but you 'l say the greatnesse and incrediblenesse of the Miracle is this That there should be an actuall separation of Soul and Body and yet no Death But this is not at all strange if we consider that Death is properly a disjunction of the Soul from the Body by reason of the Bodie 's unfitnesse any longer to entertain the Soul which may be caused by extremity of Diseases outward Violence or Age And if the Divell could restore such bodies as these to life it were a miracle indeed But this is not such a miracle nor is the Body properly dead though the Soul be out of it For the life of the Body is nothing else but that fitnesse to be actuated by the Soul The conservation whereof is help'd as I conceive by the anointing of the Body before the Extasy which ointment filling the pores keeps out the cold and keeps in the heat and Spirits that the frame and temper of the Body may continue in fit case to entertain thâ— Soul again at her return So the vital streames of the carcasse being not yet spent the pristâ—ne operations of life are presently again kindled as a candle new blown out and as yet reeking suddenly catches fire from the flame of another though at some distance the light gliding down along the smoke Wherefore there being nothing in the nature of the thing that should make us incredulous these Sorceresses so confidently pronouncing that they are out of their Bodies at such times and see and do such such things meet one another bring messages discover secrets and the like it is more naturall and easy to conclude they be really out of their Bodies then in them Which we should the more easily be induced to believe if we could give credit to that Story Wierus tells of a Souldier out of whose mouth whilest he was asleep a thing in in the shape of a Wesell came which nuddâ—â—ng along in the grasse and at last coming to a brook side very busily attempting to get over but not being able some one of the standers by that saw it made a bridge for it of his sword which it passed over by and coming back made use of the same passage and then entred into the Souldier's mouth again many looking on when he waked he told how he dream'd he had gone over an iron Bridge and other particulars answerable to what the spectatours had seen afore-hand Wierus acknowledgeth the truth of the story but will by all meanes have it to be the Divell not the Soul of the Man which he doth in a tender regard to the Witches that from such a truth as this they might not be made so obnoxious to suspicion that their Extasies are not mere Dreames and Delusions of the Divell but are accompanied with reall effects I will not take upon me to decide so nice a controversy only I will make bold to inâ—ermeddle thus farre as to pronounce Bodinus his opinion not at all unworthy of a rationall and sagacious man And that though by his being much addicted to such like speculations he might attribute some naturall effects to the ministry of Spirits when there was no need so to doe yet his judgement in other things of thâ—s kind is no more to be slighted for that then Cartesius that stupendious Mechanicall Witt is to be disallowed in those excellent inventions of the causes of those more generall Phaenomena of Nature because by his successe in those he was imboldned to enlarge his Principles too farre and to assert that Aâ—imalls themselves were mere Machina's like Aristoxenus the Musician that made the Soul nothing else but an Harmony of whom Tully pleasantly observes Quod non recessit ab arte sua Every Genius and Temper as the sundry sorts of Beasts and living Creatures have their proper excrement and it is the part of a wise man to take notice of it and to chuse what is profitable as well as to abandon what is uselesse and excrementitious CHAP. IX The Coldnesse of those bodyes that Spirits appear in witnessed by the experience of Cardan and Bourgotus The naturall Reason of this Coldnesse That the Divell does really lye with VVitches That the very substance of Spirits is not fire Spirits skirmishing on the ground Field fights and Sea fights seen in the Aire BUt to return into the way I might adde other stories of your Daemones Metallici your Guardian Genii such as that of Socrates and that other of which Bodinus tells an ample story which hee received from him who had the society and assistance of such an Angell or Genius which for my own part I give as much credit to as to any story in Livy or Plutarch Your Lares familiares as also those that haunt and vexe families appearing to many and leaving very sensible effects of their appearings But I will not so farre tire either my self or my Reader I will only name one or two storyes more rather then recite them As that of Cardan who writes as you may see in Otho Melander that a Spirit that familiarly was seen in the house of a friend of his one night layd his hand upon his brow which felt intolerably cold And so Petrus Bourgotus confessed that when the Divell gave him his hand to kisse it felt cold And many more examples there be to this purpose And indeed it stands to very good reason that the bodies of Divels being nothing but coagulated Aire should be cold as well as coagulated Water which is Snow or Ice and that it should have a more keen and piercing cold it consisting of more subtile particles than those of water and therefore more fit to insinuate and more accurately and stingingly to affect and touch the nerves Wherefore Witches confessing so frequently as they do that the Divel lyes with them and withall complaining of his tedious and offensive coldnesse it is a shrewd presumption that he doth lie with them indeed and that it is not a mere Dreame as their friend Wierus would have it Hence we may also discover the folly of that opinion that makes the very essence of Spirits to be fire for how unfit that would be to coagulate the aire is plain at first sight It would rather melt and dissolve these consistencies then constringe them and freeze them in a manner But it is rather manifest that the essence of Spirits is a substance specifically distinct from all corporeall matter whatsoever But my intent is not to Philosophize concerning the nature of Spirits but only to prove their Existence Which the story of the Spectre at Ephesus may be a further argument of For that old man which Apollonius told the Ephesians was the walking plague of the city when they stoned him and uncovered the heap appear'd in the shape of an huge black dog as big as the biggest Lion This could be no imposture of Melanchly nor â—raud of any Priest And the learned Grotius a man far from all Levity and
discovered others of his companions as Barbelia the wife of Joannes Latomus Mayetta the wife of Laurentius who confessed she danced with those cloven-footed Creatures at what time Peter was amongst them And for further evidence of the businesse John Michaell Herds-man did confesse that while they thus danced he plaid upon his Crooked staffe and struck upon it with his fingers as if it had been a Pipe sitting upon an high bough of an Oake and that so soon as Nicolea called upon the name of Jesus he tumbled down headlong to the ground but was presently catch'd up again with a whirldwind and carryed to Weiller Meadowes where he had left his Herds a little before Adde unto all this that there was found in the place where they danced a round Circle wherein there was the manifest maâ—kes of the treading of cloven feet which were seen from the day after Nicolea had discover'd the businesse till the next Winter that the plough cut them out These things happened in the yeare 1590. CHAP. VIII Of Fairy Circles A larger discussion of those Controversies betwixt Bodinus and Remigius viz. whether the Bodyes of Witches be really transformed into the shape of Wolves and other Creatures whether the Souls of Witches be not sometimes at those nocturnall Conventicles their bodies being left at home as also whether they leavâ— not their bodies in those Extasies they put themselves in when they promise to fetch certain newes from remote places in a very short time IT might be here very seasonable upon the foregoing story to enquire into the nature of those large darke Rings in the grasse which they call Fairy Circles whether they be the Rendezvâ—â—z of Witches or the daâ—cing places of those little puppet-Spirits which they call Elves or Fairies But these curiosâ—ties I leave to more busy Wits I am onely intent now upon my serious purpose of proving there are Spirits which I think I have made a pretty good progresse in already and have produced such narrations that cannot but gain credit with such as are not perversly and wiâ—lfully incredulous There is another more profitable question started if it could be decided concerning these Night-revellings of VVitches whether they be not sometimes there their bodies lying at home as sundry Stories seem to favour that opinion Bodinus is for it Remigius is against it It is the same question whether when VVitches or VVizards professe they will tell what is done within so many miles compasse and afterwards to give a proof of their skill first anoint their bodies and then fall down dead in a manner and so lye a competent time senselesse whether I say their souls go out of their bodies or all be but represented to their Imagination We may add a third which may happily better fetch off the other two And that is concerning your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Germans call Were-VVolff the French Loups garous Men transformed into VVolves and there is much what the same reason of other Transformations I shall not trouble you with any Histories of them though I might produce many But as well those that hold it is but a delusion of the Divell and mere Tragedies in Dreames as they that say they are reall Transactions do acknowledge that those parties that have confessed themselves thus transformed have been weary and sore with running have been wounded and the like Bodinus here also is deserted of Remigius who is of the same mind with VVierus that sly smooth Physician and faithfull Patron of VVitches who will be sure to load the Divell as much as he can his shoulders being more able to bear it and so to ease the Haggs But for mine own part though I will not undertake to decide the controversy yet I thinke it not aâ—â—isse to declare that Bodinus may very well make good his own notwithstanding any thing those do alledge to the contrary For that which Wierus and Remigius seem so much to stand upon that it is too great a power for the Divell and too great indignity to Man that he should be able thus to transform him are in my mind but slight Rheâ—orications no sound Arguments For what is that outward misâ—apement of Body to the inward deformity of their Souls which he helps on so notoriously And they having given themselves over to him so wholy why may he not use them thus here when they shall be worse used by him hereafter And for the changeing of the species of things if that were a power too big to be granted the Divell yet it is no more done here when he thus transforms a Man into a VVolf then when he transforms himself into the shape of a Man For this VVolf is still a Man and that Man is still a Divell For it is so as the Poet sayes it was in Vlysses his companions which Circe turned into Hoggs They had the Head the Voice the Body and Bristles of Hoggs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But their Understanding was unchanged they had the Mind and Memory of a Man as before As Petrus Bourgotus professeth that when his companion Michael Verdung had aâ—ointed his body and transform'd him into a Wolf when he look'd upon his hairy feet he was at first affraid of himself Now therefore it being plain that nothing materiall is alledged to the contrary and that men confesse they are turn'd into Wolves and acknowledge the salvage cruelties they then committed upon Children Women and Sheep that they find themselves exceeding weary and sometimes wounded it is more naturall to conclude they were really thus transformed then that it was a mere Delusion of Phansy For I conceive the Divell gets into their body and by his subtile substance more operative and searching than any fire or putrifying liquour melts the yielding Compages of the body to such a consistency and so much of it as is fitt for his purpose and makes it plyable to his imagination and then it is as easy for him to work it into what Shape he pleaseth as it is to work the Aire into such forms and figures as he ordinarily doth Nor is it any more difficulty for him to mollify what is hard then it is to harden what is so soft and fluid as the Aire And he that hath this power we can never stick to give him that which is lesse viz. to instruct men how they shall for a time forsake their Bodies and come in again For can it be a hard thing for him that can thus melt and take a pieces the particles of the Body to have the skill and power to loosen the Soul a substance really distinct from the Body and separable from it which at last is done by the easy course of Nature at that finall dissolution of Soul and Body which we call Death But no course of Nature ever transforms the body of Man into the shape of a Wolf so that this is more hard and exoâ—bitant from the order of Nature then the other I
assuredly that man is next doore to madness or dotage or does enormous violence to the free use of his Facultyes Wherefore it is manifest that there may bee a very firme and unwavering assent or dissent when as yet the thing wee thus assent to may be possibly otherwise or that which wee thus dissent â—rom cannot bee proved impossible to be true Which point I have thus long and thus variously sported my self in for making the better impression upon my Reader it being of no small use and consequence as well for the advertising of him that the Arguments which I shall produce though I doe not bestowe that ostentative term of Demonstration upon them yet they may bee as effectuall for winning a firme and unshaken assent as if they were in the strictest Notion such as also to reminde him that if they bee so strong and so paâ—ly fitted and suteable with the facultyes of mans mind that hee has nothing to reply but only that for all this it may possibly bee otherwise that hee should give a free and full assent to the Conclusion And if hee do not that hee is to suspect himself rather of some distemper prejudice or weaknesse then the Arguments of want of strength But if the Atheist shall contrariwise pervert my candour and fair dealing and phanâ—y that he has got some advantage from my free confession that the arguments that I shall use are not so convictive but that they leave a possibility of the thing being otherwise let him but compute his supposed gains by adding the limitation of this possibility viz. that it is no more possible then that the clearest Mathematicall evidence may be false which is impossible if our facultyes be true or in the second place then that the Roman Vrnes and Coins above mentioned may prove to be the works of Nature not the Artifice of man which our facultyes admit to be so little probable that it is impossible for them not fully to assent to the contrary and when he has cast up his account it will be evident that it can be nothing but his grosse ignorance in this kind of Arithmetick that shall embolden him to write himself down gainer and not me CHAP. III. An attempt towards the finding out the true Notion or Definition of God and a cleare Conviction that there is an indelible Idea of a Being absolutely perfect in the mind of Man ANd now having premised thus much I shall come on nearer to my present designe In prosecution whereof it will bee requisite for mee first to define what God is before I proceed to demonstration that he is For it is obvious for Mans reason to find arguments for the impâ—ssibility possibility probability or necessity of the Existence of a thing from the explication of the Essence thereof And now I am come hither I demand of any Atheist that denies there is a God or of any that doubts whether there be one or no what Idea or Notion they frame of that they deny or doubt of If they will prove nice squeamish and professe they can frame no notion of any such thing I would gladly aske them why they will then deny or doubt of they know not what For it is necessary that he that would rationally doubt or deny a thing should have some settled Notion of the thing hee doubts of or denies But if they professe that this is the very ground of their denying or doubting whether there be a God because they can frame no Notion of him I shall forthwith take away that Allegation by offering them such a Notion as is as proper to God as any Notion is proper to any thing else in the world I define God therefore thus An Essence or Being fully and absolutely perfect I say fully and absolutely perfect in counterdistinction to such perfection as is not full and absolute but the perfection of this or that Species or Kind of finite Beings suppose of a Lyon Horse or Tree But to be fully and absolutely perfect is to bee at least as perfect as the apprehension of a Man can conceive without a Contradiction But what is inconceivable or contradictious is nothing at all to us for wee are not now to wagg one Atome beyond our facultyes But what I have propounded is so farre from being beyond our facultyes that I dare appeale to any Atheist that hath yet any command of Sense and Reason left in him if it bee not very easie and intelligible at the first sight and that if there bee a God he is to be deemed of us such as this Idea or Notion sets forth But if hee will sullingly deny that this is the proper Notion of God let him enjoy his own humour this yet remains undenyable that there is in Man an Idea of a Being absolutely and fully perfect which wee frame out by attributing all conceivable perfection to it whatsoever that implyes no Contradiction And this Notion is Naturall and Essentiall to the Soul of Man and can not bee wash'd out nor conveigh'd away by any force or trick of wit whatâ—oever so long as the Mind of man is not craz'd but hath the ordinary use of her own facultyes Nor will that prove any thing to the purpose when as it shall be alledg'd that this Notion is not so connaturall and Essentiall to the Soul because she framed it from some occasions from without For all those undenyable conclusions in Geometry which might be help'd and occasion'd from some thing without are so Naturall notwithstanding and Essentiall to the Soul that you may as soon un-soul the Soul as divide her from perpetuall assent to those Mathematicall truths supposing no distemper nor violence offered to her Facultyes As for example shee cannot but acknowledge in her self the Several distinct Ideas of the five Regular Bodies as also that it is impossible that there should bee any more then five And this Idea of a Being absolutely perfect is as distinct and indelible an Idea in the Soul as the Idea of the five Regular Bodyes or any other Idea whatsoever It remaines therefore undenyable that there is an inseparable Idea of a Being absolutely perfect ever residing though not alwayes acting in the Soul of Man CHAP. IV. What Notions are more particularly comprised in the Idea of a Being absolutely perfect That the difficulty of framing the conception of a thing ought to bee no argument against the existence thereof the nature of corporeall Matter being so perplex'd and intricate which yet all men acknowledge to exist That the Idea of a Spirit is as easy a Notion as of any other substance what ever What powers and propertyes are containd in the Notion of a Spirit That Eternity and Infinity if God were not would bee cast upon something else so that Atheisme cannot free the mind from such Intricacyes Goodnesse Knowledge and Power Notions of highest perfection and therefore necessarily included in the Idea of a Being absolutely perfect BUt now to
Deâ—ty yet he will never extricate himself out of the intanglements of an Infinite Space which Notion will stick as closely to his Soul as her power of Imagination Now that Goodnesse Knowledge and Power which are the three following Attributes are Attributes of perfection if a man consult his own Facultyes it will be undoubtedly concluded and I know nothing else he can consult with At least this will be returned as infallibly true that a Being absolutely perfect has these or what supereminently containes these And that Knowledge or something like it is in God is manifest because without animadversion in some sense or other it is impossible to be Happy But that a Being should bee absolutely perfect yet not happy is as impossible But Knowledge without Goodnesse is but dry Subtilty or mischievous Craft and Goodnesse with Knowledge devoyd of Power is but lame and ineffectuall Wherefore what ever is absolutely perfect is Infinitely both Good Wise and Powerfull And lastly it is more perfection that all this be Stable Immutable and Necessary then Contingent or but Possible Therefore the Idea of a Being absolutely perfect represents to our minds that that of which it is the Idea is necessarily to exist And that which of its own nature doth necessarily exist must never fail to be And whether the Atheist will call this absolute perfect Being God or not it is all one I list not to contend about words But I think any man else at the first sight will say that wee have found out the true Idea of God CHAP. V. That the soul of man is not Abrasa Tabula and in what sense shee might be said ever to have had the actuall knowledge of eternal truths in her ANd now wee have found out this Idea of a Being absolutely perfect that the use which wee shall hereafter make of it may take the better effect it will not be amisse by way of further preparation briefly to touch upon that notable point in Philosophy whether the Soul of man be Abrasa Tabula a Table book in which nothing is writ or whether shee have some innate Notions and Ideas in her self For so it is that shee having taken first occasion of thinking from externall objects it hath so imposed upon some mens judgements that they have conceited that the Soul has no Knowledge nor Notion but what is in a Passive way impressed or delineated upon her from the objects of Sense They not warily enough distinguishing betwixt extrinsecall occasions and the adaequate or principal causes of things But the mind of man more free and better excercised in the close observations of its own operations and nature cannot but discover that there is an active and actuall Knowledge in a man of which these outward objects are rather the reminders then the first begetters or implanters And when I say actuall Knowledge I doe not mean that there is a certaine number of Ideas flaring and shining to the Animadversive faculty like so many Torches or Starres in the Firmament to our outward sight or that there are any figures that take their distinct places are legibly writ there like the Red letters or Astronomical Characters in an Almanack but I understand thereby an active sagacity in the Soul or quick recollection as it were whereby some small businesse being hinted unto her she runs out presently into a more clear and larger conception And I cannot better describe her condition then thus Suppose a skilful Musician fallen asleep in the field upon the grasse during which time he shall not so much as dream any thing concerning his musical faculty so that in one sense there is no actuall skill or Notion nor representation of any thing musicall in him but his friend sitting by him that cannot sing at all himself jogs him and awakes him and desires him to sing this or the other song telling him two or three words of the beginning of the long he presently takes it out of his mouth and sings the whole song upon so slight and slender intimation So the Mind of man being jogg'd and awakened by the impulses of outward objects is stirred up into a more full and cleare conception of what was but imperfectly hinted to her from externall occasions and this faculty I venture to call actuall Knowledge in such a sense as the sleeping Musicians skill might be called actuall skill when he thought nothing of it CHAP. 6. That the Soul of Man has of her self actuall Knowledge in her made good by sundry Instances and Arguments ANd that this is the condition of the Soul is discoverable by sundry observations As for example Exhibite to the Soul through the outward senses the figure of a Circle she acknowledgeth presently this to be one kind of figure and can adde forthwith that if it be perfect all the lines from some one point of it drawn to the Perimeter must be exactly Equal In like manner shew her a Triangle she will straightway pronounce that if that be the right figure it makes toward the Angles must be closed in indivisible points But this accuracy either in the Circle or the Triangle cannot be set out in any materiall subject therefore it remains that she hath a more full exquisite knowledge of things in her self then the Matter can lay open before her Let us cast in a third Instance let some body now demonstrate this Triangle described in the Matter to have it's three Angles equall to two right ones Why yes saith the Soul this is true and not only in this particular Triangle but in all plain Triangles that can possibly be describ'd in the Matter And thus you see the Soul sings out the whole song upon the first hint as knowing it very well before Besides this there are a multitude of Relative Notions or Ideas in the Mind of Man as well Mathematicall as Logicall which if we prove cannot be the impresses of any materiall object from without it will necessarily follow that they are from the Soul her self within and are the naturall furniture of humane understanding Such as are â—hese Cause Effect Whole and Part Like and Vnlike and the rest So Equality and Inequality 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proportion Analogy Symmetry and Asymmetry and such like All which Relative Ideas I shall easily prove to be no materiall impresses from without upon the Soul but her own active conception proceeding from her self whilst shee takes notice of externall Objects For that these Ideas can make no Impresses upon the outward senses is plain from hence because they are no sensible nor Physicall affections of the Matter And how can that that is no Physicall affection of the Matter affect our corporeall Organs of Sense But now that these Relative Ideas whether Logical or Mathematicall be no Physicall affections of the Matter is manifest from these two arguments First they may be produced when there has been no Physicall Motion nor alteration
in the Subject to which they belong nay indeed when there hath been nothing at all done to the Subject to which they doe accrue As for example suppose one side of a Room whitened the other not touch'd or medled with this other has thus become unlike and hath the Notion of Dissimile necessarily belonging to it although there has nothing at all been done thereunto So suppose two Pounds of Lead which therefore are two Equal Pieces of that Metall cut away half from one of them the other Pound nothing at all being done unto it has lost it's Notion of Equall and hath acquired a new one of Double unto the other Nor is it to any purpose to answere that though there was nothing done to this Pound of Lead yet there was to the other For that does not at all enervate the Reason but shewes that the Notion of Sub â—double which accrued to that Lead which had half cut away is but our Mode of conceiving as well as the other and not any Physicall affection that strikes the corporeall Organs of the Body as Hot and Cold Hard and Soft White and Black and the like do Wherefore the Ideas of Equall and Vnequall Double and Sub-double Like and Vnlike with the rest are no externall Impresses upon the Senses but the Souls own active manner of conceiving those things which are discovered by the outward Senses The second argument is that one and the same part of the Matter is capable at one and the same time wholly and entirely of two contrary Ideas of this kind As for Example any piece of Matter that is a Middle proportionall betwixt two other pieces is Double suppose and Sub-double or Tripple and Sub-tripple at once Which is a manifest signe that these Ideas are no affections of the Matter and therefore do not affect our senses else they would affect the senses of Beasts and they might also grow good Geometricians and Arithmeticians And they not affecting our senses it is plain that wee have some Ideas that we are not beholding to our senses for but are the meer exertions of the Mind occasionally awakened by the Appulses of the outward objects Which the out-ward Senses doe no more teach us then he that awakened the Musician to sing taught him his skill And now in the third and last place it is manifest besides these single Ideas I have proved to be in the mind that there are also severall complex Notions in the same such as are these The whole is bigger then the part If you take Equall from Equall the Remainders are Equall Every number is either Even or Odde which are true to the soul at the very first proposal as any one that is in his wits does plainly perceive CHAP. VII The mind of man being not unfurnish'd of Innate Truth that wee are with confidence to attend to her naturall and unprejudic'd Dictates and Suggestions That some Notions and Truths are at least naturally unavoydably assented unto by the soul whether shee have of her self Actuall Knowledge in her or not And that the definition of a Being absolutely perfect is such And that this absolutely perfect Being is God the Creatour and Contriver of all things ANd now we see so evidently the Soul is not unfurnished for the dictating of Truth unto us I demand of any man why under a pretence that shee having nothing of her own but may be moulded into an assent to any thing or that shee does arbitrariously and fortuirously compose the severall Impresses shee receives from without hee will be still so squeamish or timorous as to be affraid to close with his own facultyes and receive the Naturall Emanations of his owne mind as faithfull Guides But if this seem though it be not too subtile which I contend for viz That the Soul hath actuall knowledge in her self in that sense which I have explained yet surely this at least will be confess'd to be true that the nature of the Soul is such that shee will certainly and fully assent to some conclusions how ever shee came to the knowledge of them unlesse shee doe manifest violence to her own Faculties Which truths must therefore be concluded not fortuitous or arbitrarious but Natural so the Soul such as I have already named as that every Finite number is either even or odde If you adde equal to equal the wholes are equal and such as are not so simple as these but yet stick as close to the Soul once apprehended as that The three angles in a Triangle are equal to two right ones That there are just five regular Bodies neither more nor lesse and the like which we will pronounce necessarily true according to the light of Nature Wherefore now to reassume what we have for a while laid aside the Idea of a Being absolutely perfect above proposed it being in such sort let forth that a man cannot rid his minde of it but he must needs acknowledge it to be indeed the Idea of such a Being it will follow that it is no arbitrarious nor fortuitous conceipt but necessary and therefore natural to the Soul at least if noâ— ever actually there Wherefore it is manifest that we consulting with our own natural light concerning the Notion of a Being absolutely perfect that this Oracle tells us that it is A spiritual Substance Eternal Infinite in Essence and Goodness Omnipotent Omniscient and of it self necessarily existent For this answer is such that if we understand the sense thereoâ— we cannot tell how to deny it and therefore it is true according to the light of Nature But it is manifest that that which is Self-subsistent infinitely Good Omniscient and Omnipotent is the Root and Original of all things For Omnipotency signifies a Power that can effect any thing that implies no contradiction to be effected and Creation implyes no contradiction Therefore this perfect Being can create all things But if it found the Matter or other Substances existing aforehand of themselves this Omnipotency and Power of Creation will be in vain which the free and unprejudic'd Faculties of the Minde of man do not admit of Therefore the natural notion of a Being absolutely perfect implies that the same Being is Lord and Maker of all things And according to Natural light that which is thus is to be adored and worshipped of all that has the knowledge of it with all humility and thankfullnesse and what is this but to be acknowledged to be God Wherefore I conceive I have sufficiently demonstrated that the Notion or Idea of God is as Naturall Necessary and Essentiall to the Soul of Man as any other Notion or Idea whatsoever is no more arbitrarious or fictitious then the Notion of a Cube or Terraedrum or any other of the Regular Bodyes in Geometry Which are not devised at our own pleasure for such figments and Chimaras are infinite but for these it is demonstrable that there can be no more then five of them Which shews
if we consult our own faculties and the Idea of God utterly impossible but admit it possible this bare possibility is so laxe so weak and so undeterminate a consideration that it ought to have no power to move the mind this way or that way that has any tolerable use of her own Reason more then the faint breathings of the loose Aire have to shake a Mountaine of brasse For if bare possibility may at all intangle our assent or dissent in things we cannot fully mis-believe the absurdest Fable in Aesop or Ovid or the most ridiculous figments that can be imagin'd As suppose that Eares of Corn in the field heare the whistling of the wind and chirping of the Birds that the stones in the street are grinded with pain when the Carts go over them that the Heliotrope eyes the Sun and really sees him as well as turns round about with him that the Pulp of the Wall-nut as bearing the signature of the brain is indued with Imagination and Reason I say no man can fully mis-believe any of these fooleries if bare possibility may have the least power of turning the Scales this way or that way For none of these nor a thousand more such like as these imply a perfect and palpable Contradiction and therefore will put in for their right of being deemed possible But we are not to attend to what is simply possible but to what our naturall faculties do direct and determine us to As for Example Suppose the Question were whether the Stones in the Street have sense or no we are not to leave the point as indifferent or that may be held either way because it is possible and implyes no palpable Contradiction that they may have sense and that a painfull sense too But we are to consult with our naturall faculties and see whither they propend and they do plainly determinate the Controversy by telling us that what has sense and is capable of pain ought to have also progressive Motion to bee able to avoyd what is hurtfull and painfull and we see it is so in all Beings that have any considerable share of Sense And Aristotle who was no doater on a Deity yet frequently does assume this principle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Nature does nothing in vain Which is either an acknowledgment of a God or an appeale to our own Rationall Faculties And I am indifferent which for I have what I would out of either for if we appeale to the naturall suggestions of our own faculties they will assuredly tell us there is a God I therefore again demand and I desire to be answered without prejudice or any restraint laid upon our naturall faculties to what purpose is this indelible Image or Idea of God in us if there be no such thing as God existent in the world or who seal'd so deep an Impression of that Character upon our Minds If we were travailing in a desolate wildernesse where we could discover neither Man nor house and should meet with Herds of Cattell or Flocks of Sheep upon whose bodies there were branded certain Markes or Letters we should without any hesitancy conclude that these have all been under the hand of some man or other that has set his name upon them And verily when we see writ in our Souls in such legible Characters the Name or rather the Nature and Idea of God why should we be so slow and backward from making the like reasonable inference Assuredly he whose Character is signed upon our Souls has been here and has thus marked us that we and all may know to whom we belong That it is he that has made us and not we our selves that we are his people and the sheep of his Pasture And it is evidently plain from the Idea of God which includes omnipotency in it that we can be made from none other then he as I have before demonstrated And therefore there was no better way then by sealing us with this Image to make us acknowledge our selves to be his and to do that worship and adoration to him that is due to our mighty Maker and Creatour that is to our God Wherefore things complying thus naturally and easily together according to the free Suggestions of our naturall Faculties it is as perverse and forced a buisinesse to suspend assent as to doubt whether those Romane Vrnes and Coynes I spoke of digg'd out of the Earth be the works of Nature or the Artifice of Men. But if wee cannot yet for all this give free assent to this Position that God does Exist Let us at least have the Patience a while to suppose it I demand therefore supposing God did Exist what can the Mind of Man imagine that this God should do better or more effectuall for the making himself known to such a Creature as Man indued with such and such faculties then we find really already done For God being a Spirit and Infinite cannot ever make himself known Necessarily and Adaequaâ—ely by any appearance to our outward Senses For if he should manifest himself in any outward figures or shapes portending either love or wrath terrour or protection our faculties could not assure us that this were God but some particular Genius good or bad and besides such dazeling and affrightfull externall forces are neither becoming the divine Nature nor suteable with the Condition of the Soul of Man whose better faculties and more free God meddles with does not force nor amaze us by a more course and oppressing power upon our weake and brutish senses What remaines therefore but that he should manifest himself to our Inward Man And what way imaginable is more fit then the indelible Impression of the Idea of himself which is not divine life and sense for that 's an higher prise laid up for them that can win it but a naturall representation of the God-head and a Notion of his Essence whereby the Soul of Man could no otherwise conceive of him then an Eternall Spirit Infinite in goodnesse Omnipotent Omniscient and Necessarily of himself Existent But this as I have fully proved we find de facto done in us wherefore we being every way dealt with as if there were a God Existing and no faculty discovering any thing to the contrary what should hinder us from the concluding that he does really Exist CHAP X. Naturall Conscience and Religious Veneration arguments of the Existence of God HItherto we have argued for the Existency of the God-head from the naturall Idea of God inseparably and immutably risiding in the Soul of Man There are also other arguments may be drawn from what we may observe to stick very close to mans nature and such is Naturall remorse of Conscience and a feare and disturbance from the committing of such things as notwithstanding are not punishable by men As also a naturall hope of being prosperous and successefull in doing those things which are conceived by us to be good righteous And lastly Religious Veneration or Divine
that is universally received of men be it by what faculty it will they receive it no other faculty appearing that can evidence to the contrary And such is the universall acknowledgment that there is a God Nor is it much more materiall to reply That though there be indeed a Religious Worship excercised in all Nations upon the face of the Earth yet they worship many of them but stocks and stones or some particular piece of Nature as the Sunne Moon or Starrs For I answer That first it is very hard to prove that they worship any Image or Statue without reference to some Spirit at least if not to the omnipotent God So that we shall hence at least win thus much that there are in the Universe some more subtile and Immateriall Substances that take notice of the affairs of Men and this is as ill to a slow Atheist as to believe that there is a God And for that adoration some of them do to the Sunne and Moon I cannot believe they do it to them under the Notion of mere Inanimate Bodies but they take them to be the habitation of some Intellectuall Beings as that verse does plainly intimate to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Sun that hears and sees all things and this is very neer the true Notion of a God But be this universall Religious Worship what it will as absurd as you please to fancy it yet it will not faile to reach very farre for the proving of a Deity For there is no naturall Faculties in things that have not their object in the world as there is meat as well as mouths sounds as well as hearing colours as well as sight dangers as well as feare and the like So there ought in like manner to be a God as well as a naturall propension in men to Religious Worship God alone being the proper Object thereof Nor does it abate the strength of the Argument that this so deeply radicated property of Religion in Man that cannot be lost does so ineptly and ridiculously display it self in Manking For as the plying of a Doggesâ—eet â—eet in this sleep as if there were some game before him and the butting of a yong lambe before he has yet either hornes or Enemies to encounter would not be in Nature were there not such a thing as a Hare to be coursed and an horned Enemy to be incountred with horns So there would not be so universall an Excercise of Religious Worship in the world though it be done never so ineptly and foolishly were there not really a due Object of this worship and a capacity in Man for the right performance thereof which could not be unlesse there were a God But the Truth is Mans Soul in this drunken drowsy condition she is in has fallen asleep in the body and like one in a dreame talks to the bed-posts embraces her pillow instead of her friend falls down before statues in stead of adoring the Eternall and Invisible God prayes to stocks and stones instead of speaking to him that by his word created all things I but you will reply that a yong Lambe has at length both his weapon and an Enemy to encounter and the dreaming Dogge did once and may again pursue some reall game And so he that talks in his sleep did once conferre with men awake and may do so again But whole Nations for many successions of Ages have been very stupid Idolaters and do so continue to this day But I answere that this rather informes us of another great mystery then at all enervates the present argument or obscures the grand truth we strive for For this does plainly insinuate thus much that Mankind is in a laps'd condition like one fallen down in the fit of an Epilepsy whose limbes by force of the convulsion are moved very incomposedly and illfavourdly but we know that he that does for the present move the members of his Body so rudely and fortuitously did before command the use of his Muscles in a decent exercise of his progressive faculty and that when the fit is over he will doe so again This therefore rather implyes that these poore barbarous Souls had once the true knowledge of God and of his worship and by some hidden providence may be recover'd into it again then that this propension to Religious Worship that so conspicuously appeares in them should be utterly in vain As it would be both in them and in all men else if there were no God CHAP. XI Of the Nature of the Soul of Man whether she be a meere Modification of the Body or a Substance really distinct and then whether corporeall or incorporeall VVE have done with all those more obvious faculties in the Soul of Man that naturally tend to the discovery of the Existence of a God Let us briefly before wee loose from our selves and lanch out into the vast Ocean of the Externall Phaenomena of Nature consider the Essence of the Soul her self what it is whether a meer Modification of the Body or Substance distinct therefrom and then whether corporeall or incorporeall For upon the clearing of this point wee may happily be convinced that there is a Spiritual Substance really distinct from the Matter Which who so does acknowledge will be easilier induced to beleeve there is a God First therefore if we say that the Soul is a meer Modification of the Body the Soul then is but one universall Faculty of the Body or a many Facultyes put together and those operations which are usually attributed unto the Soul must of necessity be attributed unto the Body I demand therefore to what in the body will you attribute Spontaneous Motion I understand thereby a power in our selves of wagging or holding still most of the parts of our Body as our hand suppose or little finger If you will lay that it is nothing but the immission of the Spirits into such and such Muscles I would gladly know what does immit these Spirits and direct them so curiously Is it themselves or the Braine or that particular piece of the Braine they call the Coâ—arion or Pine-kerâ—ell whatever it be that which does thus immit them and direct them must have Animadversion and the same that has Animadversion has Memory also and Reason Now I would know whether the Spirits themselves be capable of Animadversion Memory and Reason for it indeed seemes altogether impossible For these animall Spirits are nothing else but Matter very thin and liquid whose nature consists in this that all the particles of it be in Motion and being loose from one another fridge and play up and down according to the measure and manner of agitation in them I therefore now demand which of the particles in these so many loosely moving one from another has Animadversion in it If you say that they all put together have I appeal to him that thus answers how unlikely it is that that should have Animadversion that is so utterly uncapable of Memory
and consequently of Reason For it is as impossible to conceive Memory competible to such a subject as it is how to write Characters in the water or in the wind If you say the Brain immits and directs these Spirits how can that so freely and spontaneously move it self or another that has no Muscles besides Anatomists tell us that though the Brain be the Instrument of sense yet it has no sense at all of it self how then can that that has no sense direct thus spontaneously and arbitrariously the animall Spirits into any part of the Body an act that plainely requires determinate sense and perception But let the Anatomists conclude what they will I think I shall little lesse then demonstrate that the Brains have no Sense For the same thing in us that has Sense has likewise Animadversion and that which has Animadversion in us has also a faculty of free and arbitrarious Fansy and of Reason Let us now consider the nature of the Brain and see how competible those operations are to such a Subject Verily if wee take a right view of this laxe pith or marrow in Mans head neither our sense nor understanding can discover any thing more in this substance that can pretend to such noble operations as free Imagination and sagacious collections of Reason then we can discern in a Cake of Sewer or a bowle of Curds For this loose Pulp that is thus wrapp'd up within our Cranium is but a spongy and porous body and pervious not onely to the Animall Spirits but also to more grosse Juice and Liquor else it could not well be nourished at least it could not be so soft and moistned by drunkennesse and excesse as to make the understanding inept and sottish in its operations Wherefore I now demand in this soft substance which we call the Brain whose softnesse implyes that it is in some measure liquid and liquidity implyes a severall Motion of loosned parts in what part or parcell thereof does Fancy Reason and Animadversion lye In this laxe consistence that lyes like a Net all on heaps in the water I demand in what knot loop or Intervall thereof does this faculty of free Fancy and active Reason reside I believe you will be asham'd to assigne me any and if you will say in all together you must say that the whole brain is figured into this or that representation which would cancell Memory and take away all capacity of there being any distinct Notes and places for the severall Species of things there represented But if you will say there is in Every part of the brain this power of Animadversion and Fansy you are to remember that the brain is in some measure a liquid body and we must inquire how these loose parts vnderstand one anothers severall Animadversions and Notions And if they could which is yet very inconceivable yet if they could from hence doe any thing toward the immission and direction of the Animall Spirits into this or or that part of the Body they must doe it by knowing one anothers minds and by a joynt contention of strength as when many men at once the word being given lift or tugge together for the moving of some so masty a body that the single strength of one could not deal with But this is to make the severall particles of the brain so many Individuall persons A fitter object for laughter then the least measure of beliefe Besides how come these many animadversions to seem but one to us our mind being these as is supposed Or why if the figuration of one part of the brain be communicated to all the rest does not the same object seem situated both behind us and before us above and beneath on the right hand and on the left and every way as the Impresse of the object is reflected against all the parts of the braines But there appearing to us but one animadversion and one site of things it is a sufficient Argument that there is but one or if there be many that they are not mutually communicated from the parts one to another and therefore there can be no such joynt endeavour toward one designe whence it is manifest that the Braines cannot immit nor direct these Animall Spirits into what part of the Body they please Moreover that the Braine has no Sense and therefore cannot impresse spontaneously any motion on the Animall Spirits it is no slight Argument in that some being dissected have been found without Braines and Fontanus tells us of a boy at Amsterdam that had nothing but limpid water in his head in stead of Braines and the Braines generally are easily dissolvable into a watry consistence which agrees with what I intimated before Now I appeale to any free Judge how likely these liquid particles are to approve themselves of that nature and power as to bee able by erecting and knitting themselves together for a moment of time to beare themselves so as with one joynt contention of strength to cause an arbitrarious ablegation of the Spirits into this or that determinate part of the Body But the absurdity of this I have sufficiently insinuated already Lastly the Nerves I mean the Marrow of them which is of the self same substance with the Braine have no Sense as is demonstrable from a Catalepsis or Catochus but I will not accumulate Arguments in a Matter so palpable As for that little sprunt piece of the Braine which they call the Conarion that this should be the very substance whose naturall faculty it is to move it self and by it's Motions and Nods to determinate the course of the Spirits into this or that part of the Body seems to me no lesse foolish and fabulous then the story of hiâ— that could change the wind as he pleased by setting his Cap on this or that side of his head If you heard but the magnificent stories that are told of this little lurking Mushrome how it does not onely heare and see but imagines reasons commands the whole fabrick of the Body more dextrously then an Indian boy does an Elephant what an acute Logician subtle Geometrician prudent Statesman skillfull Physician and profound Philosopher he is and then afterward by dissection you discover this worker of Miracles to be nothing but a poor silly contemptible Knobb or Protuberancy consisting of a thin Membrane containing a little pulpous Matter much of the same nature with the rest of the Braine Spectatum admissirisum teneatis amici Would not you sooner laugh at it then goe about to confute it And truly I may the better laugh at it now having already confuted it in what I have afore argued concerning the rest of the braine I shall therefore make bold to conclude that the Impresse of Spontaneous Motion is neither from the Animall Spirits nor from the Braine and therefore that those operations that are usually attributed unto the Soul are really incompetible to any part of the Body and therefore that the Soul
divine Providence strikes through all things And therefore things being contrived with such exquisite Curiosity as if the most watchfull wisdome imaginable did attend them to say they are thus framed without the assistance of some Principle that has Wisdome in it that they come to passe from Chance or some other blind unknowing Originall is sullenly and humorously to assert a thing because we will assert it and under pretense of avoyding Superstition to fall into that which is the onely thing that makes Superstition it self hatefull or ridiculous that is a wilfull and groundlesse adhering to conceits without any support of Reason And now I have considered the fitnesse of the parts of Mans Body for the good of the whole let me but consider briefly the fitnesse of the Passions of his Minde whether proper or common to him with the rest of Animalis as also the fitness of the whole Man as he is part of the Vniverse and then I shall conclude And it is manifest that Anger does so actuate the Spirits and heightens the Courage of men and beasts that it makes them with more ease break through the difficulties they incounter Feare also is for the avoyding of danger and Hope is a pleasant praemeditation of enjoyment as when a Dog expects till his Master has done picking of the bone But there is neither Hope nor Feare nor Hate nor any peculiar Passion or Instinct in Brutes that is in vaine why should we then think that Nature should miscarry more in us then in any other Creature or should be so carefull in the Fabrick of our Body and yet so forgetfull or unlucky in the framing of the faculties of our Soules that that Feare that is so peculiarly naturall to us viz. the feare of a Deity should be in vaine and that pleasant Hope and Heavenly Joyes of the mind which man is naturally capable of with the earnest direction of his Spirit towards God should have no reall Object in the world And so Religious affection which Nature has so plainly implanted in the Soul of Man should be to no use but either to make him ridiculous or miserable Whenas we find no Passion or Affection in Brutes either common or peculiar but what is for their good and welfare For it is not for nothing that the Hare is so fearfull of the Dog the Sheep of the Wolfe it there be either Fear or Enmity in some Creatures for which we cannot easily discerne any reason in respect of themselves yet we may well allow of it as reasonable in regard of us and to be to good purpose But I thinke it is manifest that Sympathy and Antipathy Love and Enmity Aversation Feare and the like that they are notable whetters and quickners of the Spirit of life in all Animalls and that their being obnoxious to dangers and encounters does more closely knit together the vitall Powers and makes them more sensibly relish their present safety and they are more pleased with an Escape then if they had never met with any Danger Their greedy assaults also one upon another while there is hope of Victory highly gratifies them both And if one be conquer'd and slaine the Conquerour enjoyes a fresh improvement of the pleasure of life the Triumph over his Enemy Which things seeme to me to be contriv'd even in the behalf of these Creatures themselves that their vitall heat and moysture may not alwayes onely simber in one sluggish tenour but some times boyle up higher and seeth over the fire of life being more then ordinarily kindled upon some emergent occasion But it is without Controversy that these peculiar Passions of Animalls many of them are usefull to Men as that of the Lizards enmity against the Serpent all of them highly gratify his contemplative faculty some seem on purpose contriv'd to make his Worship merry For what could Nature intend else in that Antipathy betwixt the Ape and Snayle that that Beast that seems so boldly to claime kinred of Man from the resemblance of his outward shape should have so little Wit or Courage as to runne away from a Snayl and very â—ufully and frightfully to look back as being affraid she would follow him as Erasmus more largely and pleasantly tells the whole story But that Nature should implant in Man such a strong Propension to Religion which is the Reverence of a Deity there being neither God nor Angell nor Spirit in the world is such a Slurre committed by her as there can be in no wise excogitated any Excuse For if there were a higher Species of things to laugh at us as wee doe aâ— the Ape it might seem more tolerable But there can be no End neither ludicrous nor serious of this Religious property in Man unlesse there be something of an higâ—er Nature then himself in the world Wherefore Religion being convenient to no other Species of things besides Man it ought to be convenient at least for himself But supposing there were no God there can be nothing worse for Man then Religion For whether we look at the Externall Effects thereof such as are bloudy Massacres the disturbance and subversion of Common-weales Kingdomes and Empires most salvage Tortures of particular persons the extirpating and dispossessing of whole Nations as it hath hapned in America where the remorselesse Spaniards in pretense of being educated in a better Religion then the Americans vilifyed the poor Natives so much that they made nothing of knocking them o th' head merely to feed their doggs with them with many such unheard of crueltyes Or whether we consider the great affliction that that severe Governess of the life of Man brings upon those Souls she seizes on by affrighting horrours of Conscience by puzzeling and befooling them in the free use of their Reason and putting a barre to more large searches into the pleasing knowledge of Nature by anxious cares and disquieting feares concerning their state in the life to come by curbing them in their naturall and kindly injoyments of the life present and making bitter all the pleasures and contentments of it by some checks of Conscience and suspicions that they do something now that they may rue eternally hereafter Besides thosse ineffable Agonies of mind that they undergo that are more generously Religious and contend after the participation of the divine Nature they being willing though with unspeakeable paine to be torn from themselves to become one with that Universall Spirit that ought to have the guidance of all things and by an unsatiable desire after that just and decorous temper of mind whereby all Arrogancy should utterly cease in us and that which is due to God that is all that we have or can do should be lively and sensibly attributed to him and we fully and heartily acknowledge ourselves to be nothing that is be as little elated or no more rellish the glory and praise of Men then if we had done nothing or were not at all in being doe plunge
Lightning which made him runne homeward and forsake his work for he saw sixe Oakes hard by him overturned from the very Roots and a seventh also shatter'd and torn a pieces he was fain to lose his hat and leave his fork or rake for hast which was not so fast but another crack overtakes him and rattles about his Eares upon which Thunder-clap he presently espied this Margaret Warme a reputed Witch upon the top of an Oake whom he began to chide She desired his secrecy and she would promise that never any injury or harm should come to him from her at any time This Cuinus deposed upon Oath before the Magistrate and Margaret Warine acknowledged the truth of it without any force done unto her severall times before her death and at her death See Remigius Daemonolatr lib. 1. cap. 29. Remigius conceives she was discharged upon the top of the Oake at that last Thunder clap and there hung amongst the boughs which he is induced to believe from two Stories he tells afterwards The one is of a Tempest of Thunder and Lightning that the Herdsmen tending their Cattell on the brow of the Hill Alman in the field of Guicuria were fâ—ighted with who running into the Woods for shelter suddenly saw two countrey men on the top of the Trees which were next them so durty and in such a pickle and so out of breath as if they had been dragg'd up and down through thornes and miry places but when they had well eyed them they were gone in a moment out of their sight they knew not how nor whither These Herdsmen talked of the businesse but the certainty of it came out not long after For the free confessions of those two men they then saw being so exactly agreeing with what the Herdsmen had related made the whole matter cleare and undoubted The other Story is of the same Persons known afterward by their names viz. Amantius and his partner Rotarius who having coursed it aloft again in the Aire and being cast headlong out of a cloud upon an house the later of them being but a Novice and unexperienced in those supernaturall exploites was much astonish'd and affraid at the strangenesse of the matter but Amantius being used to those feats from his youth his Parents having devoted him from his childhood to the Divell made but a sport of it and laughing at his friend called him Foole for his feare and bad him be of good courage for their Master in whose power they were would safely carry them through greater dangers than those And no sooner had he sayd these words but a Whirlwinde took them and set them both safe upon the ground but the house they were carryed from so shook as if it would have been overturn'd from the very foundations This both those men examin'd apart confessed in the same words not varying their Story at all whose confessions exactly agreed in all circumstances with what was observed by the country people concerning the time and the manner of the Tempest and shaking of the House I will onely add one Story more of this nature and that is of a Witch of Constance who being vext that all her neighbours in the Village where she lived were invited to the wedding and so were drinking and dancing and making merry she solitary and neglected got the Divell to transport her through the Aire in the middest of day to a Hill hard by the Village where she digging a hole and putting Vrine into it rais'd a great Tempest of Haile and directed it so that it fell onely upon the Village and pelted them that were dancing with that violence that they were forc'd to leave off their sport When she had done her exploite she returned to the Village and being spied was suspected to have raised the Tempest which the Shepheards in the field that saw her riding in the Aire knew well before who bringing in their witnesse against her she confess'd the fact I might be infinite in such narrations but I will moderate my self CHAP. IV. Supernaturall Effects observ'd in them that are Bewitch'd and Possess'd The famous Story of Magdalena Crucia WE will now passe to those supernaturall effects which are observed in them that are bewitch'd or possess'd And such are Foretelling things to come Telling what such and such persons speak or do as exactly as if they were by them when the party possess'd is at one end of the town and sitting in a house within doores and those partyes that act and conferre together are without at the other end of the town to be able to see some and not others to play at Cards with one certain person and not to discern any body else at the table besides him to act and talk and goe up and down and tell what will become of things and what happens in those fitts of possession and then so soon as the possessed or bewitched party is out of them to remember nothing at all but to enquire concerning the welfare of those whose faces they seemed to look upon but just befoâ—e when they were in their fitts All which can be no symptomes nor signes of any thing else but of the Devil got into the body of a man and holding all the operations of his Soul and then acting and speaking and sporting as he pleases in the miserable Tenement he hath crouded himself into making use of the Organs of the body at his own pleasure for the performing of â—uch pranks and fears as are farre above the capacity stâ—ength or agility of the party thus bewitched or possessed All these things are fully made good by long and tedious observations recorded in the discovery of the Witches of Warbois in Huntingtonshire Anno 1594. The memory whereof is still kept fresh by an Anniversary Sermon preacht at Huntington by some of the Fellows of Queens Colledge in Cambridge There is alâ—o lately come forth a Narration how one Mrs Muschamp's children were handled in Cumberland which is very like this of Mr. Throckmorton's children of Warbois That which is generally observed in them both is this that in their fitts they are as if they had no Soule at all in their Bodyes and that whatsoever operations of sense reason or motion there seemes to be in them it is not any thing at all to them but is wholly that stranger's that hath got into them For so soone as their fitts are over they are as if they had been in so profound a sleep that they did not so much as dreame and so remember nothing at all of what they either said or did or where they had been as is manifest by an infinite number of examples in the forenamed relations Of the truth of which passages here at home we being very well ascertain'd we may with the more confidence venture upon what is recorded concerning others abroad As for example The possession of the Religious Virgins in the Monastery of Werts others in Hessimont others also not farre
as by striking his right eare if he did any thing amisse if otherwise his left If any body came to circumvent him that his right eare was stâ—uck but his left eare if a good man and to good ends accosted him If he was about to eat or drink any thing that would hurt him or intended or purposed with himself to do any thing that would prove ill that he was inhibited by a signe and if he delaid to follow his businesse that he was quickened by a â—â—gne given him When he began to praise God in Psalmes and to declare his marveilous Acts that he was presently raised and strengthened with a spirituall and supernaturall power That he daily begg'd of God that he would teach him his Will his Law and his Truth And that he set one day of the week apart for reading the Scripture and Meditation with singing of Psalmes and that he did not 〈◊〉 out of his house all that day But that in his ordinary conversation he was sufficiently merry and of a chearfull minde and he cited that saying for it Vidi facies Sanctorum laetas But in his conversing with others if he had talked vainly and indiscreetly or had some daies together neglected his Devotions that he was forthwith admonished thereof by a Dreame That he was also admonished to rise betimes in the Morning and that about four of the clock a voice would come to him while he was asleep saying Who gets up first to pray He told Bodinus also how he was often admonish'd to give Almes and that 〈◊〉 more Charity he bestow'd the more prosperous he was And that on a time when his enemies sought after his life and knew that he was to go by water that his Father in a Dreame brought two Horses to him the one white the other bay and that therefore he bid his servant hire him two horses and though he told him nothing of the colours that yet he brought him a white one and a bay one That in all difficulties journeyings and what other enterprizes soever he used to ask counsell of God and that one night when he had begged his blessing while he slept he saw a Vision wherein his Father seemed to blesse him At another time when he was in very great Danger and was newly gone to bed he said that the Spirit would not let him alone till he had raised him again wherefore he watched and pray'd all that night The day after he escaped the hands of his Persecuters in a wonderfull manner which being done in his next sleep he heard a voice saying Now sing Quisedet in latibulo Altissiâ—â— A great many other passages this Party told Bodinus so many indeed that he thought it an endlesse labour to recite them all But what remains of those he has recited I will not stick to take the pains of transcribing them Bodinus asked him why he would not speak to the Spirit for the gaining of the more plain and familiar converse with it He answered that he once attempted it but the Spirit instantly struck the doore with that vehemency as if he had knock'd upon it with an hammer whereby he gathered his dislike of the matter But though the Spirit would not talk with him yet he could make use of his judgement in the reading of books and moderating his studies For if he took an ill book into his hands and fell a reading the Spirit would strike it that he might lay it down and would also sundry times be the books what they would hinder him from reading and writing overmuch that his minde might rest and silently meditate with it self He added also that very often while he was awake a small subtile inarticulate sound would come unto his eares Bodinus further enquiring whether he ever see the Shape and Form of the Spirit he told him that while he was awake he never see any thing but a certain light very bright and clear and of a round Compasse and Figure But that once being in great jeopardy of his life and having heartily pray'd to God that he would be pleased to provide for his safety about break of day amidst his slumberings and wakings he espyde on his bed where he lay a young Boy clad in a white Garment tinctured somewhat with a touch of purple and of a visage admirably lovely and beautifull to behold This he confidently affirmed to Bodinus for a certain truth CHAP. XI Certain Enquiries upon the preceding Story as What these Guardian Genii may be Whether one or more of them be allotted to every man or to some none What may be the reason of Spirits so seldome appearing And whether they have any settled Shape or no. What their manner is of assisting men in either Devotion or Prophecy Whether every mans complexion is capable of the Society of a good Genius And lastly whether it be lawfull to pray to God to send such a Genius or Angel to one or no. IT is beside my present scope as I have already professed to enter into any more particular and more curious Disquisitions concerning the nature of Spirits my ayme being now onely to demonstrate their Existence by those strange Effects recorded every where in History But this last Narration is so extraordinarily remarkable that it were a piece of disrespect done to it to dismisse it without some Enquiries at least into such Problems as it naturally affords to our consideration though it may well seem plainly beyond the power of humane Witt or lawes of Modesty to determine any thing therein In the first place therefore it cannot but amuse a man's minde to think what these officious Spirits should be that so willingly sometimes offer themselves to consociate with a man whether they may be Angels uncapable of incorporation into humane Bodies which vulgarly is conceived Or whether the Souls of the deceased they having more affinity with mortality and humane frailty then the other and so more sensible of our necessities and infirmities having once felt them themselves a reason alledged for the Incarnation of Christ by the Authour to the Hebrews Which opinion has no worse Favourers then Plutarch Maximus Tyrius and other Platonists Or lastly whether there may not be of both sorts For separate Souls being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a condition not unlike the Angels themselves it is easy to conceive that they may very well undergo the like Offices Secondly we are invited to enquire whether every man have his Guardian Genius or no. That Witches have many such as they are their own confessions testify The Pythagoreaâ—s were of opinion that every man has two Genii a good one and a bad one Which Mahomet has taken into his Religion adding also that they sit on Mens shoulders with table-books in their hands and that the one writes down all the good the other all the evill a man does But such expressions as those I look upon as Symbolicall rather then Naturall And I think it more
reasonable that a man changing the frame of his minde changes his Genius withall Or rather unless a man be very sincere and single-hearted that he is left to common Providence as well as if he be not desperately wicked or deplorably miserable scarce any particular evill Spirit interposes or offers himself a perpetuall Assistent in his affaires and fortunes But extreme Poverty irksome old Age want of Friends the Contempt Injury and Hardheartednesse of evill Neighbours working upon a Soul low sunk into the body and wholy devoid of the Divine life does sometimes kindle so sharp so eager and so piercing a desire of Satisfaction and Revenge that the shreeks of men while they are a murdering the howling of a Wolf in the fields in the night or the squeaking and roring of tortured Beasts do not â—o certainly call to them those of their own kinde as this powerfull Magick of a pensive and complaining soul in the bitternesse of it's affliction attracts the ayd of these over-officious Spirits So that it is most probable that they that are the forwardest to â—ang Witches are the first that made them and have no more goodnesse nor true piety then these they so willingly prosecute but are as wicked as they though with better luck or more discretion offending no further then the Law will permit them and therefore they securely starve the poor helpless man though with a great deal of clamour of justice they will revenge the death of their Hogg or Cow Thirdly it were worth our disquisition why Spirits so seldome now adayes appear especially those that are good whether it be not the wickednesse of the present Age as I have already hinted or the generall prejudice men have against all Spirits that appear that they must be straightwayes Divells or the frailty of humane nature that is not usually able to bear the appearance of a Spirit no more then other Animalls are for into what agonies Horses and Doggs are cast upon their approach is in every ones mouth and is a good circumstance to distinguish a reall Apparition from our own Imaginations or lastly whether it be the condition of Spirits themselves who it may be without some violence done to their own nature cannot become visible it being happily as troublesome a thing to them to keep themselves in one steady visible consistency in the aire as it is for men that dive to hold their breath in the water Fourthly it may deserve our search whether Spirits have any settled forme or shape Angells are commonly pictured like good plump cherâ—y-cheek'd Lads Which is no wondâ—r the boldnesse of the same Artists not sticking to picture God Almighty in the shape of an old man In both it is as it pleases the Painter But this story seems rather to favour their opinion that say that Angells and seperate Sâ—uls have no settled forme but what they please to give themselves upon occasion by the power of their own Phansy Ficinuâ— as I remember somewhere calls them Aereall Starres And the good Genii seem to me to be as the benigne Eyes of God running to and fro in the world with love and pitty beholding the innocent endeavours of harmlesse and single-hearted men ever ready to doe them good and to help them What I conceive of separate Soules and Spirits I cannot better expresse then I have already in my Poem of the Prâ—existency of the Soul And I hope it will be no sin to be better then my word who in my Preface have promissed no Poetry at all but I shall not think much to offer to your view these two Stanzas out of the forenamed Poem Like to a light fast lock'd in Lanthorn dark Whereby by Night our wary steps we guide In slabby streets and dirty Chanels mark Some wâ—aker rayes from the black top do glide And flusher streams perhaps through th' horny side But when we 've past the perill of the way Arriv'd at home and laid that case aside The naked light how clearly doth it ray And spread its joyful beames as bright as Summer's day Even so the Soul in this contracted state Confin'd to these straight Instruments of Sense More dull and narrowly doth operate At this hole heares the Sight must ray from thence Here tasts there smells But when she 's gone from hence Like naked Lamp she is one shining Spheare And round about has perfect cognoscence What ere in her Horizon doth appear She is one Orb of sense all Eye all airy Eear And what I speak there of the condition of the Soul out of the Body I think is easily applicable to other Genâ—i or Spirits The fift Enquiry may be how these good Genâ—i become serviceable to men for either heightening their Devotions or inabling them to Prophecy whether it can be by any other way then by descending into their bodies and possessing the heart and braine For the Euchites who affected the gift of Prophecy by familiarity with evill Spirits did utterly obliterate in their Souls the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Principles of Goodnesse and Honesty as you may see in Psellus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the evill Spirits might come into their bodies whom those sparks of virtue as they said would drive away but those being extinguish'd they could come in and possess them and inable them to prâ—phecy And that the Imps of Witches do sometimes enter their own bodies as well as their's to whom they send them is plain in the Story of the Witches of Warbois It is also the opinion of Trismegist that these Spirits get into the Veines and Arteries both of men and beasts Wherefore concerning the Dreames and Visions of this holy man that so freely imparted himself to Bodinus it may be conceived reasonable that the good Genius insinuated himself into his very Body as well as the bad into the bodies of the wicked and that residing in his braine and figuring of it by thinking of this or that Object as we ourselves figure it when we think the external senses being laid asleep those figurations would easily be represented to the Common sense and that Memory recovering them when he awaked they could not but seem to him as other Dreames did saving that they were better they ever signifying some thing of importance unto him But those Raptures of Devotion by day might be by the Spirits kindling a purer kinde of Love-flame in his heart as well as by fortifying and raising his Imagination And how far a man shall be carried beyond himself by this redoubled soul in him none I think can well conceive unlesse they had the experience of it And if this be their manner of communion it may well be enquired into in the sixt place whether all men be capable of consociation with these good Genii Cardan somewhere intimates that their approaches are deprehensible by certain sweet smells they cast From whence it may seem not improbable that those bodies that smell sweet themselves where the mind does
such And that this absolutely perfect Being is God the Creatour and Contriver of all things 17 VIII The first Argument for the Existence of God taken from the Idea of God as it is representative of his Nature and Perfection From whence also it is undeniably demonstrated that there can be no more Gods then One. 19 IX The second Argument from the Idea of God as it is Subjected in our Souls and is the fittest Natural means imaginable to bring us to the knowledge of our Maker That bare possibility ought to have no power upon the mind to either hasten or hinder it's assent in any thing We being dealt with in all points as if there were a God that naturally we are to conclude there is one 25 X. Naturall Conscience and Religious Veneration arguments of the Existence of God 29 XI Of the Nature of the Soul of Man whether she be a mere Modification of the Body or a Substance really distinct and then whether corporeal or incorporeal 35 The Second Book I. The Universall Matter of the World be it homogeneall or heterogeneall self-mov'd or resting of it self that it can never be contriv'd into that Order it is â—ithout the Super-inâ—endency of a God 43 II. The perpetuall Parallelisme of the Axis of the Earth and its due proportion of Inclination as also the course of the Moon crossing the Ecliptick evident arguments that the fluid Matter is guided by a divine Providence The Atheists Sophisme of arguing from some petty inconsiderable Effects of the Motion of the Matter that the said Motion is the cause of all things seasonably detected and deservedly derided 47 III. That Rivers Quarries of stone Timber-Wood Metalls Mineralls and the Magnet considering the nature of Man what use he can make of them are manifest signes that the rude Motion of the Matter is not left to it self but is under the guidance and Super-intendency of an all-wise God 53 IV. A further proof of Divine Providence taken from the Sea and the large train of Causes laid together in reference to Navigation 56 V. Though the mere motion of the Matter may do something yet it will not amount to the production of Plants and Animalls That it is no Botch in Nature that some Phaenomena be the results of Motion others of Substantiall Formes That Beauty is not a mere Phansy and that the Beauty of Plants is an argument that they are from an Intellectuall Principle 59 VI. The Seeds and Signatures of Plants arguments of a divine Providence 64 VII Arguments of divine Providence drawn from the Usefulnesse of Plants 69 VIII The Usefulnesse of Animalls an argument of divine Providence 74 IX Arguments of divine Providence fetched from the Pulchritude of Animalls as also from the manner of their Propagation 78 X. The Frame or Fabrick of the Bodies of Animalls plainly argue that there is a God 86 XI The particular Frames of the Bodies of Fowls or Birds palpable signes of Divine Providence 91 XII Vnavoydable Arguments for divine Providence taken from the accurate Structure of Mans Body from the Passions of his Mind and fitnesse of the whole Man to be an Inhabiter of the Universe 93 The Third Book I. That good mâ—n not alwayes faring best in this world the great examples of Divine Vengeance upon wicked and blasphemous Persons are not so convincing to the obstinate Atheist The irreligious Jeares and Sacrileges of Dionysâ—us of Syracuse That there have been true Miracles in the world as well as false and what are the best and safest wayes to distinguish them that we may not be impos'd upon by History 105 II. The Moving of a Sieve by a Charme Coskinomâ—ncy A Magicall cure of an Horse The Charming of Serpents A strange Example of one Death-strucken as he walked the Streets A story of a suddain winde that had like to have thrown down the Gallows at the hanging of two Witches 109 III. That Winds and Tempests are raised upon mere Ceremonies or forms of words prov'd by sundry Examples Margaret Warâ—e discharg'd upon an Oake at a Thunder-Clap Amantius and Rotarius cast headlong out of a Cloud upon a house top â—he Witch of Constance seen by the Shepheards to ride through the Aire III IV. Superâ—atural Effects observ'd in them that are Bewitch'd and Possess'd The famous Story of Magdalena Crucia 115 V. Examples of Bewitch'd Persons that have had Balls of Haire Nayles Knives Wood stuck with Pinns pieces of Cloth and such like trash conveigh'd into their Bodies with examples also of other Supernaturall Effects 119 VI. The Apparition Eckerken The Story of the pyed Piper A Triton or Sea-God seen on the banks of Rubâ—con Of the Imps of Witches and whether those old women be guilty of so much doâ—age as the Atheist fancies them That such things passe betwixt them and their Imps as are impossible to be imputed to Melancholy The examination of John Winnick of Molesworth The reason of Scaling Covenants with the Diveil 123 VII The nocturnal Convenâ—â—les of Witches that they have often dâ—ssolved and disappeared at the naming of the Name of God or Jesus Christ and that the party thus speaking has found himself alone in the fields many miles from home The Dancing of Men Women and cloven-footed Satyres at mid-day John Michaell piping from the bough of an Oake c. 127 VIII Of Fairy Circles A larger discussion of those Controversies betwixt Bodinus and Remigius viz. whether the Bodyes of Witches be really transformed into the shape of Wolves and other Creatures whether the Souls of Witches be not sometimes at those nocturnall Conventicles their Bodies being left at home as also whether they leavâ— not their bodies in those Extasies they put themselves in when they promise to fetch certain newes from remote places in a very short time 132 IX The Coldnesse of those bodyes that Spirits appear iâ— witnessed by the experience of Cardan and Bourgotus The naturall Reason of this Coldnesse That the Divell does really lye with VVitches That the very substance of Spirits is not fire Spirits skirmishing on the ground Field sights and Sea-fights seen in the Aire 137 X. A very memorable story of a certain pious man who had the continuall Society of a Guardian Genius 140 XI Certain Enquiries upon the preceding Story as What these Guardian Genii may be Whether one or more of them be allotted to every man or to some none What may be the reason of Spirits so seldome appearing And whether they have any settled Shape or no. What their manner is of assisting men in either Devotion or Prophecy Whether every mans complexion is capable of the Society of a good Genius And lastly whether it be lawfull to pray to God to send such a Genius or Angel to one or no. 144 XII That whether the Species of things have been from all Eternity or whether they rose out of the Earth by degrees in Time the Frame of them is such that against all the Evasions of the Atheist they naturally imply that there is a God 151 XIII That the Evasions of the Atheists against Apparitions are so weak and silly that it is an evident argument that they are convinced in their own judgements of the truth of these kinds of Phaenomena which forces them to answer as well as they can though they be so ill provided 158 FINIS