sufficiently distinguish them from all Impostures and Delusions And though wicked Spirits may perform some strange things that may excite wonder for a while yet He hath and will so provide that they shall be baffled and discredited as we know it was in the case of Moses and the Aegyptian Magicians Now besides what I have directly said to the Objection I have this to adde to the