may be effected by creatures whose powers and knowledge are so vastly exceeding ours I shall endeavour theresore 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 it 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 Ecstasies 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 anointing her self before she takes her flight may perhaps serve to keep the Body tenantable and 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 not any thing in such conceptions but what hath been own'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 populace and customary opinion And there 's a saying of the great Apostle that seems to countenance this Platonick notion 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 imagine that the power of imagination may form those passive and pliable vehicles into those shapes with more ease than the fancy 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 airy 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 than 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 enjoyn'd them are doubtless nothing else but entertainments for their imaginations and are likely design'd to perswade 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 Doemons 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 blood and the spirits that proceed 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 add 4 That which to me seems most probable viz. That the Familiar doth not onely suck the Witch but in the action infuseth some poysonous ferment into her which gives her Imagination and Spirits a magical tincture whereby they become mischievously influential and the word venefica intimates some such matter Now that the imagination hath a mighty power in operation is seen in the just now mention'd Signatures and Diseases that it causeth and that the fancy is modified by the qualities of the blood and spirits is too evident to need proof Which things supposed 't is plain to conceive that the evil spirit having breath'd some vile vapour into the body of the Witch it may taint her blood and spirits with a noxious quality by which her infected imagination heightned by melancholy and this worse cause may do much hurt upon bodies that are impressible by such influences And 't is very likely that this ferment disposeth the imagination of the Sorceress to cause the mentioned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or separation of the Soul from the Body and may perhaps keep the Body in sit temper for its re-entry as also it may facilitate transformation which it may be could not be effected by ordinary and unassisted imagination Thus we see 't is not so desperate to form an apprehension of the manner of these odd performances and though they are not done the way I have describ'd yet what I have said may help us to a conceit of the possibility which sufficeth for my purpose And though the Hypotheses I have gone upon will seem as unlikely to some as the things they attempt to explain are to others yet I must desire their leave to suggest that most things seem improbable especially to the conceited and opinionative at first proposal and many great truths are strange and odd till custome and acquaintance have reconciled them to our fancies And I 'le presume to add on this occasion though I love not to be confident in assirming that there is none of the Platonical supposals I have used but what I could make appear to be fair and reasonable to the capable and unprejudic'd SECT IV. III. BUT III. I come to another prejudice against the being of Witches which is That 't is very improbable that the Devil who
time enough to see him carried out upon four Mens shoulders and to tread upon his jaws That on the day Talbot dyed she heard Agar swear that she had now plagued Talbot and that being in company with her some time before and seeing a dead Horse of Talbot's drawn along by another of his Horses she swore that that Horse should be also drawn out to morrow and the next day she saw the well Horse also drawn out dead That above a Month before Margaret Agar was sent to Gaol she saw her Henry Walter Catharine Green Jone Syms Christian Green Mary Warberton and others meet at a place called Husseys-knap in the Forrest in the Night time where met them the Fiend in the shape of a little Man in black Clothes with a littleband to him all made obeysances and at that time a Picture in Wax or Clay was delivered by Agar to the Man in black who stuck a Thorn into the Crown of it Margaret Agar one towards the Breast Catharine Green in the side after which Agar threw down the Picture and said there is Cornishes Picture with a Murrain to it or Plague on it And that at both the meetings there was a noisom smell of Brimstone That about two years since in the Night there met in the same place Agar Henry Walter Catharine Green Jone Syms Alice Green and Mary Warberton Then also Margaret Agar delivered to the little Man in black a Picture in Wax into which he and Agar stuck Thorns and Henry Walter thrust his Thumb into the side of it Then they threw it down and said there is Dick Greens Picture with a Pox in 't A short time after which Rich. Green was taken ill and dyed Further he saith That on Thursday Night before Whitsunday last about the same place met Catharine Green Alice Green Jone Syms Mary Warberton Dinah and Dorothy Warberton and Henry Walter and being met they called out Robin Upon which instantly appeared a little Man in black Clothes to whom all made obeysance and the little Man put his hand to his Hat saying How do ye speaking low but big Then all made low obeysances to him again That she hath seen Margaret Clark twice at the meetings but since Margaret Agar was sent to Prison she never saw her there Taken before me Rob. Hunt ADVERTISEMENT Before we pass to other Relations it will not be amiss further to remark upon these taken out of the Examinations of Mr. Hunt From the poisoned Apples that Jane Brooks gave to Rich. Jones and Eliz. Style to Agnes Vining and the poisoned Pewter-dish that Alice Duke put into the hands of Thomas Conway which dish and apples they had from the Devil we may observe in what a peculiar sense Witches and Wizzards are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Venefici and Veneficoe Poysoners Not that they mischieve People ordinarily by natural Poisons as Arsenick and the like but rather by some hellish malignancy infused into things by the art and malice of the Devil or by the steams of their own Body which the Devil sucks For the hand of Jane Brooks stroaking down Rich. Jones his side impressed a pain thereon We may observe also what an eximious Example of Moses his Mecassephah the word which he uses in that Law Thou shalt not suffer a Witch to live Margaret Agar is and how fitly some interpreters render Mecassephim Malefici from the great mischief they do and delight in And what a great credit this Agar is to J. Webster and the rest of the Hagg-advocates which would make them to be meer couzening Queans or Melancholick Fopps that had nothing to do with the Devil As if the Man in black and a little band were but such another as J. Webster or any other Haggadvocate that in waggery acted the part of the Devil in Husseys Knap or any such like place of a Forrest and so after all quickly and suddainly recoiling behind a bush and letting sly into the wind the deluded Haggs took it for the vanishing of the very Fiend and his perfuming the Air with the smell of Brimstone One that can resolve all the feats of the Hartummim of Egypt into tricks of Legerdemain cannot â—…e easily delude the company with such a feat as this the old Wives being thick of hearing and carrying their spectacles not on their noses but in their pockets And lastly srom the Devils covenanting with the Witches for their Souls it may be observed that the old Haggs dealing bonâ fidde and thinking they have Souls surviving their bodies are better Philosophers than the huffy Wits of our Age that deny distinction of Soul and Body But if they have not as these Huffers would have it and the Haggs think so themselves it is a pretty Paradox that these old Fopps should be able to out-wit the very Devil who does not in bartering for their Bodies and Souls buy a Pig in a poke as the Proverb is but a poke without a Pig But I rather believe that these huffing Wits as high as they are may learn one true point of Philosophy from these Haggs and their Familiars these evil Spirits certainly making their bargains wisely enough in covenanting for the Witches Soul Which clause if it were not exprest the Soul were free from the Familiars jurisdiction after death Wherefore it is no contemptible argument these evil Spirits covenanting for the Soul of the Witch that they know the Soul survives the Body and therefore make their bargain sure for the possession of it as their Peculium after death Otherwise if the Soul were mortal they would tell the Witâ—…es so the more easily to precipitate them into 〈◊〉 wickedness and make them more eager by their ministry to enjoy this present life But this Doctrine is inconsistent with the form of his Covenant whereby they are assured to him after death RELAT. VII Touching Florence Newton an Irish Witch of Youghal taken out of her Trial at the Assizes held for the Country of Corke Sept. 11. Ann. 1661. THis Florence Newton was committed to Youghall Prison by the Major of the Town March 24. 1661. for bewitching Mary Longdon who gave evidence against her at Cork Assizes as follows Mary Longdon being sworn and examined what she could say against the said Florence Newton for any practice of Witchcraft upon her self and being bidden to look on the Prisoner her countenance changed pale and she was very fearful to look towards her but at last she did And being askt whether she knew her she said she did and wisht she never had Being askt how long she had known her she said for three or four years And that at Christmas last the said Florence came to the Deponent at the House of John Pyne in Youghall where the Deponent was a Servant And askt the Deponent to give her a piece of Beef out of the Powdering-Tub And the Deponent answering her that she could not give away her Masters Beef she said Florence seemed to be very
there was nothing of a Witch in all that whole Narration First by pretending that all the transaction on the woman of Endor's part was nothing but collusion and a Cheat Saul not being in the same Room with her or at least seeing nothing if he was And then in the next place That Samuel that is said to appear could neither be Samuel appearing in his Body out of the Grave nor in his Soul nor that it was a Devil that appeared and therefore it must be some colluding Knave suborned by the Witch For the discovering the weakness of his former Allegation we need but to appeal to the Text which is this 1 Sam. 28. v. 8. And Saul said I pray thee divine unto me by the familiar spirit and bring me up whom I shall name unto thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is do the office of a Divineress or a Wise woman I pray thee unto me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beobh by vertue of the familiar Spirit whose assistance thou hast not by vertue of the Bottle as Mr. Webster would have it Does he think that Damsel in the Acts which is said to have had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to have had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Obh carried an Aquavitae-bottle about with her hung at her Girdle whereby she might divine and mutter chirp or peep out of it as a Chicken out of an Egg-shell or put her Neb into it to cry like a Bittern or take a dram of the Bottle to make her wits more quick and divinatory Who but one that had taken too many drams of the Bottle could ever fall into such a fond conceit Wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Obh in this place does not as indeed no where else signifie an oracular Bottle or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into which Saul might desire the woman of Endor to retire into and himself expect answers in the next Room but signifies that familiar Spirit by vertue of whose assistance she was conceived to perform all those wondrous offices of a Wise woman But we proceed to verse 11. Then said the woman Whom shall I bring up unto thee And he said Bring me up Samuel Surely as yet Saul and the woman are in the same Room and being the woman askt Whom shall I bring up unto thee and he answering Bring up unto me Samuel it implies that Samuel was so to be brought up that Saul might see him and not the Witch onely But we go on Verse 12. And when the woman saw Samuel she cried with a loud voice and the woman spake to Saul saying Why hast thou deceived me for thou art Saul Though the woman might have some suspicions before that it was Saul yet she now seeing Samuel did appear and in another kind of way than her Spirits used to do and in another hue as it is most likely so holy a Soul did she presently cried out with a loud voice not muttered chirpt and peept as a Chicken coming out of the Shell that now she was sure it was Saul For she was not such a Fool as to think her Art could call up real Samuel but that the presence of Saul was the cause thereof And Josephus writes expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. The woman seeing a grave God like man is startled at it and thus astonished at the Vision turned her self to the King and said Art not thou King Saul Verse 13. And the King said unto her Be not afraid for what sawest thou And the woman said unto Saul I saw Gods ascending out of the Earth The King here assures the woman that though he was Saul yet no hurt should come to her and therefore bids her not be afraid But she turning her face to Saul as she spake to him and he to her and so her sight being off from the object Saul asked her What sawest thou and she in like manner answered I saw Gods c. For Gods I suppose any free Translator in Greek Latine and English would say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Genios Spirits And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Angels as well as Gods and it is likely these Wise women take the Spirits they converse with to be good Angels as Anne Bodenham the Witch told a worthy and Learned Friend of mine That these Spirits such as she had were good Spirits and would do a man all good offices all the days of his life and it is likely this woman of Endor had the same opinion of hers and therefore we need not wonder that she calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elohim especially Samuel appearing among them to say nothing of the presence of Saul And that more than one Spirit appears at a time there are repeated examples in Anne Bodenham's Magical Evocations of them whose History I must confess I take to be very true The case stands therefore thus The Woman and Saul being in the same Room she turning her face from Saul mutters to her self some Magical form of evocation of Spirits whereupon they beginning to appear and rise up seemingly out of the Earth upon the sight of Samuels Countenance she cried out to Saul and turning her face towards him spoke to him Now that Saul hitherto saw nothing though in the same Room might be either because the body of the woman was interposed betwixt his eyes and them or the Vehicles of those Spirits were not yet attempered to that conspissation that they would strike the eyes of Saul though they did of the Witch And that some may see an Object others not seeing it you have an instance in the Child upon Walker's Shoulders appearing to Mr. Fairhair and it may be to the Judge but invisible to the rest of the Court and many such examples there are But I proceed to Verse 14. And he said unto her What form is he of and she said An old man cometh up and is covered with a mantle He asks here in the Singular number because his mind was onely sixt on Samuel And the womans answer is exactly according to what the Spirit appeared to her when her eye was upon it viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An old man coming up for he was but coming up when she looked upon him and accordingly describes him For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is a Participle of the present Tense and the woman describes Samuel from his Age Habit and motion he was in while her eye was upon him So that the genuine sense and Grammatical in this answer to What form is he of is this an old man coming up and the same covered with a mantle this is his form and condition I saw him in Wherefore Saul being so much concerned herein either the woman or he changing their postures or standings or Samuel by this having sufficiently conspissated his Vehicle and fitted it to Saul's sight also it follows in the Text And Saul perceived it was Samuel and he stooped with his face to the ground and bowed himself O the
impudent profaneness and sottishness of perverse shufflers and whifflers that upon the hearing of this passage can have the face to deny that Saul saw any thing and merely because the word perceived is used and not saw when the word perceived plainly implies that he saw Samuel and something more namely that by his former familiar converse with him he was assured it was he So exquisitely did he appear and overcomingly to his senses that he could not but acknowledge for so the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies that it was he or else why did he stoop with his Face to the very Ground to do him honour No no says J. Webster he saw nothing himself but stood waiting like a drowned Puppet see of what a base rude spirit this Squire of Hags is to use such language of a Prince in his distress in another Room to hear what would be the issue for all that he understood was from her cunning and lying relations That this Gallant of Witches should dare to abuse a Prince thus and feign him as much foolisher and sottisher in his Intellectuals as he was taller in Stature than the rest of the people even by head and shoulders and merely forsooth to secure his old Wives from being so much as in a capacity of ever being suspected for Witches is a thing extreamly coarse and intolerably sordid And indeed upon the consideration of Saul's being said to bow himself to Samuel which plainly implies that there was there a Samuel that was the object of his sight and of the reverence he made his own heart misgives him in this mad adventure And he shifts oâ—…f from thence to a conceit that it was a confederate Knave that the woman of Endor turned out into the room where Saul was to act the part of Samuel having first put on him her own short Cloak which she used with her maund under her arm to ride to Fairs or Markets in To this Country-slouch in the womans Mantle must King Saul stooping with his face to the very ground make his profound obeysance What was a Market-womans Cloak and Samuel's Mantle which Josephus calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sacerdotal habit so like one another Or if not how came this woman being so surprized oâ—… a suddain to provide her self of such a Saâ—…rdotal habit to cloak her consederate Knaâ—… iâ—… 〈◊〉 Was Saul as well a blind as a drowned Puppet that he could not discern so gross and bold an Imposture as this Was it possible that he should not perceive that it was not Samuel when they came to confer together as they did How could that confederate Knave change his own Face into the same figure look and mien that Samuel had which was exactly known to Saul How could he imitate his Voice thus of a suddain and they discoursed a very considerable time together Besides Knaves do not use to speak what things are true but what things are pleasing And moreover this woman of Endor though a Pythoness yet she was of a very good nature and benign which Josephus takes notice of and extols her mightily for it and therefore she could take no delight to lay further weight on the oppressed Spirit of distressed King Saul which is another sign that this Scene was acted bonâ fide and that there was no couzening in it As also that is another that she spoke so magnificently of what appeared to her that she saw Gods ascending Could she then possibly adventure to turn out a Country-slouch with a Maund-womans Cloak to act the part of so God-like and divine a Personage as Samuel who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the woman describes him in Josephus Antiqu. Judaic lib. 7. c. 15. Unto all which you may add That the Scripture itself which was written by Inspiration says expresly v. 20. that it was Samuel And the son of Sirach ch 46. that Samuel himself prophesyed after his death referring to this story of the woman of Endor But for our new-inspired Seers or Saints S. Scot S. Adie and if you will S. Webster sworn Advocate of the Witches who thus madly and boldly against all sense and reason against all antiquity all Interpreters and against the inspired Scripture itself will have no Samuel in this Scene but a cunning confederate Knave whether the inspired Scripture or these inblown Buffoons puffed up with nothing but ignorance vanity and stupid infidelity are to be believed let any one judge We come now to his other Allegation wherein we shall be brief we having exceeded the measure of a Postscript already It was neither Samuel's Soul says he joyned with his Body nor his Soul out of his Body nor the Devil and therefore it must be some confedâ—…rate Knave suborned by that cunning cheating Quean of Endor But I briesly answer it was the Soul of Samuel himself and that it is the fruitfulness of the great ignorance of J. Webster in the sound Principles of Theosophy and true Divinity that has enabled him to heap together no less than Ten Arguments to disprove this Assertion and all little to the purpose So little indeed that I think it little to the purpose particularly to answer them but shall hint onely some few Truths which will rout the whole band of them I say therefore that departed Souls as other Spirits have an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in them such as Souls have in this life and have both a faculty and a right to move of themselves provided there be no express Law against such or such a design to which their motion tends Again That they have a Power of appearing in their own personal shapes to whom there is occasion as Anne Walker's Soul did to the Miller and that this being a faculty of theirs either natural or acquirable the doing so is no miracle And Thirdly That it was the strong piercing desire and deep distress and agony of mind in Saul in his perplexed circumstances and the great compassion and goodness of Spirit in the holy Soul of Samuel that was the effectual Magick that drew him to condescend to converse with Saul in the womans house at Endor as a keen sense of Justice and Revenge made Anne Walker's Soul appear to the Miller with her sive Wounds in her head The rigid and harsh severity that Webster sancies Samuel's Ghost would have used against the woman or sharp reproofs to Saul As for the latter it is somewhat expressed in the Text and Saul had his excuse in readiness and the good Soul of Samuel was sensible of his perplexed condition And as for the former sith the Soul of Samuel might indeed have terrified the poor woman and so unhinged her that she had been sit for nothing after it but not converted her it is no wonder if he passed her by Goodness and Forbearance more befitting an holy Angelical Soul than bluster and fury such as is fancied by that rude Goblin that actuates the Body and Pen of Webster As
for departed Souls that they never have any care or regard to any of their fellow-Souls here upon Earth is expresly against the known example of that great Soul and universal Pastor of all good Souls who appeared to Stephen at his stoning and to S. Paul before his Conversion though then in his glorified Body which is a greater condescension than this of the Soul of Samuel which was also to a Prince upon whose shoulders lay the great affairs of the People of Israel To omit that other notable example of the Angel Raphael so called from his office at that time or from the Angelical Order he was adopted into after his death but was indeed the Soul of Azariaâ—… the son of Ananias the Great and of Tobit's Brethren Tobit ch 5. 12. Nor does that which occurs Tob. 12. 15. at all clash with what we have said if rightly understood for his saying I am Raphael one of the seven holy Angels which present the prayers of the Saints and which go in and out before the glory of the Holy One in the Cabbalistick sence signisies no more than thus That he was one of the universal society of the holy Angels and a Raphael in the Order of the Raphaels which minister to the Saints and reinforce the Prayers of good and holy men by joyning thereto their own and as they are moved by God minister to their necessities unprayed to themselves which would be an abomination to them but extream prone to second the Petitions of holy sincere souls and forward to engage in the accomplishing of them as a truly good man would sooner relieve an indigent creature overhearing him making his moan to God in Prayer than if he begged Alms of himself though he might do that without sin This Cabbalistical account I think is infinitely more probable than that Raphael told a downright lye to Tobit in saying he was the son of Ananias when he was not And be it so will J. Webster say what is all this to the purpose when the Book of Tobit is Apocryphal and consequently of no Authority What of no Authority certainly of infinitely more Authority than Mr. Wagstaf Mr. Scot and Mr. Adie that Mr. Webster so srequently and reverently quoteth I but will he further add these Apparitions were made to good and holy men or to elect Vessels but King Saul was a wretched Reprobate This is the third liberal badge of honour that this ill-bred Advocate of the Witches has beslowed on a distressed Prince First a drowned Puppet p. 170. then a distracted Bedlam in the same Page which I passed by before and now a wretched Reprobate But assuredly Saul was a brave Prince and Commander as Josephus justly describes him and Reprobate onely in Type as Ismael and Esau which is a mystery it seems that J. Webster was not aware of And therefore no such wonder that the Soul of Samuel had such a kindness for him as to appear to him in the depth of his distress to settle his mind by telling him plainly the upshot of the whole business that he should lose the Battle and he and his Sons be slain that so he might give a specimen of the bravest Valour that ever was atchieved by any Commander in that he would not suffer his Countrey to be over-run by the Enemy while he was alive without resistance but though he knew certainly he should fail of success and he and his Sons dye in the fight yet in so just and honourable a Cause as the defence of his Crown and his Countrey would give the Enemy battle in the Field and sacrifice his own Lise for the safety of his People Out of the knowledge of which noble spirit in Saul and his resolved valour in this point â—…hose words haply may come from Samuel To morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me as an auspicious insinuation of their savourable reception into the other world in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in thalamo justorum as Munster has noted out of the Rabbins Lastly as for that weak imputation that this opinion of its being Samuel's soul that appeared is Popish that is very Plebeianly and Idiotically spoken as if every thing that the Popish party are for were Popish We divide our zeal against so many things that we fancy Popish that we scarce reserve a just share of detestation against what is truly so Such as are that gross rank and scandalous impossibility of Transubstantiation the various modes of fulsome Idolatry and lying Impostures the Uncertainty of their Loyalty to their lawful Soveraigns by their superstitious adhesion to the spiritual Tyranny of the Pope and that barbarous and ferine Cruelty against those that are not either such fools as to be perswaded to believe such things as they would obtrude upon men or are not so false to God and their own Consciences as knowing better yet to profess them As for that other opinion that the greater part of the reformed Divines hold That it was the Devil that appeared in Samuel's shape and though Grotius also seems to be enclined thereto alledging that passage of Porphyrius De Abstinentia Animalium where he describes one kind of Spirit to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is I confess very appositâ—… to this story nor do doubt but that in many of these Necromantick Apparitions they are ludicrous Spirits not the Souls of the deceased that appear yet I am clear for the appearing of the Soul of Samuel in this story from the reasons above alledged and as clear that in other Necromancies it may be the Devil or such kind of Spirits as Porphyrius above describes that change themselves into omnifarious forms and shapes and one while act the parts of Daemons another while of Angels or Gods and another while of the Souls of the deceased And I confess such a spirit as this might personate Samuel here for any thing Webster has alledged to the contrary For his Arguments indeed are wonderfully weak and woodden as may be understood out of what I have hinted concerning the former opinion But I cannot further particularize now For I have made my Postscript much longer than my Letter before I was aware and I nâ—…d not enlarge to you who are so well versâ—…d in these things already and can by the quickness of your parts presently collect the whole mâ—…asure of Hâ—…ules by his Foot and sufficiently understand by this time it is no rash censure oâ—… mine in my Letter That â—…ster's Book is but a weak impertinent piece of work the very 〈◊〉 thereof being so weak and impcrtiâ—… and falling so short of the scope hâ—… aims it which was really to prove that there was no such thing as a Witch or Wizzard that is not any mention thereof in Scripture by any name of one that had more to do with the Devil or the Devil with him than with other wicked men that is to say of one who in vertue of Covenant either implicit or explicit did
their secrecy and concealment his influence is never more dangerous than 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 than 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 phantôme 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 arrived thus sar 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 srom their assent especially in such things in which they have corrupt interests against their evidence â—…o that he that thinks there is no Witch believes a Devil gratis or at least upon inducements which he is like to find himself disposed to deny when he pleaseth And when men are arrived to this degree of dissidence 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 holds another So that the vitals of Religion being so much interessed in this subject it will not be unnecessary employment 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 os 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 os thousands of eye and car-witnesses and those not of the easily deceivable vulgar onely but of wise and grave discernâ—…rs and that when no interest could oblige them to agree together in a common Lye 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 practices those among the Jews and our own are notorious such cases have been often determined near us by wise and reverend Judges 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 absurd 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 Chimera's That the gravest and wisest Judges 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 than those whose credulity they reprehend or else have some extraordinary evidence of their perswasion 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 own evidence would make its way to mens assent without any more arguments than what they know already to enforce it There is nothing then necessary to be done in order to the establishing the belief I would reconcile to mens minds but to endeavour the removal of those prejudices they have received against it the chief of which I shall particularly deal with And I begin with that bold Assertion That SECT II. I. I. THe NOTION of a Spirit is impossible and contradictious and consequently so is that of Witches the belief of which is founded on that Doctrine TO WHICH OBJECTION I answer 1 If the notion of a Spirit be absurd as is pretended that of a GOD and a SOUL distinct from matter and immortal are likewise absurdities And then that the world was jumbled into this elegant and orderly Fabrick by chance and that our Souls are onely parts of matter that came together we know not whence nor how and shall again shortly be dissolv'd into those loose Atoms that compound them That all our conceptions are but the thrusting of one part of matter against another and the Idea's of our minds mere blind and casual motions These and a thouâ—…and more the grossest impossibilities and absurdities consequents of this Proposition That the notion of a Spirit is absurd will be sad certainties and demonstrations And with such Assertors I would cease to discourse about Witches and Apparitions and address my self to obtain their assent to Truths infinitely more sacred And yet 2 though it should be granted them that a substance immaterial is as much a contradiction as they can fancy yet why â—…hould they not believe that the Air and all the Regions above us may have their invisible intellectual Agents of nature like unto our Souls be that what it will and some of them at least as much degenerate as the vilest and most mischievous among men This Hypothesis wil be enough to secure the possibility of Witches and Apparitions And that all the upper Stories of the Universe are furnish'd with Inhabitants 't is infinitely reasonable to conclude from the analogy of Nature since we see there is nothing so contemptible and vile in the world we reside in but hath its living Creatures that dwell upon it the Earth the Water the inferiour Air the bodies of Animals the flesh the
is a wise and mighty Spirit should be at the beck of a poor Hag and have so little to do as to attend the Errands and impotent Lusts of a silly Old woman TO which I might answer 1 That 't is much more improbable that all the world should be deceiv'd in matters of fact and circumstances of the clearest evidence and conviction than that the Devil who is wicked should be also unwise and that he that perswades all his subjects and accomplices out of their wits should himself act like his own Temptations and Perswasions In brief there is nothing more strange in this Objection than that wickedness is baseness and servility and that the Devil is at leisure to serve those he is at leisure to tempt and industrious to ruine And again 2 I see no necessity to believe that the Devil is always the Witches Confederate but perhaps it may fitly be considered whether the Familiar be not some departed humane Spirit forsaken of God and goodness and swallowed up by the unsatiable desire of mischief and revenge which possibly by the Laws and capacity of its state it cannot execute immediately And why we should presume that the Devil should have the liberty of wandring up and down the Earth and Air when he is said to be held in the Chains of darkness and yet that the separated Souls of the wicked of whom no such thing is affirm'd in any sacred Record should be thought so imprison'd that they cannot possibly wag from the place of their confinement I know no shadow of conjecture This conceit I 'm confident hath prejudic'd many against the belief of Witches and Apparitions they not being able to conceive that the Devil should be so ludicrous as appearing spirits are sometimes reported to be in their frolicks and they presume that souls departed never revisit the free and open Regions which confidence I know nothing to justifie For since good men in their state of separation are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why the wicked may not be supposed to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the worst sense of the word I know nothing to help me to imagine And if it be supposed that the Imps of Witches are sometimes wicked spirits of our own kind and nature and possibly the same that have been Sorcerers and Witches in this life This supposal may give a fairer and more probable account of many of the actions of Sorcery and Witchcraft than the other Hypothesis that they are always Devils And to this conjecture I 'le adventure to subjoyn another which also hath its probability viz. 3 That 't is not impossible but the Familiars of Witches are a vile kind of spirits of a very inferiour Constitution and nature and none of those that were once of the highest Hierarchy now degenerated into the spirits we call Devils And for my part I must confess that I think the common division of spirits much too general conceiving it likely there may be as great a variety of intellectual Creatures in the invisible world as there is of Animals in the visible and that all the superiour yea and inferiour Regions have their several kinds of spirits differing in their natural perfections as well as in the kinds and degrees of their depravities which being supposed 't is very probable that those of the basest and meanest Orders are they who submit to the mention'd servilities And thus the sagess and grandeur of the Prince of darkness need not be brought into question SECT V. IV. BUt IV the opinion of Witches seems to some to accuse Providence and to suggest that it hath exposed Innocents to the fury and malice of revengeful Fiends yea and supposeth those most obnoxious for whom we might most reasonably expect a more special tutelary care and protection most of the cruel practices of those presum'd Instruments of Hell being upon Children who as they least deserve to be deserted by that Providence that superintends all things so they most need its guardian influence TO this so specious an Objection I have these things to answer 1 Providence is an unfathomable Depth and if we should not believe the Phaenomena of our senses before we can reconcile them to our notions of Providence we must be grosser Scepticks than ever yet were extant The miseries of the present life the unequal distributions of good and evil the ignorance and barbarity of the greatest part of Mankind the fatal disadvantages we are all under and the hazard we run of being eternally miserable and undone these I say are things that can hardly be made consistent with that Wisdom and Goodness that we are sure hath made and mingled it self with all things And yet we believe there is a beauty and harmony and goodness in that Providence though we cannot unriddle it in particular instances nor by reason of our ignorance and imperfection clear it from contradicting appearances and consequently we ought not to deny the being of Witches and Apparitions because they will create us some difficulties in our notions of Providence But to come more close 2 Those that believe that Infants are Heirs of Hell and Children of the Devil as soon as they are disclosed to the world cannot certainly offer such an Objection for what is a little triâ—…ling pain of a moment to those eternal Tortures to which if they die assoon as they are born according to the Tenour of this Doctrine they are everlastingly exposed But however the case stands as to that 't is certain 3 That Providence hath not secured them from other violences they are obnoxious to from cruelty and accident and yet we accuse It not when a whole Townful of Innocents fall a Victim to the rage and ferity of barbarous Executioners in Wars and Massacres To which I add 4 That 't is likely the mischief is not so often done by the evil spirit immediately but by the malignant influence of the Sorceress whose power of hurting consists in the fore-mention'd ferment which is infused into her by the Familiar So that I am apt to think there may be a power of real fascination in the Witches eyes and imagination by which for the most part she acts upon tender bodies Nescio quis teneros oculus For the pestilential spirits being darted by a spightful and vigorous imagination from the eye and meeting with those that are weak and passive in the bodies which they enter will not fail to infect them with a noxious quality that makes dangerous and strange alterations in the person invaded by this poisonous influence which way of acting by subtile and invisible instruments is ordinary and familiar in all natural efficiencies And 't is now past question that nature for the most part acts by subtile streams and aporrhoea's of minute particles which pass from one body to another Or however that be this kind of agency is as conceivable as any of those qualities ignorance hath call'd Sympathy and Antipathy the reality of which
we doubt not though the manner of action be unknown Yea the thing I speak of is as easie to be apprehended as how infection should pass in certain tenuious streams through the Air from one house to another or as how the biting of a mad Dog should fill all the Blood and Spirits with a venomous and malign ferment the application of the vertue doing the same in our case as that of contact doth in this Yea some kinds of fascination are perform'd in this grosser and more sensible way as by striking giving Apples and the like by which the contagious quality may be transmitted as we see Diseases often are by the touch Now in this way of conjecture a good account may be given why Witches are most powerful upon Children and timorous persons viz. because their spirits and imaginations being weak and passive are not able to resist the fatal invasion whereas men of bold minds who have plenty of strong and vigorous spirits are secure from the contagion as in pestilential Airs clean bodies are not so liable to infection as other tempers Thus then we see 't is likely enough that very often the Sorceress her self doth the mischief and we know de facto that Providence doth not always secure us from one anothers injuries And yet I must confess that many times also the evil spirit is the mischievous Agent though this confession draw on me another Objection which I next propose SECT VI. V. V. THEN it may be said that if wicked spirits can hurt us by the direction and at the desire of a Witch one would think they should have the same power to do us injury without instigation or compact and if this be granted 't is a wonder that we are not always annoy'd and infested by them To which I RETURN 1 That the Laws Liberties and Restraints of the Inhabitants of the other world are to us utterly unknown and this way we can onely argue our selves into confessions of our ignorance which every man must acknowledge that is not as immodest as ignorant It must be granted by all that own the being power and malice of evil Spirits that the security we enjoy is wonderful whether they act by Witches or not and by what Laws they are kept from making us a prey to speak like Philosophers we cannot tell yea why they should be permitted to tempt and ruine us in our Souls and restrain'd from touching or hurting us in our Bodies is a mystery not easily accountable But yet 2 though we acknowledge their power to vex and torment us in our Bodies also yet a reason may be given why they are less frequent in this kind of mischief viz. because their main designs are levell'd against the interest and happiness of our Souls which they can best promote when their actions are most sly and secret whereas did they ordinarily persecute men in their Bodies their agency and wicked influence would be discover'd and make a mighty noise in the world whereby men would be awaken'd to a suitable and vigorous opposition by the use of such means as would engage Providence to rescue them from their rage and cruelties and at last defeat them in their great purposes of undoing us eternally Thus we may conceive that the security we enjoy may well enough consist with the power and malice of those evil Spirits and upon this account we may suppose that Laws of their own may prohibit their unlicens'd injuries not from any goodness there is in their Constitutions but in order to the more successful carrying on the projects of the dark Kingdom as Generals forbid Plunder not out of love to their Enemies but in order to their own Success And hence 3 we may suppose a Law of permission to hurt us at the instance of the Sorceress may well sâ—…and with the policy of Hell since by gratifying the wicked person they encourage her in malice and revenge and promote thereby the main ends of their black confederacy which are to propagate wickedness and to ruine us in our eternal interests And yet 4 't is clear to those that believe the History of the Gospel that wicked spirits have vexed the bodies of men without any instigation that we read of and at this day 't is very likely that many of the strange accidents and diseases that befal us may be the infliction of evil spirits prompted to hurt us onely by the delight they take in mischief So that we cannot argue the improbability of their hurting Children and others by Witches from our own security and freedom from the effects of their malice which perhaps we feel in more instances than we are aware of SECT VII VI. BUT VI another prejudice against the belief of Witches is a presumption upon the enormous force of melancholy and imagination which without doubt can do wonderful things and beget strange perswasions and to these causes some ascribe the presum'd effects of Sorcery and Witchcraft To which I reply briefly and yet I hope sufficiently I. THAT to resolve all the clear circumstances os Fact which we find in well-attested and confirm'd Relations of this kind into the power of deceivable imagination is to make fancy the greater prodigie and to suppose that it can do stranger feats than are believed of any other kind of fascination And to think that Pins and Nails for instance can by the power of imagination be convey'd within the skin or that imagination should deceive so many as have been witnesses in Objects of sense in all the circumstances of discovery this I say is to be infinitely more credulous than the assertors of Sorcery and Demoniack Contracts And by the same reason it may be believ'd that all the Battles and strange events of the world which our selves have not seen are but dreams and fond imaginations and like those that are fought in the Clouds when the Brains of the deluded Spectators are the onely Theatre of those fancied transactions And 2 to deny evidence of act because their imagination may deceive the Relators when we have no reason to think so but a bare presumption that there is no such thing as is related is quite to destroy the credit of all humane testimony and to make all men liars in a larger sence than the Prophet concluded in his haste For not onely the melancholick and the fanciful but the grave and the sober whose judgements we have no reason to suspect to be tainted by their imaginations have from their own knowledge and experience made reports of this nature But to this it will possibly be rejoyn'd and the Reply will be another prejudice against the belief for which I contend viz. SECT VIII VII VII THAT 't is a suspicious circumstance that Watchcraft is but a fancy since the persons that are accused are commonly poor and miserable old women who are overgrown with discontent and melancholy which are very imaginative and the persons said to be bewitch'd are for the most
Affairs of the other world as hath been intimated are vastly differing from those of our Regions and therefore 't is no wonder we cannot judge of their designs when we know nothing of their menages and so little of their natures The ignorant looker-on can't imagine what the Limner means by those seemingly rude Lines and scrawls which he intends for the Rudiments of a Picture and the Figures of Mathematick operation are nonsence and dashes at a venture to one uninstructed in Mechanicks We are in the dark to one anothers purposes and intendments and there are a thousand intrigues in our little matters which will not presently confess their design even to sagacious inquisitors And therefore 't is folly and incogitancy to argue any thing one way or other â—…rom the designs of a sort of Beings with whom we so little communicate and possibly we can take no more aim or guess at their projects and designments than the gazing Beasts can do at ours when they see the Traps and Gins that are laid for them but understand nothing what they mean Thus in general But I attempt something more particularly in order to which I must premise that the Devil is a name for a Body Politick in which there are very different Orders and Degrees of Spirits and perhaps in as much variety of place and state as among our selves so that 't is not one and the same person that makes all the compacts with those abused and seduced Souls but they are divers and those 't is like of the meanest and basest quality in the Kingdom of darkness which being supposed I offer this account of the probable design of those wicked Agents viz. That having none to rule or tyrannize over within the circle of their own nature and government they affect a proud Empire over us the desire of Dominion and Authority being largely spread through the whole circumference of degenerated nature especially among those whose pride was their original transgression every one of these then desires to get him Vassals to pay him homage and to be employ'd like Slaves in the services of his Lusts and Appetites to gratifie which desire 't is like enough to be provided and allowed by the constitution of their State and Government that every wicked spirit shall have those Souls as his property and particular servants and attendants whom he can catch in such compacts as those wild Beasts that we can take in hunting are by the allowance of the Law our own and those Slaves that a man hath purchas'd are his peculiar Goods and the Vassals of his will Or rather those deluding Fiends are like the seducing fellows we call Spirits who inveigle Children by their false and slattering promises and carry them away to the Plantations of America to be servilely employed there in the works of their profit and advantage And as those base Agents will humour and flatter the simple unwary Youth till they are on Shipboard and without the reach of those that might rescue them from their hands In like manner the more mischievous Tempter studies to gratifie please and accommodate those he deals with in this kind till death hath lanch'd them into the Deep and they are past the danger of Prayers Repentance and Endeavours and then He useth them as pleaseth Him This account I think is not unreasonable and 't will fully answer the Objection For though the matter be not as I have conjectur'd yet 't will suggest a way how it may be conceiv'd which nulls the pretence That the Design is unconceivable SECT XI X. BUT then X we are still liable to be question'd how it comes about that those proud and insolent Designers practise in this kind upon so few when one would expect that they should be still trading this way and every where be driving on the project which the vileness of men makes so feisable and would so much serve the interest of their lusts TO which among other things that might be suggested I return 1 That we are never liable to be so betrayed and abused till by our vile dispositions and tendencies we have forfeited the tutelary care and oversight of the better Spirits who though generally they are our guard and defence against the malice and violence of evil Angels yet it may well enough be thought that sometimes they may take their leave of such as are swallowed up by Malice Envie and desire of Revenge qualities most contrary to their Life and Nature and leave them exposed to the invasion and solicitations of those wicked Spirits to whom such hateful Attributes make them very sutable And if there be particular Guardian Angels as 't is not absurd to fancy it may then well be supposed that no man is obnoxious to those projects and attempts but onely such whose vile and mischievous natures have driven from them their protecting Genius And against this dereliction to the power of evil Spirits 't is likely enough what some affirm that the Royal Psalmist directs that Prayer Psal. LXXI ix x. Cast me not off in the time of old age forsake me not when my strength faileth For They that keep my Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the LXX and the Vulgar Latine Qui custodiunt animam meam they take counsel together say ing God hath forsaken him persecute him and take him for there is none to deliver him But I add 2 That 't is very probable that the state wherein they are will not easily permit palpable intercourses between the bad Genii and Mankind since 't is like enough that their own Laws and Government do not allow their frequent excursions into this World Or it may with as great probability be supposed that 't is a very hard and painful thing for them to force their thin and tenuious Bodies into a visible consistence and such shapes as are necessary for their designs in their correspondencies with Witches For in this action their Bodies must needs be exceedingly compress'd which cannot well be without a painful sense And this is perhaps a reason why there are so few Apparitions and why appearing Spirits are commonly in such haste to be gone viz. that they may be deliver'd from the unnatural pressure of their tender vehicles which I confess holds more in the apparitions of good than evil Spirits most Relations of this kind describing their discoveries of themselves as very transient though for those the holy Scripture records there may be peculiar reason why they are not so whereas the wicked ones are not altogether so quick and hasty in their visits The reason of which probably is the great subtilty and tenuity of the Bodies of the former which will require far greater degrees of compression and consequently of pain to make them visible whereas the latter are more foeculent and gross and so nearer allied to palpable consistencies and more easily reduceable to appearance and visibility At this turn Sir you may perceive that I have again made use of
of others more deserving whose worth is not acknowledg'd I say these and such like odd things may with the greatest probability be resolved into the Conduct and Menages of those invisible Supervisors that preside over and govern our affairs But if they so far concern themselves in our matters how is it that they appear not to maintain a visible and confest correspondence with some of the better Mortals who are most fitted for their Communications and their influence To which I have said some things already when I accounted for the unfrequency of Apparitions and I now add what I intend for another return to the main Objection viz. 2 That the apparition of good Spirits is not needful for the Designs of the better world whatever such may be for the interest of the other For we have had the Appearance and Cohabitation of the Son of God we have Moses and the Prophets and the continued influence of the Spirit the greatest arguments to strengthen Faith the most powerful motives to excite our Love and the noblest encouragements to quicken and raise our Desires and Hopes any of which are more than the apparition of an Angel which would indeed be a great gratification of the Animal Life but 't would render our Faith less noble and less generous were it frequently sâ—… assisted Blessed are they that believe and yet have not seen Besides which the good Angels have no such ends to prosecute as the gaining any Vassals to serve them they being ministring Spirits for our good and no self-designers for a proud and insolent Dominion over us And it may be perhaps not impertinently added That they are not always evil Spirits that appear as is I know not well upon what grounds generally imagined but that the extraordinary detections of Murders latent Treasures falsified and unfulfilled Bequests which are sometimes made by Apparitions may be the courteous Discoveries of the better and more benign Genii Yea 't is not unlikely that those warnings that the world sometimes hath of approaching Judgements and Calamities by Prodigies and sundry odd Phaenomena are the kind Informations of some of the Inhabitants of the upper world Thus was Jerusalem forewarned before its sacking by Antiochus by those airy Horsemen that were seen through all the City for almost forty days together 2 Mac. V. 2 3. and the other Prodigious Portents that fore-ran its Destruction by Titus which I mention because they are notorious instances And though for mine own part I scorn the ordinary Tales of Prodigies which proceed from superstitious fears and unacquaintance with Nature and have been used to bad purposes by the zealous and the ignorant Yet I think that the Arguments that are brought by a late very ingenious Author to conclude against such Warnings and Predictions in the whole kind are short and inconsequent and built upon too narrow Hypotheses For if it be supposed that there is a sort of Spirits over us and about us who can give a probable guess at the more remarkable futurities I know not why it may not be conjectured that the kindness they have for us and the appetite of foretelling strange things and the putting the world upon expectation which we find is very grateful to our own natures may not incline them also to give us some general notice of those uncommon Events which they foresee And I yet perceive no reason we have to fancy that whatever is done in this kind must needs be either immediately from Heaven or from the Angels by extraordinary Commission and Appointment But it seems to me not unreasonable to believe that those officious Spirits that oversee our Affairs perceiving some mighty and sad alterations at hand in which their Charge is much concerned cannot chuse by reason of their affection to us but give us some seasonable hints of those approaching Calamities to which also their natural desire to foretel strange things to come may contribute to incline them And by this Hypothesis the fairest probabilities and strongest ratiocinations against Prodigies may be made unserviceable But this onely by the way SECT XIII I Desire it may be considered further 3 That God himself affords his intimacies and converses to the better Souls that are prepared for it which is a priviledge infinitely beyond Angelical correspondence I confess the proud and phantastick pretences of many of the conceited Melancholists in this age to Divine Communion have prejudiced divers intelligent persons against the belief of any such happy vouchsafement so that they conclude the Doctrine of immediate Communion with the Deity in this Life to be but an high-flown notion of warm imagination and over-luscious self-flattery and I acknowledge I have my self had thoughts of this nature supposing Communion with God to be nothing else but the exercise of vertue and that peace and those Comforts which naturally result from it But I have considered since that God's more near and immediate imparting himself to the Soul that is prepared for that happiness by divine Love Humility and Resignation in the way of a vital touch and sense is a thing possible in it self and will be a great part of our Heaven That Glory is begun in Grace and God is pleased to give some excellent Souls the happy Antepast That holy men in ancient times have sought and gloried in this enjoyment and never complain so sorely as when it was with held and interrupted That the expressions of Scripture run infinitely this way and the best of Modern good men do from their own experience attest it That this spiritualizeth Religion and renders its enjoyments more comfortable and delicious That it keeps the Soul under a vivid sense of God and is a grand security against Temptation That it holds it steady amid the flatteries of a prosperous state and gives it the most grounded anchorage and sup port amid the Waves of an adverse condition That 't is the noblest encouragement to vertue and the biggest assurance of an happy Immortality I say I considered these weighty things and wondred at the carelesness and prejudice os thoughts that occasion'd my suspecting the reality of so glorious a Priviledge I saw how little reason there is in denying matters of inward sense because our selves do not feel them or cannot form an apprehension of them in our minds I am convinced that things of gust and relish must be judg'd by the sentient and vital faculties and not by the noetical exercises of speculative understandings And upon the whole I believe infinitely that the Divine Spirit affords its sensible presence and immediate beatifick Touch to some rare Souls who are divested of carnal self and mundane pleasures abstracted from the Body by Prayer and holy Meditation spiritual in their Desires and calm in their Affections devout Lovers of God and vertue and tenderly affectionate to all the world sincere in their aims and circumspect in their actions inlarged in their Souls and clear in their Minds These I think are the
sober intelligent men that have visited those places that most of the Laplanders and some other Northern people are Witches That 't is plain that there are National Confederacies with Devils or if there were none I see not how it could be inferred thence that there are no personal ones no more than that there were never any Doemoniacks because we know of no Nation universally possessed nor any Lunaticks in the world because there is no Country of Madmen But our Author reasons again 2 To this purpose That the profligate persons who are obnoxious to those gross temptations are fast enough before and therefore such a Covenant were needless and of no avail to the Tempters projects This Objection I have answered already in my Remarques upon the IX Prejudice and mind you again here that if the designs of those evil Spirits were onely in general to secure wicked men to the dark Kingdom it might better be pretended that we cannot give a reason for their temptations and endeavours in this kind But it being likely as I have conjectur'd that each of those infernal Tempters hath a particular property in those he hath seduced and secured by such compacts their respective pride and tyrannical desire of slaves may reasonably be thought to engage them in such Attempts in which their so peculiar interest is concerned But I add what is more direct viz. That such desperate Sinners are made more safe to the infernal Kingdom at large by such Hellish Covenants and Combinations since thereby they confirm and harden their Hearts against God and put themselves at greater distance from his Grace and his Spirit give the deepest wound to Conscience and resolve to wink against all its light and convictions throw a Bar in the way of their own Repentance and lay a Train for despair of Mercy These certainly are sure ways of being undone and the Devil we see hath great interest in a project the success of which is so attended And we know he made the assault de facto upon our Saviour when he tempted him to fall down and worship So that this learned Author hath but little reason to object 3 That to endeavour such an express Covenant is contrary to the interests of Hell which indeed are this way so mightily promoted And whereas he suggests that a thing so horrid is like to startle Conscience and awaken the Soul to Consideration and Repentance I Reply That indeed considering man in the general as a rational Creature acted by hopes and fears and sensible of the joyes and miseries of another World one would expect it should be so But then if we cast our eyes upon man as really he is sunk into flesh and present sense darkned in his mind and governed by his imagination blinded by his passions and besotted by sin and folly hardned by evil Customs and hurried away by the torrent of his inclinations and desires I say looking on man in this miserable state of Evil 't is not incredible that he should be prevailed upon by the Tempter and his own Lusts to act at a wonderful rate of madness and continue unconcerned and stupid in it intent upon his present satisfactions without sense or consideration of the dreadfulness and danger of his condition and by this I am furnished also to meet a fourth Objection of our Author's viz. 4 That 't is not probable upon the Witches part that they will be so desperate to renounce God and eternal happiness and so everlastingly undo their Bodies and Souls for a short and trivial interest which way of arguing will onely infer that Mankind acts sometimes to prodigious degrees of brutishness and actually we see it in the instances of every day There is not a Lust so base and so contemptible but there are those continually in our eyes that feed it with the sacrifice of their eternity and their Souls and daring Sinners rush upon the blackest villanies with so little remorse or sense as if it were their design to prove that they have nothing left them of that whereby they are men So that nought can be inferred from this Argument but that humane nature is incredibly degenerate and the vileness and stupidity of men is really so great that things are customary and common which one could not think possible if he did not hourly see them And if men of liberal Education and acute Reason that know their duty and their danger are driven by their appetites with their eyes open upon the most fatal Rocks and make all the haste they can from their God and their happiness If such can barter their Souls for trifles and sell everlastingness for a moment sport upon the brink of a Precipice and contemn all the terrours of the future dreadful day Why should it then be incredible that a brutish vile person sotted with Ignorance and drunk with Malice mindless of God and unconcerned about a future Being should be perswaded to accept of present delightful gratifications without duly weighing the desperate condition Thus I suppose I have answered also the Arguments of this great man against the Covenants of Witches and since a person of such sagacity and learning hath no more to say against what I defend and another of the same Character the ingenious Mr. S. Parker who directed me to him reckons these the strongest things that can be objected in the Case I begin to arrive to an higher degree of confidence in this belief and am almost inclined to fancy that there is little more to be said to purpose which may not by the improvement of my CONSIDERATIONS be easily answered and I am yet the more fortified in my conceit because I have since the former Edition of this Book sent to several acute and ingenious persons of my acquaintance to beg their Objections or those they have heard from others against my Discourse or Relations that I might consider them in this But I can procure none save onely those few I have now discuss'd most of my Friends telling me that they have not met with any that need or deserve my notice SECT XIX BY all this it is evident that there were WITCHES in ancient times under the Dispensation of the LAW and that there were such in the times of the GOSPEL also will not be much more difficult to make good I had a late occasion to say something about this in a Letter to a person of the highest honour from which I shall now borrow some things to my present purpose I SAY then II That there were Compacts with evil Spirits in those times also is methinks intimated strongly in that saying of the Jews concerning our Saviour That he cast out Devils by Beelzebub In his return to which he denies not the supposition or possibility of the thing in general but clears himself by an appeal to the actions of their own Children whom they would not tax so severely And I cannot very well understand why those times should be
as Matter without the conception of Cogitation when notwithstanding in one of the members of this distribution they are joyned sufficiently close together How can therefore this newfangled Method of Cartesius convince us that this Supposition is false and that the distribution is illegitimate Can it from thence that Matter may be conceived without Cogitation and Cogitation without Matter The first all grant and the other the distribution itself supposes and yet continues sufficiently firm and sure Therefore it is very evident that there is a necessity of our having recourse to the known and ratified Laws of Logick which many Ages before this new upstart Method of Des Cartes appeared were established and approved by the common suffrage of Mankind Which teach us that in every legitimate distribution the parts ought consentire cum toto dissentire inter se to agree with the Whole but disagree one with another Now in this Distribution that they do sufficiently disagree it is very manifest It remains onely to be proved that one of the parts namely that which supposes that a Cogitative substance may be Material is repugnant to the nature of the Whole This is that clear solid and manifest way or method according to the known Laws of Logick but that new way a kind of Sophistry and pleasant mode of trisling and prevaricating SECT V. That all things are in some sort extended demonstrated out of the Corollary of the third Principle of the Nullibists AS for the second Axiome or Principle viz. That whatsoever is extended is Material for the evincing the falsity thereof there want no new Arguments if one have but recourse to the Sixth Seventh and Eighth Chapters of Enchiridium Metaphysicum where by unanswerable reasonings it is demonstrated That there is a certain Immaterial and Immovable Extensum distinct from the movable Matter But however out of the Consectary of their third Principle we shall prove at once that all Spirits are Extended as being somewhere against the wild and ridiculous Opinion of the Nullibists Whos 's third Principle and out of which immediately and precisely they conclude Spirits to be nowhere is Whatsoever is unextended is nowhere Which I very willingly grant but on this condition that they on the other side concede and I doubt not but they will That whatsoever is somewhere is also extended from which Consectary I will evince with Mathematical certainty That God and our Soul and all other Immaterial Beings are in some sort extended For the Nullibists themselves acknowledge and assert that the Operations wherewith the Soul acts on the Body are in the Body and that Power or Divine Vertue wherewith God acts on the Matter and moves it is present in every part of the Matter Whence it is easily gathered That the Operation of the Soul and the moving Power of God is somewhere viz. in the Body and in the Matter But the Operation of the Soul wherewith it acts on the Body and the Soul itself and the Divine Power wherewith God moves the Matter and God himself are together nor can so much as be imagined separate one from the other namely the Operation from the Soul and the Power from God Wherefore if the Operation of the Soul is somewhere the Soul is somewhere viz. there where the Operation And if the Power of God be somewhere God is somewhere namely there where the Divine Power is He in every part of the Matter the Soul in the humane Body Whosoever can deny this by the same reason he may deny that common Notion in Mathematicks Quantities that are singly equal to one third are equal to one another SECT VI. The apert confession of the Nullibists that the ESSENCE of a Spirit is where its OPERATION is and how they contradict themselves and are forced to acknowledge a Spirit extended ANd verily that which we contend for the Nullibists seem apertly to assert even in their own express words as it is evident in Lambertus Velthusius in his De Initiis Primae Philosophiae in the Chapter De Ubi Who though he does manifestly affirm that God and the Mind of man by their Operations are in every part or some one part of the Matter and that in that sence namely in respect of their Operations the Soul may be truly said to be somewhere God everywhere as if that were the onely mode of their presence yet he does expresly grant that the Essence is nowhere separate from that whereby God or a created Spirit is said to be the one everywhere the other somewhere that no man may conceit the Essence of God to be where the rest of his Attributes are not That the Essence of God is in Heaven but that his Vertue diffuses itself beyond Heaven No by no means saith he Wheresoever God's Power or Operation is there is the Nature of God forasmuch as God is a Substance devoid of all composition Thus far Velthusius Whence I assume But the Power or Operation of God is in or present to the Matter Therefore the Essence of God is in or present to the Matter and is there where the Matter is and therefore somewhere Can there be any deduction or illation more close and coherent with the Premises And yet that other most devoted follower of the Cartesian Philosophy Ludovicus De-la-Forge cannot abstain from the offering us the same advantage of arguing or rather from the inferring the same conclusion with us in his Treatise De Mente Humana Chap. 12. where occur these words Lastly when I say that God is present to all things by his Omnipotency and consequently to all the parts of the Matter I do not deny but that also by his Essence or Substance he is present to them For all those things in God are one and the same Dost thou hear my Nullibist what one of the chiefest of thy Condisciples and most religious Symmists of that stupendious secret of Nullibism plainly professes namely that God is present to all the parts of Matter by his Essence also or Substance And yet you in the mean while blush not to assert that neither God nor any created spirit is any where than which nothing more contradictious can be spoke or thought or more abhorring from all reason Wherefore whenas the Nullibists come so near to the truth it seems impossible they should so all of a suddain start from it unless they were blinded with a superstitious admiration of Des Cartes his Metaphysicks and were deluded effascinated and befooled with his jocular Subtilty and prestigious Abstractions there For who in his right wits can acknowledge that a Spirit by its Essence may be present to Matter and yet be nowhere unless the Matter were nowhere also And that a Spirit may penetrate possess and actuate some determinate Body and yet not be in that Body In which if it be it is plainly necessary it be somewhere And yet the same Ludovicus De-la-Forge does manifestly assert that the Body is thus possest and actuated by
the Soul in his Preface to his Treatise De Mente Humana while he declares the Opinion of Marcilius Ficinus concerning the manner how the Soul actuates the Body in Marsilius his own words and does of his own accord assent to his Opinion What therefore do these Forms to the Body when they communicate to it their Esse They throughly penetrate it with their Essence they bequeath the Vertue of their Essence to it But now whereas the Esse is deduced from the Essence and the Operation flows from the Vertue by conjoyning the Essence they impart the Esse by bequeathing the Vertue they communicate the Operations so that out of the congress of Soul and Body there is made one Animal Esse one Operation Thus he The Soul with her Essence penetrates and pervades the whole Body and yet is not where the Body is but nowhere in the Universe With what manifest repugnancy therefore to their other Assertions the Nullibists hold this ridiculous Conclusion we have sufficiently seen and how weak their chiefest prop is That whatever is Extended is Material which is not onely confuted by irresragable Arguments Chap. 6 7 and 8. Enchirid. Metaphys but we have here also by so clearly proving that all Spirits are somewhere utterly subverted it even from that very Concession or Opinion of the Nullibists themselves who concede or aver that whatsoever is somewhere is extended Which Spirits are and yet are not Material SECT VII The more light reasonings of the Nullibists whereby they would confirm their Opinion The first of which is That the Soul thinks of those things which are nowhere BUt we will not pass by their more slight reasonings in so great a matter or rather so monstrous Of which the first is That the Mind of man thinks of such things as are nowhere nor have any relation to place no not so much as to Logical place or Ubi Of which sort are many truths as well Moral as Theological and Logical which being of such a nature that they are nowhere the Mind of man which conceives them is necessarily nowhere also But how crazily and inconsequently they collect that the humane Soul is nowhere for that it thinks of those things that are nowhere may be apparent to any one srom hence and especially to the Nullibists themselves because from the same reason it would follow that the Mind of man is somewhere because sometimes if not always in a manner it thinks of those things which are somewhere as all Material things are Which yet they dare not grant because it would plainly follow from thence according to their Doctrine that the Mind or Soul of man were extended and so would become corporeal and devoid of all Cogitation But besides These things which they say are nowhere namely certain Moral Logical and Theological Truths are really somewhere viz. in the Soul itself which conceives them but the Soul is in the Body as we proved above Whence it is manifest that the Soul and those Truths which she conceives are as well somewhere as the Body itself I grant that some Truths as they are Representations neither respect Time nor Place in whatever sence But as they are Operations and therefore Modes of some Subject or Substance they cannot be otherwise conceived than in some substance And forasmuch as there is no substance which has not some amplitude they are in a substance which is in some soâ—…t extended and so by reason of their Subject they are necessarily conceived to be somewhere because a Mode is inseparable from a Subject Nor am I at all moved with that giddy and rash tergiversation which some betake themselves to here who say we do not well in distinguishing betwixt Cogitation such as are all conceived verities and the Substance of the Soul cogitating For Cogitation itself is the very Substance of the Soul as Extension is of Matter and that therefore the Soul is as well nowhere as any Cogitation which respects neither time nor place would be if it were found in no Subject But here the Nullibists who would thus escape do not observe that while they acknowledge the Substance of the Soul to be Cogitation they therewithal acknowledge the Soul to have a Substance whence it is necessary it have some amplitude And besides This Assertion whereby they assert Cogitation to be the very substance of the Soul is manifestly false For many Operations of the Soul are as they speak specifically different Which therefore succeeding one after another will be so many Substances specifically different And so the Soul of Socrates will not always be the same specifical Soul and much less the same numerical Than which what can be imagined more delirant and more remote from common sense To which you may adde That the Soul of man is a permanent Being but her Cogitations in a flux or succession How then can the very substance of the Soul be its successive Operations And when the substance of the Soul does so perpetually cease or perish what I beseech you will become of Memory From whence it is manifestly evident that there is a certain permanent Substance of the Soul as much distinct or different from her succeeding Cogitations as the Matter itself is from its successive figures and motions SECT VIII The second reason of the Nullibists viz. That COGITATION is easily conceived without EXTENSION THe second Reason is somewhat coincident with some of those we have already examined but it is briefly proposed by them thus There can be no conception no not of a Logical Place or Ubi without Extension But Cogitation is easily conceived without conceiving any Extension Wherefore the Mind cogitating exempt from all Extension is exempt also from all Locality whether Physical or Logical and is so loosened from it that it has no relation nor applicability thereto as if those things had no relation nor applicability to other certain things without which they might be conceived The weakness of this argumentation is easily deprehended from hence That the Intensness of heat or motion is considered without any respect to its extension and yet it is referred to an extended Subject viz. To a Bullet shot or red hot Iron And though in intent and defixed thoughts upon some either difficult or pleasing Object we do not at all observe how the time passeth nor take the slightest notice of it nothing hinders notwithstanding but those Cogitations may be applied to time and it be rightly said that about six a clock suppose in the Morning they began and continued till eleven and in like manner the place may be defined where they were conceived viz. within the Walls of such an ones Study although perhaps all that time this so fixt Contemplator did not take notice whether he was in his Study or in the Fields And to speak out the matter at once From the precision of our thoughts to infer the real precision or separation of the things themselves is a very putid and
the Brain or of what is contained in the Brain But let the Conarion at least for this bout supply the place of that matter which is the common Sensorium of the Soul Fig. 1. And whenas it is supposed to be surrounded with Eight Trumpeters let there be Eight Lines drawn from them namely from B C D E F G H I I say that the clangour or sound of every Trumpet is carried from the Ring of the Trumpeters to the extream part of every one of those Lines and all those sounds are heard as coming from the Ring B C D E F G H I and perceived in the Conarion A and that the perception is in that part to which all the Lines of motion as to a common Centre do concur and therefore the extream parts of them and the perceptions of the Clangours or Sounds are in the middle of the Ring of Trumpeters viz. where the Conarion is Wheresore the Percipient itself namely the Soul is in the midst of this Ring as well as the Conarion and therefore is somewhere Assuredly he that denies that he conceives the force of this Demonstration and acknowledges that the Perception indeed is at the extream parts of the said Lines and in the middle of the Ring of Trumpeters but contends in the mean time that the Mind herself is not there forasmuch as she is nowhere this man certainly is either delirant and crazed or else plays tricks and slimly and obliquely insinuates that the perception which is made in the Conarion is to be attributed to the Conarion itself and that the Mind so far as it is conceived to be an Incorporeal Substance is to be exterminated out of the Universe as an useless Figment and Chimaera SECT XI The Explication of the Opinion of the Holenmerians together with their Two Reasons thereof proposed Fig. 2. But the Reasons that induce them to embrace it and so stifsly to maintain it are these two onely or at least chiesly as much as respects the Holenmerism of Spirits The first is That whereas they grant that the whole Soul does pervade and possess the whole Body they thought it would thence follow that the Soul would be divisible unless they should correct again this Assertion of theirs by saying that it was yet so in the whole Body that it was totally in the mean time in every part thereof For thus they thought themselves sure that the Soul could not thence be argued in any sort divisible or corporeal but still remain purely spiritual Their other Reason is That from hence it might be easily understood how the Soul being in the whole Body C D E whatever happens to it in C or B it presently perceives it in A Because the whole Soul being perfectly and entirely as well in C or B as in A it is necessary that after what fashion soever C or B is affected A should be affected after the same manner forasmuch as it is entirely and perfectly one and the same thing viz. the whole Soul as well in C or B as in A. And from hence is that vulgar saying in the Schools That if the Eye were in the Foot the Soul would see in the Foot SECT XII The Examination of the Opinion of the Holenmerians BUt now according to our custome let us weigh and examine all these things in a free and just Balance In this therefore that they assert that the whole Soul is in the whole Body and is all of it penetrated of the Soul by her Essence and therefore seem willingly to acknowledge a certain essential amplitude of the Soul in this I say they come near to us who contend there is a certain Metaphysical and Essential Extension in all Spirits but such as is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 devoid of bulk or parts as Aristotle defines of his separate substances For there is no magnitude or bulk which may not be physically divided nor any parts properly where there is no such division Whence the Metaphysical Extension of Spirits is rightly understood not to be capable of either bulk or parts And in that sence it has no parts it cannot justly be said to be a Whole In that therefore we plainly agree with the Holenmerians that a Soul or Spirit may be said by its Essence to penetrate and possess the whole Body C D E but in this again we differ from them that we dare not affirm that the whole Spirit or whole Soul does penetrate and possess the said Body because that which has not parts cannot properly be called a Whole though I will not over-stiffly contend but that we may use that word for a more easie explication of our mind according to that old trite Proverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Speak a little more unlearnedly that thou mayest speak more intelligibly or plainly But then we are to remember that we do not speak properly though more accommodately to the vulgar apprehension but improperly But now when the Holenmerians add further That the whole Soul is in every part or Physical point of the Body D C E in the point A and B and all the rest of the points of which the Body D C E does consist that seems an harsh expression to me and such as may justly be deemed next door to an open Repugnancy and Contradiction For when they say the whole Soul is in the whole Body D C E if they understand the Essence of the Soul to be commensurate and as it were equal to the Body D C E and yet at the same time the whole Soul to be contained within the point A or B it is manifest that they make one and the same thing many thousand times greater or less than itself at the same time which is impossible But if they will affirm that the essential Amplitude of the Soul is no bigger than what is contained within the Physical point A or B but that the Essential Presence of the Soul is diffused through the whole Body D C E the thing will succeed not a jot the better For while they plainly profess that the whole Soul is in the point A it is manifest that there remains nothing of the Soul which may be in the point B which is distant from A For it is as if one should say that there is nothing of the Soul which is not included within A and yet in the same moment of time that not onely something of the Soul which perhaps might be a more gentle Repugnancy but that the whole Soul is in B as if the whole Soul were totally and entirely out of itself which surely is impossible in any singular or individual thing And as for Universals they are not Things but Notions we use in contemplating them Again if the Essential Amplitude of the Soul is no greater than what may be contained within the limits of a Physical point it cannot extend or exhibit its Essential Presence through the whole Body unless we imagine in it a stupendious velocity
such as it may be carried with in one moment into all the parts of the Body and so be present to them Which when it is so hard to conceive in this scant compages of an humane Body and in the Soul occupying in one moment every part thereof What an outragious thing is it and utterly impossible to apprehend touching that Spirit which perpetually exhibits his Essential Presence to the whole world and whatever is beyond the world To which lastly you may add that this Hypothesis of the Holenmerians does necessarily make all Spirits the most minute things that can be conceived For if the whole Spirit be in every Physical point it is plain that the Essential Amplitude itself of the Spirit which the two former Objections supposed is not bigger than that Physical point in which it is which you may call if you will a Physical Monad than which nothing is or can be smaller in universal Nature Which if you refer to any created Spirit it cannot but seem very ridiculous but if to the Majesty and Amplitude of the divine Numen intolerable that I may not say plainly reproachful and blasphemous SECT XIII A Confutation of the first Reason of the Holenmerians BUt now for the Reasons for which the Holenmerians adhere to so absurd an Opinion verily they are such as can no ways compensate those huge difficulties and repugnancies the Opinion itself labours under For for the first which so solicitously provides for the Indivisibility of Spirits it seems to me to undertake a charge either Superfluous or Ineffectual Superfluous if Extension can be without Divisibility as it is clearly demonstrated it can in that infinite immovable Extension distinct from the movable Matter Enchirid. Metaphys cap. 6 7 8. But Ineffectual if all Extension be divisible and the Essential Presence of a Spirit which pervades and is extended through the whole Body C D E may for that very reason be divided for so the whole Essence which occupies the whole Body C D E will be divided into parts No by no means will you say forasmuch as it is wholly in every part of the Body Therefore it will be divided if I may so speak into so many Totalities But what Logical ear can bear a saying so absurd and abhorrent from all reason that a Whole should not be divided into parts but into Wholes But you will say at least we shall have this granted us that an Essential Presence may be distributed or divided according to so many distinctly cited Totalities which occupy at once the whole Body C D E Yes verily this shall be granted you after you have demonstrated that a Spirit not bigger than a Physical Monad can occupy in the same instant all the parts of the Body C D E but upon this condition that you acknowledge not sundry Totalities but one onely total Essence though the least that can be imagined can occupy that whole space and when there is need occupy in an instant an infinite one Which the Holenmerians must of necessity hold touching the Divine Essence because according to their Opinion taken in the second sence which pinches the whole Essence of a Spirit into the smallest point the Divine Essence itself is not bigger than any Physical Monad From whence it is apparent the three Objections which we brought in the beginning do again recur here and utterly overwhelm the first reason of the Holenmerians So that the remedy is far more intolerable than the disease SECT XIV A Confutation of the second Reason of the Holenmerians Fig. 2. And from hence the falsity of that common saying is detected That if the Eye was in the Foot the Soul would see in the Foot whenas it does not so much as see in those Eyes which it already hath but somewhere within the Brain Nor would the Soul by an Eye in the Foot see unless by fitting Nerves not unlike the Optick ones continued from the Foot to the Head and Brain where the Soul so far as perceptive inhabiteth In the other parts of the Body the Functions thereof are onely vital Again such is the nature of some perceptions of the Soul that they are fitted for the moving of the Body so that it is manifest that the very self-same thing which perceives has the power of moving and guiding of it Which seems impossible to be done by this Soul which according to the Opinion of the Holenmerians exceeds not the amplitude of a small Physical point as it may appear at first sight to any one whose reason is not blinded with prejudice And lastly If it be lawful for the Mind of man to give her conjectures touching the Immortal Genii whether they be in Vehicles or destitute of Vehicles and touching their Perceptions and Essential Presences whether invisible or those in which they are said sometimes to appear to mortal men there is none surely that can admit that any of these things are competible to such a Spirit as the Holenmerians describe For how can a Metaphysical Monad that is to say a Spiritual substance not exceeding a Physical Monad in Amplitude fill out an Essential Presence bigger than a Physical Monad unless it be by a very swist vibration of itself towards all parts as Boys by a very swift moving of a Fire-stick make a fiery Circle in the air by that quick motion But that Spirits destitute of Vehicles should have no greater Essential Presence than what is occupied of a naked and unmoved Metaphysical Monad or exhibited thereby seems so absonous and ridiculous a spectacle to the Mind of man that unless he be deprived of all sagacity and sensibility of spirit he cannot but abhor so idle an Opinion And as for those Essential Presences according to which they sometimes appear to men at least equalizing humane stature how can a solitary Metaphysical Monad form so great a part of Air or AEther into humane shape or govern it being so formed Or how can it porceive any external Object in this swift motion of itself and quick vibration whereby this Metaphysical Monad is understood of the Holenmerians to be present in all the parts of its Vehicle at once For there can be no perception of the external Object unless the Object that is to be perceived act with some stay upon that which perceiveth Nor if it could be perceived by this Metaphysical Monad thus swistly moved and vibrated towards all parts at once would it be seen in one place but in many places at once and those as it may happen very distant SECT XV. The egregious falsity of the Opinions of the Holenmerians and Nullibists as also their uselesness for any Philosophical ends BUt verily I am ashamed to waste so much time in refuting such mere trifles and dotages which indeed are such that I mean of the Nullibists as well as this other of the Holenmerians that we may very well wonder how such distorted and strained conceits could ever enter into the minds of men or
Physical divisibility to such an Extension surely that must necessarily proceed from the impotencie of his Imagination which his Mind cannot curb nor separate herself from the dreggs and corporeal foulnesses thereof and hence it is that she tinctures and infects this pure and Spiritual Extension with Corporeal Properties But that an extended thing may be divided Logically or Intellectually when in the mean time it can by no means be discerped it sufficiently appears from hence That a Physical Monad which has some Amplitude though the least that possible can be is conceived thus to be divided in a Line consisting of any uneven number of Monads which notwithstanding the Intellect divides into two equal parts And verily in a Metaphysical Monad such as the Holenmerians conceit the Mind of man to be and to possess in the mean time and occupie the whole Body there may be here again made a Logical Distribution suppose è subjectis as they call it so far forth as this Metaphysical Monad or Soul of the Holenmerians is conceived to possess the Head or Trunk or Limbs of the Body And yet no man is so delirant as to think that it follows from thence that such a Soul may be discerped into so many parts and that the parts so discerped may subsist by themselves SECT XXVI An Answer to the latter part of the Second Objection which inferreth the separabilitie of the parts of a Substantial Extensum from the said parts being Substantial and independent one of another FRom which a sufficiently fit and accommodate Answer may be fetched to the latter part of this difficulty namely to that which because the parts of Substance are Substantial and independent one of another and subsisting by themselves as being Substances would infer that they can be discerped at least by the Divine Power and disjoyned and being so disjoyned subsist by themselves Which I confess to be the chief edge or sting of the whole difficulty and yet such as I hope I shall with ease file off or blunt For first I deny that in a thing that is absolutely One and Simple as a Spirit is there are any Physical parts or parts properly so called but that they are onely falsly seigned and fancied in it by the impure Imagination But that the Mind it self being susficiently defecated and purged from the impure dreggs of Fancie although from some extrinsecal respect she may consider a Spirit as having parts yet at the very same time does she in herself with close attention observe and note that such an Extension of itself has none And therefore whenas it has no parts it is plain it has no substantial parts nor independent one of another nor subsistent of themselves And then as much as concerns those parts which the stupid and impotent Imagination fancieth in a Spirit it does not follow from thence because they are Substantial that they may subsist separate by themselves For a thing to subsist by itself onely signifies so to subsist that it wants not the Prop of some other Subject in which it may inhere as Accidents do So that the parts of a Spirit may be said to subsist by themselves though they cannot subsist separate and so be substance still SECT XXVII That the mutual Independencie of the parts of an extended Substance may be understood in a twofold sence with an Answer thereto taken in the first sence thereof BUt what they mean by that mutual Independencie of parts I do not fully understand But I sufficiently conceive that one of these two things must be hinted thereby viz. Either that they are not mutual and effectual causes to one another of their Existing or that their Existence is understood to be connected by no necessary condition at all And as for the former sense I willingly confess those parts which they fancie in a Spirit are not mutual causes of one anothers Existence but so that in the mean time I do most firmly deny that it will thence follow that they may be discerped and thus discerpt be separately conserved no more than the Intelligible parts of a Physical Monad which is divided into two by our Reason or Intellect which surely are no mutual causes of one anothers Existence or the Members of the Distribution of a Metaphysical Monad according to the Doctrine of the Holenmerians viz. The Soul totally being in every part of the Body which no man in his wits can ever hope that they may be discerped although the said Members of the division are not the mutual causes of one anothers Existence For they are but one and the same Soul which is not the cause of itself but was wholly and entirely caused by God But you will say that there is here manifestly a reason extant and apparent why these Members of the Distribution cannot be discerped and discerpt separately conserved because one and the same indivisible Monad occurs in every Member of the Distribution which therefore since it is a single one it is impossible it should be discerped from itself To which I on the other side answer That it is as manifestly extant and apparent how frivolously therefore and ineptly Arguments are drawn from Logical or Intellectual Divisions for the concluding a real separability of parts And I add further That as that fictitious Metaphysical Monad cannot be discerped or pluckt in pieces from itself no more can any real Spirit because it is a thing most simple and most absolutely One and which a pure Mind darkened and possessed with no prejudices of Imagination does acknowledge no real parts at all to be in For so it would ipso facto be a compound Thing SECT XXVIII An Answer to the Independency of parts taken in the second sence FRom whence an easie entrance is made to the answering this difficulty understood in the second sence of the mutual Independency of the parts of a Spirit whereby their coexistence and union are understood to be connected by no necessary Law or Condition For that this is false I do most constantly affirm without all demur For the coexistences of the parts as they call them of a Spirit are connected by a Law or Condition absolutely necessary and plainly essential Forasmuch as a Spirit is a most simple Being or a Being unum per se non per aliud that is one of itself or of its own nature immediately so and not by another either Substance or Quality For none of those parts as the Nullibists call them can exist but upon this condition that all jointly and unitedly exist together which Condition or Law is contained in the very Idea or nature of every Spirit Whence it cannot be created or any way produced unless upon this condition that all its parts be inseparably and indiscerpibly one as neither a Rectangle Triangle unless upon this condition that the powers of the Cathetus and Basis be equal to the power of the Hypotenusa Whence the Indiscerpibility of a Spirit cannot be removed from it
be discerped or more Subtile than what does not onely penetrate Matter but itself or at least other Substances of its own kind For a Spirit can penetrate a Spirit though Matter cannot penetrate Matter There is therefore in the very Essence of a Spirit although it be Metaphysically extended no obscure reason why all the Sympathies and Synenergies why all Perceptions and all manner of Cogitations should be referred rather to it by reason of the Unity and Subtilty of its nature than to Matter which is so crass that it is impenetrable and is so far from unity of Essence that it consists of juxtaposited parts But I hope by this I have abundantly satisfied this third difficulty SECT XXXII An Answer to the fourth Objection as much as respects the HOLENMERIANS and NULLIBISTS and all those that acknowledge that the Matter is created of God IV. LEt us go on therefore to the Fourth and last which from the Penetrability of a Spirit concludes its unsitness for moving of Matter For it cannot move Matter but by impelling it nor can it impel it because it does so easily without all resistence penetrate it Here therefore again Imagination plays her tricks and measures the nature of a Spirit by the Laws of Matter fancying a Spirit like some Body passing through an over-large or wide hole where it cannot stick by reason of the laxness of the passage But in the mean time it is to be noted that neither the Holenmerians nor Nullibists can of right object this difficulty to us whenas it is much more incredible that either a Metaphysical Monad or any Essence that is nowhere should be more fit for the moving Matter than that which has some Amplitude and is present also to the Matter that is to be moved Wherefore we have now onely to do with such Philosophers as contend that the whole Universe consists of Bodies onely For as for those that acknowledge there is a God and that Matter was created by him it is not hard for them to conceive that there may be a certain faculty in the Soul which in some manner though very shadowishly answers to that Power in God of creating Matter Namely that as God though the most pure of all Spirits yet creates Matter the most gross of all things so created Spirits themselves may emit a certain Material Vertue either spontaneously or naturally by which they may intimately inhere in the Subject Matter and be sufficiently close united therewith Which faculty of Spirits in the Appendix to the Antidote against Atheism is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Hylopathy of Spirits or a Power of affecting or being affected by the Matter But I confess that Answer is less fitly used when we have to do with those who deny the Creation of Matter and much more when with those that deny there is a God SECT XXXIII An Answer to those that think there is nothing in the Universe but Matter or Body WHerefore whenas we have to do with such infense Adversaries and so much estranged from all knowledge and acknowledgement of Incorporeal Things verily we ought to behave ourselves very cautiously and circumspectly and something more precisely to consider the Title of the Question which is not Whether we can accurately discern and declare the mode or way that a Spirit moves Matter but whether its Penetrability is repugnant with this faculty of moving Matter But now it is manifest if a Spirit could be united and as it were cohere with the Matter that it might easily move Matter forasmuch as if there be at all any such thing as a Spirit it is according to the common Opinion of all men to be acknowledged the true Principle and Fountain of all Life and Motion Wherefore the hinge of the whole controversie turns upon this one pin Whether it be repugnant that any Spirit should be united and as it were cohere with Matter or by whatever firmness or sastening whether permanent or momentaneous be joyned therewith Now that it is not repugnant I hope I shall clearly demonstrate from hence that the unition of Spirit with Matter is as intelligible as the unition of one part of Matter with another For that ought in reason to be held an Axiome firm and sure That that is possible to be in which there is found no greater not to say less dissiculty of so being than in that which we really find to be But we see one part of Matter really and actually united with another and that in some Bodies with a firmness almost invincible as in some Stones and Metals which are held to be the hardest of all Bodies But we will for the more fully understanding the business suppose a Body absolutely and perfectly hard constituted of no particles but the very Physical Monads themselves and without all pores I ask therefore here By what vertue or by what manner of way do the parts of so perfect a Solid cohere Undoubtedly they can alledge nothing here besides immediate contact and rest For if they fly to any other affections which are allied to Life and Sense they are more rightly and more easily understood to be in a Spirit than in Matter and we will presently pronounce that a Spirit may adhere to Matter by the same vertues But that the parts of Matter cohere by bare though immediate contact seems as difficult if not more difficult than that a Spirit penetrating Matter should cleave together into one with it For the contact of the parts of Matter is every where onely superficial but one and the same indiscerpible Spirit penetrates and possesses the whole Matter at once But it half repents me that I have with so great preparation and pomp attacked so small a difficulty and have striven so long with mere Elusions and prestigious Juggles of the Imagination which casts such a Mist of fictitious Repugnancies on the true Idea of a Spirit as with so many Phantomes and Spectres of an unquiet Night But in the mean time I have made it abundantly manifest that there are no other Contradictions or Repugnancies in this our Notion of a Spirit than what the minds of our Adversaries polluted with the impure dregs of Imagination and unable to abstract Metaphysical Extension from Corporeal affections do foully and slovenly clart upon it and that this Idea lookt upon in itself does clearly appear to be a Notion at least of a thing Possible which is all that we drive at in this place SECT XXXIV How far the Notion of a Spirit here defended is countenanced and confirmed by the common suffrage of all Adversaries ANd that it may appear more plausible we will not omit in the last place to take notice how far it is countenanced and confirmed by the common suffrage of our Adversaries For the Hobbians and whatever other Philosophers else of the same stamp do plainly assent to us in this That whatsoever really is is of necessity extended But that they hence infer that there is nothing
in Nature but what is Corporeal that truly they do very unskilfully and inconsequently collect they by some weakness or morbidness of mind tumbling into so foul an errour For it is impossible that the mind of man unless it were laden and polluted with the dregs and dross of Corporeal Imagination should suffer itself to sink into such a gross and dirty Opinion But that every thing that is is extended the Nullibists also themselves seem to me to be near the very point of acknowledging it for true and certain For they do not dissemble it but that if a Spirit be somewhere it necessarily follows that it is also extended And they moreover grant that by its Operation it is present to or in the Matter and that the Essence of a Spirit is not separated from its Operations But that a thing should be and yet not be any where in the whole Universe is so wild and mad a vote and so absonous and abhorrent from all reason that it cannot be said by any man in his wits unless by way of sport or some slim jest as I have intimated above Whence their case is the more to be pitied who captivated and blinded with admiration of the chief Author of so absurd an Opinion do solemnly and seriously embrace and diligently endeavour to polish the same And lastly as for the Holenmerians those of them who are more cautious and considerate do so explain their Opinion that it scarce seems to differ an hairs breadth from ours For though they affirm that the Soul is in every part yet they say they understand it not of the Quantity or Extension of the Soul whereby it occupies the whole Body but of the perfection of its Essence and Vertue Which however true it may be of the Soul it is undoubtedly most true of the Divine Numen whose Life and Essence is most perfect and most full every where as being such as every where contains infinite Goodness Wisdom and Power Thus we see that this Idea or Notion of a Spirit which is here exhibited to the world is not onely possible in itself but very plausible and unexceptionable and such as all parties if they be rightly understood will be found whether they will or no to contribute to the discovery of the truth and solidity thereof And therefore is such as will not unusefully nor unseasonably conclude this First Part of â—…ducismus Triumphatus which treats of the â—…ossibility of Apparitions and Witchcraft but â—…ake the way more easie to the acknowledgement of the force of the Arguments of the Second Part viz. The many Relations that are produced to prove the Actual Existence of Spirits and Apparitions Saducismus Triumphatus Part the Second Saducismus Triumphatus Or Full and Plain EVIDENCE CONCERNING Witches and Apparitions The Second Part. PROVING Partly by Holy Scripture partly by a choice Collection of Modern Relations The real EXISTENCE of APPARITIONS SPIRITS and WITCHES By Jos. Glanvil late Chaplain to His Majesty and Fellow of the Royal Society LONDON Printed for J. Collins and S. Lowdns 1681. THE PREFACE I Know it is matter of very little Credit to be a Relator of Stories and I of all Men living have the least reason to be fond of the Imployment For I never had any faculty in telling of a Story and have always had a particular indisposition and backwardness to the writing any such But of all Relations of Fact there are none like to give a Man such trouble and disreputation as those that relate to Witchcraft and Apparitions which so great a party of Men in this Age especially do so railly and laugh at and without more ado are resolved to explode and despise as meer Winter Tales and Old Wives Fables Such they will call and account them be their Truth and Evidence what it will For they have unalterably fixt and determined the point that Witches and Apparitions are things ridiculous incredible foppish impossible and therefore all Relations that assert them are Lies Cheats and Delusions and those that afford any credit to them are credulous Gulls and silly easie Believers Which things if they should not be so it would spoil many a jest and those who thought themselves great Wits must have the discomfort of finding they are mistaken They must fall back into common and vulgar Belief and lose the pretence to extraordinary Sagacity on which they valued themselves so much and be brought to be afraid of another World and be subjected to the common terrours which they despised before as the juggles and contrivances of Priests and Politicians and so must see themselves under a necessity of altering their lives or of being undone These are very hard and grievous things and therefore the Stories of Witches and Apparitions must be exploded and run down or all is lost This is the case with multitudes of brisk confident Men in our days so that to meddle on this Subject is to affront them greatly to provoke their rage and contempt and to raise the Devil of their Wit and Buffoonry All which considered it must be confest to be a very bold and adventurous thing to undertake the Province in which I have engaged And besides the provocation which it must needs give to the Huffers and Witlings there is another sort whose good Opinion I greatly value some sober and ingenious Spirits who upon other grounds doubt of the Existence of Witches who may be apt to judge me guilty of Credulity for the pains I take in this matter This also hath been some trouble and discouragement And upon the whole I am assured before-hand that no Evidence of Fact possible is sufficient to remove the obstinate prejudices of divers resolved Men and therefore I know I must fall under their heavy censures of which I have considered the worst and am I hope pretty well prepared to bear the severest of them But no Man would expose himself to all this for nothing nor have I. There were reasons for this engà gement and they were briefly these that follow Having bèen at Mr. Mompessons house in the time of the disturbance seen and heard somewhat my self and received an account from Mr. Mompesson and other credible Persons of the whole trouble I was perswaded to Publish and to Annex the full account of it to the Second or Third Edition of my Considerations concerning Witchcraft to which the Story had near Relation ' This I did and they passed Two or Three Editions together without much further trouble to me But of late I have heard from all parts and am amazed at it that that so strongly attested Relation is run down in most places as a Delusion and Imposture and that Mr. Mompesson and my self have confessed all to be a cheat and contrivance Concerning this I have been asked a thousand times till I have been weary of answering and the Questionists would scarce believe I was in earnest when I denied it I have received Letters about it from known friends
so unlike the words of an Evil Spirit And the prediction of events so coatingent as the loss of the Battle and the Death of the King and his Sons SECT XXII The needlesness and impertinency of M. Websters Confutation of Samuel's appearing with his Body out of the Grave NOw there are several evasions whereby some endeavour to shift off this evidence But if we will deal plainly and sincerely we must I think acknowledge the force of the Arguments which I have briefly and nakedly proposed But all this Mr. Webster pretends to confute thus It was not Samuel's Body with his Soul joyned nor his Soul that appeared in his wonted shape and habit p. 172 173. The first he proves by these reasons First His Body had lain too long in the Grave so that it must have been disfigured Secondly It must have stunk Thirdly There was no Taylor in the Grave to make him a Mantle Fourthly It must have been an Omnipotent Power to have done this Fifthly A Syllogism is brought to prove this contrary to the Scripture which saith That those that dye in the Lord rest from their labours Now the Four first Arguments he may take again we have no concern with them For 't is sensless to think that the gross Body came out of the Grave and if he means the resting of the Terrestrial Body by the Fifth he may take that back too And indeed as applyed to the Body without the Soul the disturbing of it is Non-sense It s corruption in the Grave is continual motion and more disturbance than the raising it entirely would be if it were any at all But properly it is none no more than is the taking of a Stone out of a Quarry Therefore if there be any Argument in this it falls under the next Query The Sixth Argument is a Question viz. Who joyned the Soul and Body again Not the Witch nor the Devil The Opinion is erroneous impious and blasphemous And for me let him call it what he pleaseth His strength is in hard words which here like the stones thrown sometimes by Witchcraft light like Wool and here Far also from the Mark. SECT XXIII That it was the Soul of Samuel that appeared without his Terrestrial Body and that it is an indifferent Opâ—… in which are dâ—…ided as well Papists as Pâ—…stants BUt there is a second Opinion yet to be consutâ—…d viz. That it was Samuel's Soul in his wonted shape and habit p. 173. He must mâ—…an his Soul without the Body or else 't is the same again and if he means without any body I am none of those that mean with him It is most â—…ully and plainly proved by those excellent Men Dr. C and Dr. M that Souls departed are embodyed in AErial or AEtherial Vehicles and they have largely shewn that this was the Doctrine of the greatest Philosophers and most Ancient and Learned Fathers And agreeable it is to the Holy Scripture and highest Reason and Philosophy as I may have another occasion to shew Now Samuel appeared here to Saul in this his more pure AErial or AEtherial Body which he could form into such an appearance and habit as he had in the Terrestrial Against the Opinion of Samuel's Soul appearing Mr. Webster urgeth cogent Arguments as still he calleth his they are all manifest cogent irrefragable unanswerable even then when they are scarce sense He prefaceth to them by an intimation that the Doctrine is Popish maintained he saith it is by the Popish party His hard words use to be his strongest Arguments But this is only to raise odium and prejudice to the opinion For there are Papists and Protestants on both sides of this Question As also Rabbins and Fathers have divided upon it Some of the last sort and those perhaps of the greatest and most câ—nsiderable having been for it as R. Eleazer R. Saadias The Writers of the Midrash Josephus also Justin Origen Augustine Basil Ambrose c. as some others have been against it So that I suppose a Man may freely and without offence declare his Judgment though it happen to be different from Mr. Websters SECT XXIV Three Arguments of Mr. Webster against the appearing of the Soul of Samuel proposed and answered VVHerefore to his Arguments First he could not saith he come whether God would or no. Right Secondly He would not run on an Errand without Gods consent No doubt Thirdly That God did not command him he saith is most certain Here I must stop How doth that appear to be so certain Why they never were employed in Ministries here below because never created sor any such end or purpose p. 173. They were never employed in Ministries here below What thinks he of the Souls of Moses and Elias at the transfiguration on the Mount were not they then employed in a Ministry here below or were they only Phantasms or their glorifyed Bodies without their Souls and how then did they talk and converse with our Lord But these he will say were sent on an extraordinary occasion Be it so they are sometimes then imployed in such and so Mr. Webster must eat his words And if blessed Souls are or have been employed at any time how is he so certain the real Samuel was not sent here Thus briefly to his bold Assertion But he pretends a reason They were never created for this purpose If that were so what then The Stars were never made to fight against Sisera nor any one Nor the waters to drown the World Nor the Ravens to feed Prophets or other Men. May not they therefore be used in those Services Again No sensitive Being was made primarily for another but to enjoy it self and to partake of the goodness of its Maker May it not therefore minister to others and doth not every Creature so All things serve him Thirdly The Angels are Ministring Spirits he saith ordained to be such Doth he think they were made for that purpose only to serve us Fourthly Reasonable humane Creatures are for one another Non nobis solùm c. Souls are most proper to serve such not here only but in the next World They are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like unto Angels and they are as proper at least for the service of Men. They have the same nature and affections They feel our infirmities and consider us more than abstract Spirits do Which is the reason given why our Saviour took not upon him the nature of Angels but of Men. Fifthly Souls departed have Life and Sense and Motion capacity of being employed and no doubt inclination to it and whither more properly may they be sent than to those of their own nature whom they affect are allied to and so lately came from Sixthly The Angels are not confined to their celestial habitation but are sent often to this nether World as Mr. Webster and the rest confess and why then should we think that the Souls of the Just are so limited and restrained And Lastly It is supposed
back they say Rentum Tormentum and another word which she doth not remember She consesseth that her Familiar doth commonly suck her right Breast about seven at night in the shape of a little Cat of a dunnish colour which is as smooth as a Want and when she is suckt she is in a kind of a Trance That she hurt Thomas Garret's Cowes because he refused to write a Petition for her That she hurt Thomas Conway by putting a Dish into his Hand which Dish she had from the Devil she gave it him to give his Daughter for good hansel That she hurt Dorothy the Wife of George Vining by giving an Iron slate to put into her steeling Box. That being angry with Edith Watts the Daughter of Edmond Watts for treading on her Foot she cursed Edith with a Pox on you and after touched her which hath done the said Edith much harm for which she is sorry That being provoked by Swanton's first Wife she did before her death curse her with a Pox on you believes she did thereby hurt her but denies she did bewitch Mr. Swanton's Cattle She saith That when the Devil doth any thing for her she calls for him by the name of Robin upon which he appears and when in the shape of a Man she can hear him speak but his voice is very low He promised her when she made her contract with him that she should want nothing but ever since she hath wanted all things Taken before me Rob. Hunt 1. Exam. Thomas Conway of Wincaunton in the County of Somerset Examined Feb. 12. 1664. before Robert Hunt Esquire concerning Alice Duke informeth That about Twelve Months since Alice Duke alias Manning brought a little Pewter Dish to this Informant and told him it was good hansel for his Daughter The Examinant willed the said Alice to carry it to her she being within by the fire but she forced the Dish into his hand and went away Shortly after he was taken extreamly ill in all his Limbs Of which illness the Physicians whom he applied himself to could give no account When she went from him she was very angry and muttered much because he would not sign a Petition on her behalf She hath confessed to him since that she had the Dish from the Devil and gave it to him on purpose to hurt him He hath been and is since in great torment and much weakned and wasted in his Body which he imputes to the evil practices of Alice Duke Taken upon Oath before me Rob. Hunt 2. Exam. Mary the Wife of Tho. Conway Examined March 6. 1664. before Rob. Hunt Esq concerning Alice Duke saith That her Husband Tho. Conway about a year ago delivered her a little Pewter Dish telling her he had it from Alice Duke for good hansel for his Daughter who had lately lain in In this Dish she warmed a little Deer-sewet and Rose-water anointing her Daughters Nipples with it which put her to extream pain Upon which suspecting harm from the dish she put it into the fire which then presently vanished and nothing of it could afterwards be found After when she anointed her Daughters Nipples with the same Deer-sewet and Rose-water warmed in a spoon she complained not of any pain She further saith That her Husband after he had received the dish from the hands of Alice Duke was taken ill in all his Limbs and held for a long time in a very strange manner Taken upon Oath before me Rob. Hunt 3. Exam. Edward Watts of Wincaunton in the County of Somerset Examined Mar. 6. 1664 before Robert Hunt Esq concerning Alice Duke saith That he hath a Child called Edith about Ten years of Age who for the space of half a year hath languished and pined away and that she told him that treading one day on the Toe of Alice Duke she in great anger cursed her with a Pox on thee and that from that time the Child began to be ill and to pine away which she hath done ever since Taken upon Oath before me Rob. Hunt ADVERTISEMENT Besides the plain agreement betwixt the Witnesses and the Witches own Confession it may be worth the taking notice here how well her confession of having her Familiar such her in the shape of a Cat agrees with Eliz. Style 's Confession that she had seen Alice Dukes Familiar suck her in that shape As also how the bewitching of Edward Watts 's Child by Alice Duke her saying a Pox on her agrees with the promise of the Devil to her which is expresly That if she cursed any thing with a Pox take it she should have her purpose She also testifying of the Baptizing the Image of Eliz. Hill and of those forms of words Thout tout a tout and Rentum Tormentum at their going to their meetings and departing plainly shews that these things are not transacted in dreams but in reality The Devil also as in other stories leaving an ill smell behind him seems to imply the reality of the business those ascititious particles he held together in his visible vehicle being loosened at his vanishing and so offending the nostrils by their floating and diffusing themselves in the open Air. RELAT. V. Which is the Examination and Consession of Christian Green Aged about thirty three years Wife of Rob. Green of Brewham in the County of Somerset taken before Rob. Hunt Esq March 2. 1664. THis Examinant saith That about a year and a half since she being in great poverty one Catharine Green of Brewham told her that if she would she might be in a better condition and then perswaded her to make a Covenant with the Devil Being afterwards together in one Mr. Hussey's Ground in Brewham Forrest about Noon Catharine called for the Devil who appeared in the shape of a Man in blackish Clothes and said somewhat to Catharine which Christian could not hear After which the Devil as she conceived him told the Examinant that she should want neither Clothes Victuals nor Money if she would give her Body and Soul to him keep his secrets and suffer him to suck her once in twenty four hours which at last upon his and Catharine Greens perswasion she yielded to then the Man in black prickt the fourth finger of her Right-hand between the middle and upper joints where the sign yet remains and took two drops of her blood on his finger giving her fourpence halfpenny with which she after bought Bread in Brewham Then he spake again in private with Catharine and vanished leaving a smell of Brimstone behind Since that time the Devil she saith hath and doth usually suâ—…k her left Brest about five of the Clock in the Morning in the likeness of an Hedg-hog bending and did so on Wednesday Morning last She saith it is painful to her and that she is usually in a trance when she is suckt She saith also that Catharine Green and Margaret Agar of Brewham have told her that they are in Covenant with the Devil and confesseth that she
Story of Mr. John Bourne of Durley in Ireland about a mile from Bridgwater Counsellor at Law MR. John Bourne for his skill care and honesty was made by his Neighbour John Mallet Esq of Enmore the chief of his Trustees for his Son John Mallet Father to Elizabeth now Countess Dowager of Rochester and the rest of his Children in minority He had the reputation of a worthy good man and was commonly taken notice of for an habitual saying by way of Interjection almost to any thing viz. You say true You say true You are in the right This Mr. Bourne sell sick at his house at Durley in the year 1654 and Dr. Raymond of Oake was sent for to him who after some time gave the said Mr. Bourne over And he had not now spake in Twenty sour hours when the said Dr. Raymond and Mrs. Carlisle Mr. Bourne's Nephews Wise whose Husband he made one of his Heirs sitting by his Bedside the Doctor opened the Curtains at the Beds feet to give him air when on a suddain to the horrour and amazement of Dr. Raymond and Mrs. Carlisle the great Iron Chest by the Window at his Beds seet with three Locks to it in which were all the Writings and Evidences of the said Mr. Mallet's Estate began to open first one Lock then another then the third Afterwards the Lid of the said iron Chest lifted up itself and stood wide open Then the Patient Mr. Bourne who had not spoke in Twenty four hours lifted himself up also and looking upon the Chest cryed You say true You say true You are in the right I 'le be with you by and by So the Patient lay down and spake no more Then the Chest fell again of itself and lockt itself one Lock after another as the three Locks opened and they tried to knock it open and could not and Mr. Bourne died within an hour after ADVERTISEMENT THis Narrative was sent in a Letter to J. C. for Dr. H. More from Mr. Thomas Alcock of Shear Hampton of which in a Letter to the said Doctor he gives this account I am saith he very confident of the truth of the story For I had it from a very good Lady the eldest Daughter of the said John Mallet whose Trustee Mr. Bourne was and onely Aunt to the Countess of Rochester who knew all the parties and have heard Dr. Raymond and Mr. Carlisle relate it often with amazement being both persons of credit The curious may be inquisitive what the meaning of the opening of the Chest may be and of Mr. Bourne his say You say true c. I 'le be with you by and by As for the former it is noted by Paracelsus especially and by others that there are signs often given of the departure of sick men lying on their Death-beds of which this opening of the Iron Coffer or Chest and closing again is more than ordinary significant especially if we consider the nearness of sound and sence betwixt Coffer and Coffin and recal to mind that of Virgil Olli dura quies oculos serreus urget Somnus though this quaintness is more than is requisite in these Prodigies presaging the Sick man's death As for the latter it seems to be nothing else but the saying Amen to the presage uttered in his accustomary form of speech As if he should say You of the invisible Kingdom of Spirits have given the token of my suddain departure And you say true I shall be with you by and by Which he was enabled so assuredly to assent to upon the advantage of the relaxation of his Soul now departing from the Body Which Diodorus Siculus lib. 18. notes to be the opinion of Pythagoras and his followers That it is the priviledge of the Soul near her departure to exercise a fatidical faculty and to pronounce truely touching things future 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That humane Souls prognostick things to come at what time they are separating from their Body RELAT. XXVI The Apparition of James Haddock to Francis Taverner near Drum-bridge in Ireland comprized in a Letter of Thomas Alcock to Dr. H. More AT Michaelmas 1662. Francis Taverner about Twenty five years old a lusty proper stout fellow then servant at large afterwards Porter to the Lord Chichester Earl of Donegal at Belfast in the North of Ireland County of Antrim and Diccess of Connor riding late in the Night from Hilbrough homeward near Drum bridge his Horse though of good metal suddainly made a stand and he supposing him to be taken with the Staggers alighted to bloud him in the mouth and presently mounted again As he was setting forward there seemed to pass by him two Horsemen though he could not hear the treading of their seet which amazed him Presently there appeared a third in a white Coat just at his Elbow in the likeness of James Haddock formerly an Inhabitant in Malone where he died near five years before Whereupon Taverner askt him in the Name of God who he was He replied I am James Haddock and you may call to mind by this token That about five years ago I and two other Friends were at your Fathers House and you by your Fathers appointment brought us some Nuts and therefore be not afraid says the Apparition Whereupon Taverner remembring the circumstances thought it might be Haddock and those two who passed by before him he thought to be his two Friends with him when he gave them Nuts and courageously askt him why he appeared to him rather than any other He answered Because he was a man of more resolution than others and if he would ride his way with him he would acquaint him with a business he had to deliver him Which Taverner refused to do and would go his own way for they were now at a Quadrivial and so rode on homewards But immediately on the departure there arose a great wind and withal he heard very hideous screeches and noises to his great amazement but riding forward as fast as he could he at last heard the Cocks crow to his comsort he alighted off from his Horse and salling to prayer desired God's assistance and so got safe home The night aâ—…ter there appeared again to him the likeness of James Haddock and bid him go to Elenor Welsh now the Wife of Davis living at Malone but formerly the Wife of the said James Haddock by whom she had an onely Son to whom the said James Haddock had by his Will given a Lease which he held of the Lord Chichester of which the Son was deprived by Davis who had married his Mother and to ask her if her Maiden-name was not Elenor Welsh and if it were to tell her that it was the Will of her former Husband James Haddock that their Son should be righted in the Lease But Taverner partly loath to gain the ill will of his Neighbours and partly thinking he should not be credited but lookt on as deluded long neglected to do his Message till having
to go Others were asked how they were able to carry so many Children with them and they answered that when the Children were asleep they came into the Chamber laid hold of the Children which straightway did awake and asked them whether they would go to a Feast with them to which some answer'd Yes others No yet they were all forced to go They only gave the Children a Shirt a Coat and a Doublet which was either red or blue and so they did set them upon a beast of the Devils providing and then they rid away The Children confessed the same thing and some added that because they had very fine cloaths put upon them they were very willing to go Some of the Children concealed it from their Parents but others discover'd it to them presently The Witches declared moreover that till of late they never had that power to carry away Children but onely this year and the last and the Devil did at this time force them to it that heretofore it was sufficient to carry but one of their Children or a strangers Child with them which yet hapned seldom but now he did plague them and whip them if they did not procure him Children insomuch that they had no peace nor quiet for him and whereas formerly one journey a week would serve turn from their own Town to the place aforesaid now they were forced to run to other Towns and places for Children and that some of them did bring with them some fifteen some sixteen Children every night For their journey they said they made use of all soâ—…ts of Instruments of Beasts of Men of Spits and Posts according as they had opportunity if they do ride upon Goats and have many Children with them that all may have room they stick a spit into the backside of the Goat and then are anointed with the aforesaid ointment What the manner of their Journey is God alone knows Thus much was made out That if the Children did at any time name the Names of those that had carried them away they were again carried by force either to Blockula or to the Cross way and there miserably beaten insomuch that some of them died of it and this some of the Witches consessed and added That now they were exceedingly troubled and tortured in their minds for it The Children thus used lookt mighty bleak wan and beaten The marks of the Lashes the Judges could not perceive in them except in one Boy who had some wounds and holes in his Back that were given him with Thorns but the Witches said they would quickly vanish After this usage the Children are exceeding weak and if any be carried over-night they cannot recover themselves the next day and this happens to them by fits And if a fit comes upon them they lean on their Mothers Arms who sit with them up sometimes all night and when they observe the Paleness coming they shake the Children but to no purpose They observe further that their Childrens Breasts grow cold at such times and they take sometimes a burning Candle and stick it in their Hair which yet is not burnt by it They swoun upon this paleness which Swoun lasteth sometimes half an hour sometimes an hour sometimes two hours and when the Children come to themselves again they mourn and lament and groan most miserably and beg exceedingly to be eased This two old men declared upon Oath before the Judges and called all the Inhabitants of the Town to witness as persons that had most of them experience of this strange Symptome of their Children A little girl of Elfdale confessed That naming the name of Jesus as she was carried away she fell suddenly upon the Ground and got a great hole in her Side which the Devil presently healed up again and away he carried her and to this day the girl confessed she had exceeding great pain in her side Another Boy confessed too That one day he was carried away by his Mistriss and to perform the Journey he took his own Father's Horse out of the Meadow where it was and upon his return she let the Horse go in her own ground The next morning the Boys Father sought for his Horse and not finding it gave it over for lost but the Boy told him the whole story and so his Father fetcht the Horse back again and this one of the Witches confessed 2. Of the place where they used to assemble called Blockula and what they did there THey unanimously confessed that Blockula is scituated in a delicate large Meadow whereof you can see no end The place or house they met at had before it a Gate painted with divers colours through this Gate they went into a little Meadow distinct from the other where the Beasts went that they used to ride on But the Men whom they made use of in their Journey stood in the House by the Gate in a slumbering posture sleeping against the wall In a huge large Room of this House they said there stood a very long Table at which the Witches did sit down And that hard by this Room was another Chamber where there were very lovely and delicate Beds The first thing they said they must do at Blockula was That they must deny all and devote themselves Body and Soul to the Devil and promise to serve him faithfully and confirm all this with an Oath Hereupon they cut their Fingers and with their bloud writ their Name in his Book They added that he caused them to be Baptized too by such Priests as he had there and made them confirm their Baptism with dreadful Oaths and Imprecations Hereupon the Devil gave them a Purse wherein there were shavings of Clocks with a Stone tied to it which they threw into the Water and then were forced to speak these words As these Shavings of the Clock do never return to the Clock from which they are taken so may my Soul never return to Heaven To which they add Blasphemy and other Oaths and Curses The mark of their cut Fingers is not found in all of them But a Girl who had been slashed over her Fingers declared That because she would not stretch out her Fingers the Devil in anger had so cruelly wounded it After this they sate down to Table and those that the Devil esteemed most were placed nearest to him but the Children must stand at the door where he himself gives them meat and drink The diet they did use to have there was they said Broth with Colworts and Bacon in it Oatmeal Bread spread with Butter Milk and Cheese And they added that sometimes it tasted very well and sometimes very ill After meals they went to Dancing and in the mean while Swear and Curse most dreadfully and afterward they went to fighting one with another Those of Elfdale consessed That the Devil used to play upon an Harp before them and afterwards to go with them that he liked best into a Chamber where he committed venereous Acts with