Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n
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A42820
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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.
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Glanvill, Joseph, 1636-1680.
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1666
(1666)
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Wing G817A; ESTC R223679
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26,849
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66
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A PHILOSOPHICAL ENDEAVOUR Towards the Defence of the Being OF WITCHES AND APPARITIONS In A LETTER To the much Honoured ROBERT HVNT Esq By a Member of THE ROYAL SOCIETY LONDON Printed by I. Grismond for Iames Collins at the King's Arms in Ivy-Lane 1666. Some CONSIDERATIONS About WITCHCRAFT In A Letter to the much Honoured Robert Hunt Esquire SIR THE late and frequent dealings you have had in the Examination of Witches and the Regards of one that hath a very particular and deserved Honour for you have brought you the trouble of some Considerations upon the subject in which you have so critically convers'd that perhaps may suggest to your better thoughts a way of accounting for some of those strange things you have been a witness of and contribute to the Defence of the Truth of Matters which you know by Experiments that could not deceive against the little exceptions of those that are resolved to believe nothing in affairs of this nature If any thing were to be much admired in an Age of Wonders not onely of Nature which is a constant Prodigy but of Men and Manners it would be to me matter of Astonishment that Men otherwise witty and ingenious are fall'n into the conceit that there 's no such thing as a Witch or Apparition but that these are the creatures of Melancholy and Superstition foster'd by ignorance and design which comparing the confidence of their disbelief with the evidence of the things denied and the weakness of their grounds would almost suggest that themselves are an argument of what they deny and that so confident an Opinion could not be held upon such inducements but by some kind of Witchcraft and Fascination in the Fancy And perhaps that evil Spirit whose influences they will not allow in Actions ascribed to such Causes hath a greater hand and interest in their Proposition then they are aware of For that subtil Enemy of Mankind since Providence will not permit him to mischief us without our own concurrence attempts that by stratagem and artifice which he could never effect by open ways of acting and the success of all wiles depending upon their secrecy and concealment his influence is never more dangerous then when his agency is least suspected In order therefore to the carrying on the dark and hidden designs he manageth against our Happiness and our Souls he cannot expect to advantage himself more then by insinuating a belief That there is no such thing as himself but that fear and fancy make Devils now as they did Gods of old Nor can he ever draw the assent of men to so dangerous an assertion while the standing sensible evidences of his existence in his practices by and upon his Instruments are not discredited and removed 'T is doubtless therefore the interest of this Agent of darkness to have the world believe that the notion they have of him is but a phantasm and conceit and in order thereunto That the stories of Witches Apparitions and indeed every thing that brings tidings of another world are but melancholick Dreams and pious Romances And when men are arriv'd thus far to think there are no diabolical contracts or apparitions their belief that there are such Spirits rests onely upon their Faith and Reverence to the Divine Oracles which we have little reason to apprehend so great in such assertors as to command much from their assent especially in such things in which they have corrupt interests against their evidence So that he that thinks there is no Witch believes a Devil gratis or at least upon such inducements which he is like to find himself disposed to deny when he pleaseth And when men are arrived to this degree of diffidence and infidelity we are beholden to them if they believe either Angel or Spirit Resurrection of the Body or Immortality of Souls These things hang together in a Chain of connexion at least in these mens Hypothesis and 't is but an happy chance if he that hath lost one link hold another So that the vitals of Religion being so much interressed in this subject it will not be impertinent particularly to discourse it And in order to the proof that there have been and are unlawful confederacies with evil spirits by vertue of which the hellish accomplices perform things above their natural powers I must premise that this being matter of Fact is onely capable of the evidence of authority and sense And by both these the being of Witches and diabolical contracts is most abundantly confirm'd All Histories are full of the exploits of those Instruments of darkness and the testimony of all Ages not onely of the rude and barbarous but of the most civiliz'd and polish'd world brings tidings of their strange performances We have the attestation of thousands of eye and ear-witnesses and those not of the easily deceivable vulgar onely but of wise and grave discerners and that when no interest could oblige them to agree together in a common Lie I say we have the light of all these circumstances to confirm us in the belief of things done by persons of despicable power and knowledge beyond the reach of Art and ordinary Nature standing publick Records have been kept of these well attested Relations and Epocha's made of those unwonted events Laws in many Nations have been enacted against those vile practises those among the Iews and our own are notorious such cases have been often determined near us by wise and reverend Iudges upon clear and convictive evidence and thousands in our own Nation have suffered death for their vile compacts with apostate spirits All these I might largely prove in their particular instances but that 't is not needful since those that deny the being of Witches do it not out of ignorance of these Heads of Argument of which probably they have heard a thousand times but from an apprehension that such a belief is absund and the things impossible And upon these presumptions they contemn all demonstrations of this nature and are hardned against conviction And I think those that can believe all Histories are Romances that all the wiser world have agreed together to juggle mankind into a common belief of ungrounded fables that the sound senses of multitudes together may deceive them and Laws are built upon Chymera's that the gravest and wisest Iudges have been Murderers and the sagest persons Fools or designing Impostors I say those that can believe this heap of absurdities are either more credulous then those whose credulity they reprehend or else have some extraordinary evidence of their persuasion viz. That 't is absurd and impossible there should be a Witch or Apparition And I am confident were those little appearances remov'd which men have form'd in their fancies against the belief of such things their evidence would make its way to their assent without any more arguments then what they know already to enforce it There is nothing then necessary to be done in order to the establishing the belief I
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 Blesâ—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