Nature no not of those whereby the propagation of the Gospel might have been much advanced viz. the Mystery of Printing and the Magnet and yet no one useth his silence in these instances as an argument against the being of things which are evident objects of sense To which we answer 1. He falleth into a common mistake in making the Proposition universal and dolus versatur in universalibus when it ought but to be particular so for him to say that no silence of Scripture is argumentative is too universal for its silence in point of Geography as in describing America and the people thereof nor in discovering the Magnalia Naturae Artis is not argumentative and we do not say that all silence of Scripture is argumentative but yet we affirm that some silence of Scripture is argumentative So we cannot universally say that nothing hath a being but what is mentioned in Scripture but we may very well affirm that some things have no being of truth of existence because not declared in Scripture 2. The Scriptures were not written to teach Naural Philosophy Arts or Sciences humane Policy or the like but were given that the man of God might be perfect furnished for every good work and it is by them that we have the doctrine of eternal Salvation revealed unto us and we positively affirm the sufficiency of the Scriptures unto Salvation which thing no Orthodox Divine we suppose will deny and Bellarmine himself did confess in these words Prophetici Apostolici libri sunt verum verbum Dei ac stabilis regula fidei And if it be a certain Rule of Faith and the true Word of God then whatsoever it is silent of we ought not to believe and so its silence is argumentative in that point The Scriptures are utterly silent concerning Purgatory and therefore it is a good argument to affirm there is no such place as Purgatory because the Word of God is silent as concerning it but if it had been necessary to have been believed then there would have been mention made of it 3. And as the Scriptures are sufficient in matters of Faith and circa credenda and what they are silent in are not to be received as Articles of our Faith but to be rejected as having no truth of Existence So likewise what Worship God requireth of his people is fully revealed in his Word and therefore I am to reject the worshipping of Mahomet with the Turks or Images and praying to Saints with the Papists because I have neither precept nor president in the Word but it is silent in such matters nay tells us That he is the Lord our God and him only we ought to serve 4. Though Mr. Glanvil say that God hath given no account of the state of the other World but only that general one of the happiness of some and the misery of others yet Am I to believe as Mr. Glanvil somewhere in his Book affirmeth that Samuels Soul was raised up by the Woman at Endor and that those that he feigneth to make Leagues and Contracts with Witches are the Souls of such as had been Witches when they lived and asketh Who saith that happy Souls were never imployed in any ministeries here below Or am I to believe that both the Souls of the godly and wicked do rove up and down here upon earth and make Apparitions because the Popish Teachers do hold it to be so I hope not and therefore I shall in part give an answer here to some of these and handle that of the Woman of Endor in another place 1. The Word of God doth particularly teach us the state and condition of the Souls after death that they shall be like the Angels in Heaven and all other things necessary to move and draw us to believe the immortal Existence of Souls as that most able and learned Divine Dr. Stillingfleet hath asserted in these words The Scriptures give the most faithful representation of the state and condition of the Soul of Man The World he saith was almost lost in Disputes concerning the Nature Condition and Immortality of the Soul before divine Revelation was made known to Mankind by the Gospel of Christ but life and immortality was brought to light by the Gospel and the future state of the soul of man not discovered in an uncertain Platonical way but with the greatest light and evidence from that God who hath the supreme disposal of souls and therefore best knows and understands them A Sentence truly pious and orthodoxal 2. Hath not God in the holy Scriptures amply and plainly taught us the state of the other World in describing unto us such a numerous company of Sâ—raphims and Cherubims Angels and Archangels with their several Orders Offices Ministeries and Imployments and this is more than a general account as may be seen at full in that learned and godly Piece of Bishop Halls called The invisible World And hath he not given us a particular account of the very Kingdom of Darkness telling us of the Devil and his Angels and precisely in this enumeration For we wrestle not with flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiâ—al wickedness in high places And this is more than a general account and we must needs fay that what he holds is very derogatory to the wisdom and goodness of God and the sufficiency and truth of the Scriptures 3. Must I believe him that the souls of the Saints do rove and wander here below when as Bishop Hall saith where he is speaking against the opinion of those that hold that Souls do sleep until the Day of Judgment Indeed who can but wonder that any Christian can possibly give entertainment to so absurd a thought whilst he hears his Saviour say Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with â—e where I am and that not in a safe sleep they may behold my glory which thou hast given me Sure if the Souls departed be with Christ where he is and do behold his glory then it is a Popish Fable of Mr. Glanvil to feign their coming upon Messages hither The saying of St. Bernard is remarkable in this case Advertisâ—is 〈◊〉 esse sanctarum status animarum primum videlicet in coâ—pore 〈◊〉 â—cundum sinâ— corpore tertium in corpore jam glorificatoâ— Primum in militiâ— secundum in requie tertium in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And if the second state of holy Souls bâ— without 〈◊〉 body and be at peace and rest then it must necessarily be a truth that they do not wander here nor run upon Errands For the souls of the righteous are in the hands of the Lord and there shall no torment touch theâ— And our Saviour told the Thief upon the Cross This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise that is as Dr. Hammond giveth the Paraphrase Immediately after thy death thou shalt go to a
such strange things as Witchmongers fondly and falsely believe can be performed or effected Therefore by way of conclusion in this particular we grant that there are many sorts of such kind of Witches as for gain and vain-glory do take upon them to declare hidden and occult things to divine of things that are to come and to do many wonderful matters but that they are but Cheaters Deceivers and Couseners 2. And as there are a numerous crew of active Witches whose existence we freely acknowledge so there are another sort that are under a passive delusion and know not or at least do not observe or understand that they are deluded or imposed upon These are those that confidently believe that they see do and suffer many strange odd and wonderful things which have indeed no existence at all in them but only in their depraved fancies and are meerly melancholiae figmenta And yet the confessions of these though absurd idle foolish false and impossible are without all ground and reason by the common Witchmongers taken to be truths and falsely ascribed unto Demons and that they are sufficient grounds to proceed upon to condemn the Confessors to death when all is but passive delusion intrinsecally wrought in the depraved imaginative faculty by these three ways or means 1. One of the Causes that produceth this depraved and passive delusion is evil education they being bred up in ignorance either of God the Scriptures or the true grounds of Christian Religion nay not being taught the common Rules of Morality or of other humane Literature but only imbibing and sucking in with their mothers and nurses milk the common gross and erroneous opinions that the blockish vulgar people do hold who are all generally inchanted and bewitched with the belief of the strange things related of Devils Apparitions Fayries Hobgoblins Ghosts Spirits and the like so that thereby a most deep impression of the verity of the most gross and impossible things is instamped in their fancies hardly ever after in their whole life time to be obliterated or washt out so prevalent a thing is Custom and Institution from young years though the things thus received and pertinaciously believed and adhered unto are most abominable falsities and impossibilities having no other existence but in the brains and phantasies of old ignorant and doting persons and are meerly muliercularum nutricum terriculamenta figmenta and therefore did Seneca say Gravissimum est consuetudinis imperium And that this is one main cause of this delusion is manifest from all the best Historians that where the light of the Gospel hath least appeared and where there is the greatest brutish ignorance and heathenish Barbarism there the greatest store of these deluded Witches or Melancholists are to be found as in the North of Scotland Norway Lapland and the like as may be seen at large in Saxo Grammaticus Olaus Magnus Hector Boetius and the like 2. But when an atrabilarious Temperament or a melancholick Complexion and Constitution doth happen to those people bred in such ignorance and that have suckt in all the fond opinions that Custom and Tradition could teach them then what thing can be imagined that is strange wonderful or incredible but these people do pertinaciously believe it and as confidently relate it to others nay even things that are absolutely impossible as that they are really changed into Wolves Hares Dogs Cats Squirrels and the like and that they flye in the Air are present at great Feasts and Meetings and do strange and incredible things when all these are but the meer effects of the imaginative function depraved by the fumes of the melancholick humor as we might shew from the Writings of the most grave and learned Physicians but we shall content our selves with some few select ones 1. That distemper which Physicians call Lycanthropia is according to the judgment of Aetius and Paulus but a certain species of Melancholy and yet they really think and believe themselves to be Wolves and imitate their actions of which Johannes Fincelius in his second Book de Mirac giveth us a relation to this purpose That at Padua in the year 1541. a certain Husband-man did seem to himself a Wolf and did leap upon many in the fields and did kill them And that at last he was taken not without much difficulty and did confidently affirm that he was a true Wolf only that the difference was in the skin turned in with the hairs And therefore that certain having put off all humanity and being truly truculent and voracious did smite and cut off his legs and arms thereby to try the truth of the matter but the innocency of the man being known they commit him to the Chirurgions to be cured but that he dyed not many days after Which instance is sufficient to overthrow the vain opinion of those men that believe that a man or woman may be really transformed or transubstantiated into a Wolf Dog Cat Squirrel or the like without the operation of an omnipotent power as in Lots Wife becoming a Pillar of Salt though St. Augustine was so weak as to seem to believe the reality of these transformations of which we shall have occasion to speak more largely hereafter 2. Another story we shall give from the Authority of that learned Physician Nicolaus Tulpius of Amsterdam to this effect A certain famous Painter was for a long time infected with black Choler and did falsely imagine that all the bones of his body were as soft and flexible that they might be drawn and bended like soft wax Which opinion being deeply imprinted in his mind he kept himself in bed the whole Winter fearing that if he should rise they would not bear his weight but would shrink together by reason of their softness That Tulpius did not contradict him in that fancy but said that it was a distemper that Physicians were not ignorant of but had been long before noted by Fernelius that the bones like wax might be softned and indurated and that it might be easily cured if he would be obedient and that within three days he would make the bones firm and stable and that within six days he would restore him to the power of walking By which promises it was hard to declare how much hope of recovering health it had raised up in him and how obedient it made him So that with Medicines proper to purge the atrabilarious humour within the time appointed he was at the three days end suffered to stand upon his feet and upon the sixth day had leave given to walk abroad and so found himself perfectly sound afterwards but did not perceive the deceit in his phantasie that had made him lye a whole Winter in bed though he was no stupid but an ingenious person in his Art and scarce second to any 3. Thomas Bartholinus the famous Anatomist and Physician to Frederick the Third King of Denmark tells us these things That it is the property of
needs be false But this tenent of Samuels Soul acting in the Body after death is flatly contrary to the plain Doctrine of the Scripture ergo it is false The major we suppose no Oxthodox Christian can justly deny and the minor is proved thus The Scripture doth assure us that those that die in the Lord as without all doubt Samuel did are blessed and rest from their labours Therefore must this Tenent be abominably false for if the Soul of Samuel after his death had been brought again to act in the Body then he had not rested from his labours but had been disquieted and brought to new trouble to have been vexed to have seen Saul committing more wickedness than before in taking counsel from a cursed Idolatrous Woman such as the Lord had commanded to be destroyed And there is no one point in all this transaction of Saul with the Witch that speaketh her Imposture more apparently than where this counterfeit Samuel saith Why hast thou disquieted me As though the Saints of God after death could be disquieted by a Devil or a Witch who according to Gods infallible truth are blessed and rest from their labours and are in the hands of the Lord where no Torments can touch them And therefore none would have spoken those lying words but a devilish cheating quean or a damnable suborned confederate 6. If Samuels Soul was again joined to his body so long after separation and so performed vital actions who was the author of this conjunction or union could the Witch or the Devil or any created power effect that union Surely not none but the almighty power of Jehovah who breathed into Adam the breath of life And therefore we are bold to assert with all the company of learned Christians that this opinion is erroneous impious and blasphemous 2. The second opinion that it was Samuels Soul that appeared in his wonted shape and habit that he wore while he lived hath been strenuously maintained by the Popish party and as strongly confuted by the reformed Divines But we shall not trouble our selves and our readers with them all but only urge two or three that are most cogent thereby to answer Mr. Glanvils fopperies and they are these 1. If it were Samuels Soul that appeared it cannot be supposed to come contrary or whether God would or not for hardly any rational Man we believe will affirm that because God doth whatsoever he will both in Heaven and Earth and who hath resisted his will 2. And it cannot be rationally thought that Samuel who whilst he lived was so punctually careful to do nothing especially in his prophetick office but what he was commanded of God would after his death run an errand without his consent or licence 3. And that his Soul did not come by the command of God is most certain Though Mr. Glanvil ask the question who saith that happy departed Souls were never imployed in any ministeries here below To which though we have answered it before we now again reply that all learned Divines of the reformed Churches have said and maintained it and so do we both say and affirm that they never were nor are imployed in ministeries here below because never created nor ordained of God for any such end or purpose but there are legions of Angels that are ordained to be ministring Spirits and not the Souls of the Saints departed this life But Mr. Glanvil goeth further and saith that Samuel was not raised by the power of the Witches inchantments but came on that occasion on a Divine errand And though we have before unanswerably proved in the general that no Souls of those that are dead do after death appear or wander here below nor come such sleveless errands as he supposeth yet we shall add one or two here in particular to prove that Samuels Soul came not on a Divine errand as sent by God without which mission it could not have come at all 4. For fourthly if Mr. Glanvil had proved by any argument or colour of reason that his Soul had come upon such a Divine errand it had been something but he hath only laid down an affirmation without either proof reason or authority and we may with as good reason deny it as he affirm it for bare affirmations prove nothing at all 5. It is manifest that God in all his ordinances of providence especially in the order of his miracles doth work chiefly to confirm and witness truth for that as the worthy and learned Stillingsleet hath observed is the most proper criterium of a miracle and to send a Soul from the dead must needs be miraculous Now if the chief end in Gods working of miracles for none else but he can work them be to establish truth and settle his own Divine and pure worship then it cannot be to uphold lies and Idolatrous courses But if God should have sent Samuels Soul on a Divine errand when the Witch was practising her Diabolical Divinations and cheating tricks it had been to have countenanced and confirmed both Saul and the Witch in their wicked wayes and to have contradicted his own law and command which did positively order that all that used Divinations should be put to death and all those that sought for counsel from them to be severely punished Now let Mr. Glanvil or any other prove that God orders that to be done by the dead which he forbad to be done by the living 6. If it had been the true Samuel that appeared it is not rational nor credible to imagine that he would neither rebuke Saul for consulting with a Woman that practised those things that were forbidden by the law upon pain of death nor that he would either reprove or punish so wicked a Woman finding her in the very act We say it is not credible unless we suppose Samuel less zealous for the law and commands of God being dead than he was for them being living Surely he that living hewed Agag in pieces only because God had commanded he should be slain would if it had been the true Samuel which without all question it was not have done as much or worse to the cursed and Idolatrous cheating Witch though after his death if he had come upon a Divine errand 7. God should have shewed himself very mutable if he had answered Saul in a miraculous way by a dead Prophet that had refused to answer him by one living And Samuel while living knew certainly that the Lord had rejected Saul from being King over Israel and had testified unto him that the strength of Israel would not lie and that he was not like a man that he should repent But if it had been the true Samuel that had been sent to speak to Saul he knowing both by his own knowledge and relation of Saul himself that God had refused to answer him by Prophets must in that conference both have made God a liar and mutable and also himself who living had testified
appear in the shape of Samuel either to magnifie the skil or practice of a lewd wicked and Idolatrous Woman which thing he had forbidden by his plain and open law nor to gratifie the curiosity of a wretched Reprobate such as was Saul whom he had denied to answer by living Prophets and therefore would not answer him by the apparition of a Devil to have committed a counterfeit Imposture in the shape of holy Samuel And therefore we conclude that it was no apparition of the Devil but meerly the Imposture of the Woman either alone or with a Confederate There is also a fourth opinion concerning the transaction of this Woman of Endor that holds that it was neither the Body or Soul of Samuel that was raised up neither the Devil that appeared in his shape nor that it was the Imposture of the Witch alone or with a Confederate but that it was the Sydereal or Astral Spirit as they are pleased to term it of Samuel that was made to appear and speak by the art and skill of the Woman But because this Tenent is not of much Antiquity nor hath many assertors of it as also because it taketh that for an Hypothesis to wit that there are three parts in Man the Body Soul and Spirit and that the Soul goeth immediately after death either to Heaven or Hell the Body to the grave and that the Spirit doth for a certain time after death wander in the air and may be by a certain kind of art brought to appear visibly and to give answers of all things that it knew living which as yet hath never been sufficiently proved therefore we shall pass it over here having perhaps occasion to speak of it more largely hereafter We shall now come to mention some places in the New Testament that are produced by some thereby to prove the great power of Devils and Witches in transferring and carrying bodies in the air as is that of our Saviours temptation where it is said that the Devil took him into an exceeding high Mountain and that he set him upon the pinnacle of the Temple in Jerusalem from whence they thus argue That if the Devil had power to carry our most blessed Saviour in the air into an high mountain and to set him upon the pinnacle of the Temple that much more hath he power to carry the bodies of Witches who are his sworn vassals in the air whither he pleaseth or they desire To annul the force of which objection we give these reasons 1. If it were granted that the Devil did transport our Saviour in the air yet it will not follow that he can at any time when he pleaseth carry the Bodies of Men or Women so likewise for no particular proposition will according to the rules of art infer a general or universal conclusion nor one example or instance inductively prove a general practice one Swallow doth not make a Summer For though once when our blessed Saviour was baptized the Holy Ghost did descend like a Dove and light upon him it will not follow that in all other of his actions of preaching or working of miracles the holy Spirit should appear also in the form of a Dove nor when otheâ— Saints are Baptized will it follow that it doth or should alwaies appear in the same form And though Samson did once slay a thousand of the Philistines with the jaw-bone of an Aâ—s it doth not follow that either he did so in like manner in every battel or that every Man may do the like 2. If it were granted that the Devil did carry Christs Body in the air it will not follow that he can do so at any other times when he pleaseth because in the temptation of Christ there was an extraordinary dispensation of God for the same which cannot be presupposed in the ordinary transportation of Witches and therefore the argument falls quite to the ground 3. In the actions of Satan especially in elementary things for we speak not of the acts of his will the will order and licence of God is chiefly to be considered because his power in respect of execution is under the power of the Almighty so that he can do nothing in this respect but what he is ordered and commanded to do And therefore the end of the action is principally to be regarded for if God should have given way that Christ should be carried by Satan in the air it was for a glorious and good end that the obedience of his will to the Father might be shown and that his victory over the Devil might be made manifest but in carrying the Bodies of Witches in the air there can be no good just or pious end wherefore the Devil should be licensed or permitted to carry them in the air except it were to promote filthiness and abominable wickedness which were absurd and blasphemous to imagine And therefore we may rationally and plainly conclude that the carrying of the Bodies of Witches in the air by the power of the Devil is a false wicked and impious opinion 4. Some are of opinion that this whole transaction was visible sensible and corporeal as Theophylact and many others Some are of opinion that it was wholly in a Vision And some take a middle way that it was partly sensible and visible and partly mental and by way of vision Of which opinion the great Cameron seems to be who compares it with that of Ezekiel who saith And the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem And sheweth that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth agree with the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as applicable to lifting up or carrying in a vision as to bodily transportation And that it was either altogether or partly in a vision the learned Beza gives us this note Hoc videtur satis ostendere haec omnia per visionem quandam non corporali transvectione ostensione esse gesta quomodo nempe humanitus videre potuisset omnia regna orbis gloriam eorum in momento But though it be the more sound and rational opinion that the whole transaction was mental and in a vision yet we shall not altogether stand upon that but if it be granted that it was corporeal and visible yet it doth not appear that our Saviour was in his Body carried by the power of the Devil in the air either to the top of an high mountain nor set upon the pinnacle of the Temple in Jerusalem and that for these reasons 1. Our Saviour did not go to undertake this combat with Satan unwillingly that he need be constrained or carried to try the utmost power and malice of the Devil but readily and willingly by the conduct and leading of the holy Spirit for the Text saith in Matthew Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the Devil
God granted to them when they are sent forth to perform such or such an act For as it may not be rationally granted that the two Angels that were instruments for the destroying of Sodom and Gomorrha did bring down fire and brimstone from Heaven by their own created power nor that the destroying Angel in Egypt did in one night kill all the first-born by his own power but by the power of the Almighty granted unto him in that mission so it is not rational to suppose that although Satan might by internal motions and spiritual temptations prevail with the Sabaeans and Chaldaeans who were his Vassals wherein he could work what he would to take away the Oxen Asses and Camels of Job and to slay his Servants though I say he might do this by his created power yet that he should bring fire from Heaven to destroy the sheep or that he by his created power could raise such a wind as could blow down the house in which the Sons and Daughters of Job were and slay them is not probable but that it was performed by that assisting power that was granted him of God to effect that affliction upon Job that God had determined for the trial and manifestation of his Faith and Patience which cannot in any reason be said to be done by Devils in their transactions with Witches and therefore must needs be Fables and Chimeras 5. And whereas he addeth that the Devils can perform all kind of motions with natural bodies and that none can resist them it is too large by far for by that rule they might shake and remove the earth which they cannot do for it abideth firm according to Gods appointment in the creation And it is absurd to think that the superior and good Angels cannot resist them who have far greater force and might than the faln Angels have 6. And whereas he would prove the power of Devils by that of the spirit of the Lord conveying of Philip from the Ethiopian Eunuch which supposing it to be a good Angel it must likewise be granted to be furnished from God to have that power to carry him away and doth not necessarily conclude that the Angel did it by its proper created power neither is the consequence good to argue that what a good Angel may do that therefore a bad one may do the same or the like for their powers and strength are not equal the one retaining what he had by creation the other losing much by reason of his rebellion and fall as an outlawed person hath not in a civil respect the same power that another person hath that is under a legal capacity and as a prisoner that is loaden with chains gives and fetters can neither walk leap or run so fast as he that hath none no more can the fettered Devils move with that agility and celerity that the good Angels can do that have no fetters nor chains at all 2. A second kind of actions that he assigneth unto Devils is that they cannot only move bodies locally but also can alter them diverse and sundry ways as to make hot things of cold and so on the contrary white things of black and black of white and can make of fair things deformed ones and so on the contrary and can make sound bodies sick and sick bodies sound affecting them with various qualities But these particulars he leaves altogether without proof except one Text in these words And he cried with a loud voice unto the four Angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the seas From whence we shall observe these things 1. It is granted that God doth make use of evil Angels to punish the wicked and to chastise and afflict the godly and in the effecting of these things that they have a power given them to hurt the earth and the Sea and things therein as to bring tempests thunder lightning plague dearth drought and the like but that in the effecting these things they have a dative power above what they had in Creation and that they are commissioned and sent by God upon purpose to fulfil and effect these things and so are as the organs and instruments to perform the will of God in his justice and are always for such ends as tend to the Glory of the Creator But for Devils to be sent to play such ludicrous filthy and wicked tricks with Witches as is commonly affirmed suits not at all with the Wisdom and Justice or Glory of God neither have we any such examples in holy Writ no further but that Devils only are Gods Executioners or Hangmen 2. It doth no where appear that the Devils can alter or change the shape or qualities of things at his own will and pleasure but the contrary is manifest in the Priests of Baal in the time of Elijah upon the Mount Carmel where their Idols or Gods were to shew their power by firing the Sacrifice a thing which if Satan could have done for them with all his power it had been most advantagious for his Kingdom but it is evident that he neither did nor could procure as much fire as would burn the Sacrifice though earnestly called upon by his best Servants the Idolatrous Priests But thou wilt say his power was then restrained and withholden at that time from effecting any such thing Well grant it were so what was the end that God used that restriction upon him at that time for was it not because God would not contribute to magnifie the Devils Kingdom nor to suffer him any longer to deceive his people But to discover the weakness of his power who is not able of his own created power to bring forth fire where there is none not able to break a paper window unless he have leave and power given him from God And therefore much less can for the magnifying of his own power and to dishonour the Creator appear as a Cat Dog Squirrel or the like to Witches suck upon their bodies have carnal copulation with them or transport them in the air for this were to advance his credit too much and utterly derogatory to the Glory of God 3. Concerning Satans being an instrument and means to bring and cause diseases it may be considered these two ways 1. In an ordinary way he seduceth and draweth men to gluttony and drunkenness by which way of iâ—gurgitation and excess they draw and contract to themselves diverse Diseases as Coughs Catarrhs Dropsies Scorbutick Distempers and the like Others he draweth to insatiable lust and concupiscence that thereby they fall into the Lues Venereae and the whole troop of those dire and horrid Symptomes that accompany it whereby Men and Women undergo great misery pains sickness and sometimes death Sometimes he pusheth Men on so far in malice wrath choler and passion and many other such like ways that they wound lame and sometimes kill one another and in this sense he may be said to cause diseases diverse ways 2. But
blood or affinity Also money was given as was said to the Poysoners instead of inheritance But when they had murthered the Brother and only Son of one Necus and that scarcely others than the Masters of Families themselves or their Sons did perish And that also they had marked that into what Houses those Conspirators had insinuated themselves that those for the most part did perish into whose Houses they entred but the Conspiracy being found out they were all put to death with most exquisite torments They also confessed that they had determined to kill all the Citizens upon a Festival day by anointing the Seats and to that purpose they had prepared twenty Pots full of that pernicious and hellish Ointment And Paracelsus tells us that at St. Vitum and Villacum certain of the Poyson-makers in the time of a Plague did take the Earth and Dust from the Graves of those that had been buried and did so prepare it with their Magical Art that they raised up a most cruel and raging Plague whereby many thousands of men were infected and slain But that the manner of that preparation is by no means to be revealed Those that desire more satisfaction in this particular may have recourse to that learned Treatise de Peste written by the learned and industrious Matthias Untzerus 5. But there is no where a more strange accident written than what is recorded in our own Annals in the year 1579. the nineteenth year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth in these words The 4 5 and 6. days of July were the Assises holden at Oxford where was arraigned and condemned one Rouland Jenkes for his Seditious Tongue at which time there arose such a damp that almost all were smothered very few escaped that were not taken at that instant The Jurors died presently Shortly after died Sir Robert Bell Lord Chief Baron Sir Robert de Olie Sir William Babington M r Weneman M r De Olie High Sheriff M r Davers M r Farcurt M r Kirle M r Pheteplace M r Greenwood M r Foster Serjeant Baram M r Stevens c. There died in Oxford 300. persons and sickned there but died in other places 200. and odd from the sixth of July to the twelfth of August after which day died not one of that sickness for one of them infected not another nor any one Woman or Child died thereof This is the punctual relation according to our English Annals which relate nothing of what should be the cause of the arising of such a damp just at the Conjuncture of time when Jenkes was Condemned there being none before and so it could not be a Prison Infection for that would have manifested it self by smell or by operating sooner But to take away all scruple and to assign the true Cause it was thus It fortuned that a Manuscript fell into my hands collected by an antient Gentleman of York who was a great observer and gatherer of strange things and facts who lived about the time of this accident happening at Oxford wherein it is related thus That Rouland Jenkes being imprisoned for treasonable words spoken against the Queen and being a Popish Recusant had notwithstanding during the time of his restraint liberty sometimes to walk abroad with a Keeper and that one day he came to an Apothecary and shewed him a receipt which he desired him to make up but the Apothecary upon the view of it told him that it was a strong and dangerous receipt and required some time to prepare it but also asked him to what use he would apply it he answered to kill the Rats that since his Imprisonment spoiled his Books so being satisfied he promised to make it ready After a certain time he cometh to know if it were ready but the Apothecary said the ingredients were so hard to procure that he had not done it and so gave him the receipt again of which he had taken a Copy which mine Author had there precisely written down but did seem so horribly poysonous that I cut it forth lest it might fall into the hands of wicked persons But after it seems he had got it prepared and against the day of his tryal had made a week or wick of it for so is the word that is so fitted that like a Candle it might be fired which as soon as ever he was Condemned he lighted having provided himself a Tinder-box and Steel to strike fire And whosoever should know the ingredients of that Wick or Candle and the manner of the Composition will easily be perswaded of the virulency and venenous effects of it and this in him in regard of the use and end was meerly Diabolical though th◠agency and effects were meer natural 6. It is very strange to consider what learned and grave Authors have left recorded of the Ligation or binding of Husbands that they might not be viripotent or be able to have to do with their Wives for a longer or a shorter time nay some even have proceded so faras to write it and seem also to believe it that by venifice or Witchcraft the virile members may be quite taken away as is related by Codronchius of a certain young man that had his members quite taken away by a Woman Witch which notwithstanding she restored again by beating and putting her in the fear of death And of this incredible story Sennertus a professed maintainer of the impossible power of Witches doth notwithstanding give this censure The Devil doth often delude men by prestigious and jugling deceits and perswadeth them that he hath brought such Diseases as indeed are none at all as this taking away the virile member related by Baptista Codronchius For although some be of that opinion that the genital members may really be taken away and restored by the Devil notwithstanding he saith I had rather hold with those that believe such things are meer juglings and delusions seeing it is not in the power of the Devil to restore unto man a member lost or taken away The most learned Lord Bacon doth affirm that this kind of Ligation or binding to make men impotent for Coition is frequent in Santonne and Gascoigne and is used to be done upon the Marriage day and that it is often performed by the Mothers to prevent that incantation by others and that they may loose it when they please And doth think it no light matter because punishable by their laws And saith after If it exceed not nature it hath its force from the Imagination of the binder of the virile member and adds Putem ego illud ab incantatione alienum esse quia non à certis personis tantum quales incantatores sed à quolibet fieri potest But that which puts it forth of all doubt that it is nothing but melancholy and the abuse of the fancy is manifest from the observation of perspicacious Salmuth which is this I have known two he saith who did imagine themselves impotent