needs be false But this tenent of Samuels Soul acting in the Body after death is flatly contrary to the plain Doctrine of the Scripture ergo it is false The major we suppose no Oxthodox Christian can justly deny and the minor is proved thus The Scripture doth assure us that those that die in the Lord as without all doubt Samuel did are blessed and rest from their labours Therefore must this Tenent be abominably false for if the Soul of Samuel after his death had been brought again to act in the Body then he had not rested from his labours but had been disquieted and brought to new trouble to have been vexed to have seen Saul committing more wickedness than before in taking counsel from a cursed Idolatrous Woman such as the Lord had commanded to be destroyed And there is no one point in all this transaction of Saul with the Witch that speaketh her Imposture more apparently than where this counterfeit Samuel saith Why hast thou disquieted me As though the Saints of God after death could be disquieted by a Devil or a Witch who according to Gods infallible truth are blessed and rest from their labours and are in the hands of the Lord where no Torments can touch them And therefore none would have spoken those lying words but a devilish cheating quean or a damnable suborned confederate 6. If Samuels Soul was again joined to his body so long after separation and so performed vital actions who was the author of this conjunction or union could the Witch or the Devil or any created power effect that union Surely not none but the almighty power of Jehovah who breathed into Adam the breath of life And therefore we are bold to assert with all the company of learned Christians that this opinion is erroneous impious and blasphemous 2. The second opinion that it was Samuels Soul that appeared in his wonted shape and habit that he wore while he lived hath been strenuously maintained by the Popish party and as strongly confuted by the reformed Divines But we shall not trouble our selves and our readers with them all but only urge two or three that are most cogent thereby to answer Mr. Glanvils fopperies and they are these 1. If it were Samuels Soul that appeared it cannot be supposed to come contrary or whether God would or not for hardly any rational Man we believe will affirm that because God doth whatsoever he will both in Heaven and Earth and who hath resisted his will 2. And it cannot be rationally thought that Samuel who whilst he lived was so punctually careful to do nothing especially in his prophetick office but what he was commanded of God would after his death run an errand without his consent or licence 3. And that his Soul did not come by the command of God is most certain Though Mr. Glanvil ask the question who saith that happy departed Souls were never imployed in any ministeries here below To which though we have answered it before we now again reply that all learned Divines of the reformed Churches have said and maintained it and so do we both say and affirm that they never were nor are imployed in ministeries here below because never created nor ordained of God for any such end or purpose but there are legions of Angels that are ordained to be ministring Spirits and not the Souls of the Saints departed this life But Mr. Glanvil goeth further and saith that Samuel was not raised by the power of the Witches inchantments but came on that occasion on a Divine errand And though we have before unanswerably proved in the general that no Souls of those that are dead do after death appear or wander here below nor come such sleveless errands as he supposeth yet we shall add one or two here in particular to prove that Samuels Soul came not on a Divine errand as sent by God without which mission it could not have come at all 4. For fourthly if Mr. Glanvil had proved by any argument or colour of reason that his Soul had come upon such a Divine errand it had been something but he hath only laid down an affirmation without either proof reason or authority and we may with as good reason deny it as he affirm it for bare affirmations prove nothing at all 5. It is manifest that God in all his ordinances of providence especially in the order of his miracles doth work chiefly to confirm and witness truth for that as the worthy and learned Stillingsleet hath observed is the most proper criterium of a miracle and to send a Soul from the dead must needs be miraculous Now if the chief end in Gods working of miracles for none else but he can work them be to establish truth and settle his own Divine and pure worship then it cannot be to uphold lies and Idolatrous courses But if God should have sent Samuels Soul on a Divine errand when the Witch was practising her Diabolical Divinations and cheating tricks it had been to have countenanced and confirmed both Saul and the Witch in their wicked wayes and to have contradicted his own law and command which did positively order that all that used Divinations should be put to death and all those that sought for counsel from them to be severely punished Now let Mr. Glanvil or any other prove that God orders that to be done by the dead which he forbad to be done by the living 6. If it had been the true Samuel that appeared it is not rational nor credible to imagine that he would neither rebuke Saul for consulting with a Woman that practised those things that were forbidden by the law upon pain of death nor that he would either reprove or punish so wicked a Woman finding her in the very act We say it is not credible unless we suppose Samuel less zealous for the law and commands of God being dead than he was for them being living Surely he that living hewed Agag in pieces only because God had commanded he should be slain would if it had been the true Samuel which without all question it was not have done as much or worse to the cursed and Idolatrous cheating Witch though after his death if he had come upon a Divine errand 7. God should have shewed himself very mutable if he had answered Saul in a miraculous way by a dead Prophet that had refused to answer him by one living And Samuel while living knew certainly that the Lord had rejected Saul from being King over Israel and had testified unto him that the strength of Israel would not lie and that he was not like a man that he should repent But if it had been the true Samuel that had been sent to speak to Saul he knowing both by his own knowledge and relation of Saul himself that God had refused to answer him by Prophets must in that conference both have made God a liar and mutable and also himself who living had testified
beginning to be stagnant to motion and ebullition and may exert so much force upon the organs as for some small time to move the whole body the hands or the lips and nostrils So that all that is to be done is but to prove that the person murthered is not absolutely dead and that the Soul is not totally separated or departed forth of the Body and this we shall do by undeniable proofs as are these that follow in this order 1. Though we generally take death to be a perfect separation of the Soul from the Body which is most certainly a great truth yet when this is certainly brought to pass is a most difficult point to ascertain because that when the Soul ceases to operate in the Body so as to be perceived by our Senses it will not follow that therefore the Soul is absolutely departed and separated 2. It is manifest that many persons through this mistake have in the times of the Plague been buried quick and so have some Women been dealt withal that lay but in fits of the suffocation of the Womb and yet were taken to be dead So that from the judgment of our Senses no certain conclusion can be made that the Soul is totally departed because it goeth away invisibly for many that not only to the judgment of the vulgar but even in the opinion of learned Physicians have been accounted dead yet have revived as learned Schenckius hath furnished us with this story from Georgius Pictorius that a certain Woman lay in a fit of the Strangulation of the Womb for six continual days without sense or motion the arteries being grown hard ready to be buried and yet revived again and from Paraeus of some that have lain three days in Hysterical suffocations and yet have recovered and of divers others that may be seen in the place quoted in the Margent 3. So that though the organs of the Body may by divers means either natural or violent be rendered so unfit that the Soul cannot perform its accustomed functions in them or by them so as they may be perceptible to our senses or judgments yet will not that at all conclude that the Soul is separated and departed quite from the Body much less can we be able to define or set down the precise time of the Souls aboad in the Body nor the ultimate period when it must depart for the union may be and doubtless is more strong in some than in others and the Lamp of life far sooner and more easily to be quenched in some than in others And the Soul may have a far greater amorosity to stay in some Body that is lively sweet and young than in others that are already decaying and beginning to putrifie and it may in all probability both have power and desire to stay longer in that lovesome habitation from whence it is driven away by force especially that it may satisfie it self in discovering of the murderer the most cruel and inhumane disjoyner of that loving pair that God had divinely coupled together and to see it self before its final departure in a hopeful way to be revenged 4. If we physically consider the union of the Soul with the Body by the mediation of the Spirit then we cannot rationally conceive that the Soul doth utterly forsake that union untill by putrefaction tending to an absolute mutation it be forced to bid farewel to its beloved Tabernacle for it s not operating ad extra to our senses doth not necessarily inferr its total absence And it may be that there is more in that of Abels blood crying unto the Lord from the ground in a Physical sense than is commonly conceived and God may in his just judgment suffer the Soul to stay longer in the murthered Body that the cry of blood may make known the murtherer or may not so soon for the same reason call it totally away There is another kind of supposed Apparitions that are believed to be done in Beryls and clear Crystals and therefore called by Paracelsus Ars Beryllistica and which he also calls Nigromancy because it is practised in the dark by the inspection of a Boy or a Maid that are Virgins and this he strongly affirmeth to be natural and lawful and only brought to pass by the Sydereal influence and not at all Diabolical nor stands in need of any Conjuration Invocations or Ceremonies but is performed by a strong faith or imagination And of this he saith thus Sed ante omnia ait notate proprietatem Beryllorum Hisunt in quibus spectantur praeterita praesentiae futura Quod nemini admirationi esse debet ideò quia sydus influentiae imaginem similitudinem in Crystallum imprimit similem ei de quo quaeritur And a little after he saith Praeterea syderibus nota sunt omnia quae in natura existunt Cumque Astra homini subjecta sint potest is utique illa in subjectum ita cogere ut voluntati ejus ipsa obsecundent What truth there may be in this his assertion I have yet met with no reasons or experiments that can give me satisfaction and therefore I leave it to every Man to censure as he pleaseth The only story that seems to carry any credit with it touching the truth of Apparitions in Crystals is that which is related of that great and learned Physician Joachimus Camerarius in his Preface before Plutarchs Book De Defectu Oraculorum from the mouth of Lassarus Spenglerus a person excellent both for Piety and Prudence and is in effect this Spengler said that there was one person of a chief family in Norimberge an honest and grave Man whom he thought not fit to name That one time he came unto him and brought wrapt in a piece of Silk a Crystalline Gemm of a round figure and said that it was given unto him of a certain stranger whom many years before having desired of him entertainment meeting him in the Market he took home and kept him three days with him And that this gift when he departed was left him as a sign of a grateful mind having taught such an use of the Crystal as this If he desired to be made more certain of any thing that he should draw forth the glass and will a male chast Boy to look in it and should ask of him what he did see For it should come to pass that all things that he required should be shewed to the Boy and seen in the Apparition And this Man did affirm that he was never deceived in any one thing and that he had understood wonderful things by the boys indication when none of all the rest did by looking into it see it to be any thing else but a neat and pure Gemm He tells a great deal more of it and that doubtful questions being asked an answer would appear to be read in the Crystal but the Man being weary of the use of it did give it to Spengler who being a
which he found out the universal Medicine by a certain Aurum potabile by which he prolonged his life to the 145. year of his age in which year he suffered Martyrdom This I have produced to shew how inconsiderately and ignorantly the best learned of an Age may be and often are wrongfully and falsely traduced and slandered which may be a warning to all persons to take heed how they pass their censures until they understand perfectly all that is necessary to be known about the Subject they are to give judgment of before they utter or declare their sentence 5. Roger Bacon our Country-man who was a Franciscan Fryar and Doctor of Divinity the greatest Chymist Astrologer and Mathematician of his time yet could not escape the injurious and unchristian censure of being a Conjurer and so hard put to it that as Pitts saith he was twice cited to Rome by Clement the Fourth to purge himself of that accusation and was forced to send his Optical and Mathematical Instruments to Rome to satisfie the Pope and the Conclave which he amply performed and came off with honor and applause To vindicate whom I need say little because it is already performed by the Pens of those learned persons Pitts Leland Selden and Nandaeus only I shall add one Sentence forth of that most learned Treatise De mirabili potestate artis naturae de nullitate magiae Where he saith thus Quicquid autem est praeter operationem naturae vel artis aut non est humanum aut est fictum sraudibus occupatum Another of our Country-men Dr. John Dee the greatest and ablest Philosopher Mathematician and Chymist that his Age or it may be ever since produced could not evade the censure of the Monster-headed multitude but even in his life time was accounted a Conjurer of which he most sadly and not without cause complaineth in his most learned Preface to Euclid Englished by Mr. Billingsley and there strongly apologizeth for himself with that zeal and fervency that may satisfie any rational Christian that he was no such wicked person as to have visible and familiar converse if any such thing can be now adays with the Devil the known Enemy of Mankind of which take this short passage where he saith O my unkind Country-men O unnatural Country-men O unthankful Country-men O brain-sick rash spiteful and disdainful Country-men why oppress you me thus violently with your slandering of me contrary to verity and contrary to your own consciences Yet notwithstanding this and his known abilities in the most parts of abstruse Learning the great respect that he had from divers Princes Nobles and the most Learned in all Europe could not protect him from this harsh and unjust censure For Dr. Casaubon near fifty years after Dr. Dees death hath in the year 1659. published a large Book in Folio of Dees conversing for many years with Spirits wicked ones he meaneth But how Christian-like this was done to wound the mans reputation so many years after his death and with that horrid and wicked slander of having familiarity with Devils for many years in his life time which tends to the loss both of body and soul and to register him amongst the damned how Christian-like this is I leave all Christians to judge Besides let all the World judge in this case that Dr. Casaubon being a sworn Witchmonger even to the credulity of the filthiest and most impossible of their actions cannot but allow of the Law that doth punish them for digging up the bones of the dead to use them to Superstition or Sorcery what may he then think the World may judge him guilty of for uncovering the Dormitories of the deceased not to abuse their bones but to throw their Souls into the deepest pit of Hell A wickedness certainly beyond the greatest wickedness that he can believe is committed by Witches It is manifest that he hath not published this meerly as a true relation of the matter of fact and so to leave it to others to judge of but that designedly he hath laboured to represent Dee as a most infamous and wicked person as may be plainly seen in the whole drift of his tedious Preface But his design to make Dee a Converser with evil Spirits was not all he had another that concerned himself more nearly He had before run in a manner by labouring to make all that which he called Enthusiasm to be nothing else but imposture or melancholy and depraved phantasie arising from natural causes into the censure of being a Sadducee or Atheist To wash off which he thought nothing was so prevalent as to leap into the other end of the balance the mean is hard to be kept to weigh the other down by publishing some notorious Piece that might as he thought in an high degree manifest the existence of Spirits good and bad and this he thought would effect it sufficiently or at least wipe off the former imputation that he had contracted But that I may not be too tedious I shall sum up briefly some others by which it may be made clear that those dauntless Spirits that have adventured to cross the current of common opinion and those that have handled abstruse Subjects have never wanted opposition and scandal how true or profitable soever the things were that they treated or writ of Trithemius that Honour and Ornament of Germany for all sorts of Literature wanted not a Bouillus to calumniate and condemn him of unlawful Magick from which all the Learned in Europe know he is absolved by the able and elegant Pen of him that styles himself Gustavus Silenus and others Cornelius Agrippa run the same Fate by the scribling of that ignorant and envious Monk Paulus Jovius from whose malicious slander he is totally acquitted by the irrefragable evidence of Wierus Melchior Adams Nandaeus and others Who almost have not read or heard of the horrid and abominable false scandals laid upon that totius Germaniae decus Paracelsus by the malevolent Pen of Erastus and after swallowed up with greediness by Libanius Conringius Sennertus and many others for not only labouring to bring in a new Theory and Practice into the Art of Medicine but also for striving to purge and purifie the ancient natural laudable and lawful Magick from the filth and dregs of Imposture Deceit Ceremonies and Superstitions yet hath not wanted most strong and invincible Champions to defend him as Dorne Petrus Severinus Smetius Crollius Bitiscius and many others Our Country-man Dr. Fudd a man acquainted with all kinds of Learning and one of the most Christian Philosophers that ever writ yet wanted not those snarling Animals such as Marsennus Lanovius Foster and Gassendus as also our Casaubon as mad as any to accuse him vainly and falsely of Diabolical Magick from which the strength of his own Pen and Arguments did discharge him without possibility of replies We shall now come to those that have treated of Witchcraft and strongly
and that it was poured again into the Soul of the world either immediately or at the last mediately after its transmigration into other bodies The other suffrage he saith upon this matter is of the most learned Divine Dr. Hamond our Countryman who opening the Text Epist. Thessalo 1. c. 5. v. 23. to wit your whole spirit and soul and body c. He saith that Man is divided into three parts 1. To wit into the body by which is denoted the flesh and the members 2. Into the vital soul which in like manner being animal and sensitive is common to man with the bruits 3. Into the spirit by which the rational soul that was first created of God is signified which also being immortal doth return unto God Annot. in Nov. Testam lib. p. 711. This his exposition he confirmeth by Testimonies brought from Ethnick Authors and also from the ancient Fathers From all which the learned Dr. doth make this conclusion And from the things above he saith it is most evidently manifest that man being as it were an Amphibious animal or of a middle nature and order betwixt the Angels and bruits with these he doth communicate by a corporeal soul framed of the vital blood and the stock of animal spirit joyned likewise in one and with the other he communicates by an intelligent soul immaterial and immortal And thus much for arguments brought from humane authority which are prevalent if they be brought affirmatively as these are from learned men or Artificers and so we shall proceed to further kind of proofs 3. But an argument arising from Divine Authority is of the most force of all and therefore let us a little survey the Text it self which in our English Translation is thus And the very God of peace sanctifie you wholly And I pray God your whole Spirit and Soul and Body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle having given the believing Thessalonians all the spiritual counsel that could be necessary to bring them to the perfection of sanctification doth pray for them that the God of peace would sanctifie them wholly or as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth as Arias Montanus hath rendered it omninò persectos altogether perfect And that the whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the whole part portion or lot for so the word properly signifieth which he nameth by Spirit Soul and Body to be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore to this doth learned Beza add this note Tum demùm igitur ait homo integer sanctificatus fuerit quum nihil cogitabit spiritus nihil appetet anima nihil exequetur corpus quod cum Dei voluntate non consentiat And before he had said Therefore Paul by the appellation of spirit doth signifie the mind in which the principal stain lieth and by the Soul the rest of the inferior faculties and by the body the domicile of the Soul And in another place he saith The mind is become vain the cogitation obscured the appetite hardened And to the same purpose doth learned Rollock upon the place say thus much Sanctification or transformation is not of any one part but of all the parts and of the whole man For there is no part or particle in man which was not deformed in that first fall and made as it were monstrous Therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or transformation ought to be of the whole man and of every singular part of him And further he saith For the whole man the Apostle hath here the enumeration of his principal parts And they are three in number Spirit Soul and Body By the spirit he saith I understand the mind which the Apostle Eph. 4. 24. calleth the spirit of the mind and this is no other thing than the faculty of the rational mind which is discerned in invention and in judging of things found out By the name of soul he saith I understand all those inferior faculties of the mind as are the animal which are also called natural The body doth follow these parts to wit that gross part which is the instrument by which the spirit and soul do exert their functions and operations By all which it is most clear that though they call them faculties yet they are distinct essential parts of the whole man which is most manifest in that the body though one of these three cannot be a faculty but a meer instrument and yet is one of the essential parts that doth integrate the whole man But whosoever shall seriously consider how little satisfaction the definition of a faculty given by either Philosophers or Physicians will bring to a clear understanding may easily perceive that distinct parts are commonly taken to be faculties 4. The first argument that this learned Physician urgeth to prove that there are two Souls in man the one sensitive and corporeal the other rational immortal and incorporeal is in this order But he saith whereas it is said that the rational soul doth by it self exercise every of the animal faculties it is most of all improbable because the actions and passions of all the animal senses and motions are corporeal divided and extended to various parts to perform which immediately the incorporeal and indivisible soul if so be it be finite seemeth unfit or unable Further he saith what belongeth unto that vulgar opinion that the sensitive soul is subordinate to the rational and as it were swallowed up of it that that which is the soul in brutes in man becomes a meer power these are the trifles of the Schools For how should the sensitive soul of man which before hath been in act a subsistent material and extended substance losing its essence at the advent of the rational soul degenerate into a meer qualitie But if it be asserted that the rational soul by its advent also doth introduce life and sensation then man doth not generate an animated man but only a formless body or a rude heap of flesh 5. Another argument he useth to prove these two souls in man is this Therefore he saith it being supposed that the rational soul doth come to the body before animated of the other corporeal soul we may inquire by what band or tye seeing it is a pure spirit can it be united to this seeing it hath not parts by which it might be tied or adhere to the whole or any of the parts And therefore he thinketh that concerning this point it is to be said with most learned Gassendus That the corporeal soul is the immediate subject of the rational soul of which seeing it is the act perfection complement and form also by it the rational soul is made or becometh the form and act of the humane body But seeing that it doth scarce seem like or necessary that the whole corporeal soul should be possessed of the whole rational soul Therefore it is lawful to determine that this rational
soul being purely spiritual should reside as in its Throne in the principal part or faculty of it to wit in the imagination framed of a small portion of the animal spirits being most subtile and seated in the very middle or center of the brain 6. Another chief argument that he useth to prove these two souls in man is the strife and disagreements that are within man Because he saith the intellect and imagination are not wont to agree in so many things but that also the sensitive appetite doth dissent in more things From whose litigations moreover it shall be lawful to argue that the moodes of the aforesaid souls both in respect of subsisting and operating are distinct For as there is in man a double cognitive power to wit the intellect and imagination so there is a double appetite the Will proceeding from the Intellect which is the Page or servant of the rational soul and the sensitive Appetite which cohering to the imagination is said to be the hands or procuratrix of the corporeal soul. 7. To these we shall add that when the understanding is truly enlightened with the spirit of God and led by the true light of the Gospel in the ways of Christ then is man said to be spiritual because the carnal mind and the sensitive appetite are subdued and brought under to the obedience of Christ by his grace So also when the understanding is darkned as saith the Apostle Having the understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God thorow the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their hearts Then man becomes wholly led with the carnal and sensual appetite and is therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the natural animal or soully man And in both these conditions the organical body is led and acted according to the ruling power either of the Spirit of God and so it is yielded up a living sacrifice to God or of the spirit of darkness corruption and the sensitive appetite and so is an instrument of all unrighteousness By all which it is most manifest that there are in man these three parts of Body Soul and Spirit which was the thing undertaken to be proved 8. Lastly as to this point it is a certain truth that two extreams cannot be joined or coupled together but by some middle thing that participateth or cometh near to the nature of both So the Soul which by the unanimous consent of all men is a spiritual and pure immaterial and incorporeal substance cannot be united to the body which is a most gross thick and corporeal substance without the intervention of some middle nature fit to conjoin and unite those extreams together which is this sensitive and corporeal Soul or Astral Spirit which is respect of the one extream is corporeal yet of the most pure sort of bodies that are in nature and that which approacheth most near to a spiritual and immaterial substance and therefore most fit to be the immediate receptacle of the incorporeal Soul And also it being truly body doth easily join with the gross body as indeed being congenerate with it and so becomes vinculum nexus of the immaterial Soul and the more gross body that without it could not be united Now having as we conceive sufficiently proved that there are in man these three distinct parts of Body Soul and Spirit in the next place we are to shew that these three may and do separately exist and that we shall endeavour by these reasons 1. It is manifest by Divine Authority that the spirit that is the rational immortal and incorporeal soul doth return to God that gave it That is not to be annihilated or to vanish into nothing but to abide and remain for ever or eviternally For the Apostle saith For we know that if our earthly tabernacle or house were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens By which it is manifest that the immaterial Soul doth exist eternally ex parte post as the Schools say and also the gross body being separated from the immortal Soul doth by it self exist until it be consumed in the grave or by corruption be changed into earth or some other things or that the Atomes be dispersed and joined unto or figurated into some other bodies So it is most highly rational that this sensitive Soul or Astral Spirit which is corporeal should also exist by it self for some time until it be dissipated and wasted in which time it may and doubtlesly doth make these apparitions motions and bleedings of the murthered bodies 2. Upon the supposition that the rational Soul be not ex traduce but be infused after the bodily organs be fitted and prepared which is the firm Tenent of all Divines Ancient middle and Modern and must upon the granting of it to be simply and absolutely immaterial and incorporeal which is indisputable of necessity be infused because no immaterial substance can be produced or generated by the motion of any agent that is meerly material or forth of any material substance whatsoever And therefore I say that the Soul being infused it must of necessity follow the organized body that could not exist except as a lump of flesh without the corporeal sensitive soul which must of necessity demonstrate that as they did separately exist before the union of the Soul and Body so they also do exist distinctly after their separation by death and so the Astral Spirit may effect the things we have asserted 3. And if the experiment be certainly true that is averred by Borellus Kircher Gaffarel and others who might be ashamed to affirm it as their own trial or as ocular witnesses if not true that the figures and colours of a plant may be perfectly represented and seen in glasses being by a little heat raised forth of the ashes Then if this be true it is not only possible but rational that animals as well as plants have their Ideas or Figures existing after the gross body or parts be destroyed and so these apparitions are but only those Astral shapes and figures But also there are shapes and apparitions of Men that must of necessity prove that these corporeal Souls or Astral Spirits do exist apart and attend upon or are near the blood or bodies of which Borellus Physician to the King of France gives us these two relations 1. N. de Richier a Soap-maker he saith and Beruardus Germanus from the relation of the Lord of Gerzan and others distilling mans blood at Paris which they thought to be the true matter of the Philosophers-stone they saw in the cucurbit or glass body the Phantasm or shape of a Man from whom bloody rayes did seem to proceed and the glass being broken they found the figure as though of a skull in the remaining faeces 2. There were three curious persons also at Paris that taking the Church earth-mould from S. Innocents Church
Nature no not of those whereby the propagation of the Gospel might have been much advanced viz. the Mystery of Printing and the Magnet and yet no one useth his silence in these instances as an argument against the being of things which are evident objects of sense To which we answer 1. He falleth into a common mistake in making the Proposition universal and dolus versatur in universalibus when it ought but to be particular so for him to say that no silence of Scripture is argumentative is too universal for its silence in point of Geography as in describing America and the people thereof nor in discovering the Magnalia Naturae Artis is not argumentative and we do not say that all silence of Scripture is argumentative but yet we affirm that some silence of Scripture is argumentative So we cannot universally say that nothing hath a being but what is mentioned in Scripture but we may very well affirm that some things have no being of truth of existence because not declared in Scripture 2. The Scriptures were not written to teach Naural Philosophy Arts or Sciences humane Policy or the like but were given that the man of God might be perfect furnished for every good work and it is by them that we have the doctrine of eternal Salvation revealed unto us and we positively affirm the sufficiency of the Scriptures unto Salvation which thing no Orthodox Divine we suppose will deny and Bellarmine himself did confess in these words Prophetici Apostolici libri sunt verum verbum Dei ac stabilis regula fidei And if it be a certain Rule of Faith and the true Word of God then whatsoever it is silent of we ought not to believe and so its silence is argumentative in that point The Scriptures are utterly silent concerning Purgatory and therefore it is a good argument to affirm there is no such place as Purgatory because the Word of God is silent as concerning it but if it had been necessary to have been believed then there would have been mention made of it 3. And as the Scriptures are sufficient in matters of Faith and circa credenda and what they are silent in are not to be received as Articles of our Faith but to be rejected as having no truth of Existence So likewise what Worship God requireth of his people is fully revealed in his Word and therefore I am to reject the worshipping of Mahomet with the Turks or Images and praying to Saints with the Papists because I have neither precept nor president in the Word but it is silent in such matters nay tells us That he is the Lord our God and him only we ought to serve 4. Though Mr. Glanvil say that God hath given no account of the state of the other World but only that general one of the happiness of some and the misery of others yet Am I to believe as Mr. Glanvil somewhere in his Book affirmeth that Samuels Soul was raised up by the Woman at Endor and that those that he feigneth to make Leagues and Contracts with Witches are the Souls of such as had been Witches when they lived and asketh Who saith that happy Souls were never imployed in any ministeries here below Or am I to believe that both the Souls of the godly and wicked do rove up and down here upon earth and make Apparitions because the Popish Teachers do hold it to be so I hope not and therefore I shall in part give an answer here to some of these and handle that of the Woman of Endor in another place 1. The Word of God doth particularly teach us the state and condition of the Souls after death that they shall be like the Angels in Heaven and all other things necessary to move and draw us to believe the immortal Existence of Souls as that most able and learned Divine Dr. Stillingfleet hath asserted in these words The Scriptures give the most faithful representation of the state and condition of the Soul of Man The World he saith was almost lost in Disputes concerning the Nature Condition and Immortality of the Soul before divine Revelation was made known to Mankind by the Gospel of Christ but life and immortality was brought to light by the Gospel and the future state of the soul of man not discovered in an uncertain Platonical way but with the greatest light and evidence from that God who hath the supreme disposal of souls and therefore best knows and understands them A Sentence truly pious and orthodoxal 2. Hath not God in the holy Scriptures amply and plainly taught us the state of the other World in describing unto us such a numerous company of Sâ—raphims and Cherubims Angels and Archangels with their several Orders Offices Ministeries and Imployments and this is more than a general account as may be seen at full in that learned and godly Piece of Bishop Halls called The invisible World And hath he not given us a particular account of the very Kingdom of Darkness telling us of the Devil and his Angels and precisely in this enumeration For we wrestle not with flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiâ—al wickedness in high places And this is more than a general account and we must needs fay that what he holds is very derogatory to the wisdom and goodness of God and the sufficiency and truth of the Scriptures 3. Must I believe him that the souls of the Saints do rove and wander here below when as Bishop Hall saith where he is speaking against the opinion of those that hold that Souls do sleep until the Day of Judgment Indeed who can but wonder that any Christian can possibly give entertainment to so absurd a thought whilst he hears his Saviour say Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with â—e where I am and that not in a safe sleep they may behold my glory which thou hast given me Sure if the Souls departed be with Christ where he is and do behold his glory then it is a Popish Fable of Mr. Glanvil to feign their coming upon Messages hither The saying of St. Bernard is remarkable in this case Advertisâ—is 〈◊〉 esse sanctarum status animarum primum videlicet in coâ—pore 〈◊〉 â—cundum sinâ— corpore tertium in corpore jam glorificatoâ— Primum in militiâ— secundum in requie tertium in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And if the second state of holy Souls bâ— without 〈◊〉 body and be at peace and rest then it must necessarily be a truth that they do not wander here nor run upon Errands For the souls of the righteous are in the hands of the Lord and there shall no torment touch theâ— And our Saviour told the Thief upon the Cross This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise that is as Dr. Hammond giveth the Paraphrase Immediately after thy death thou shalt go to a
place of Scripture in the third of Genesis the great and learned Jesuit Pererius doth undertake with tooth and nail to prove that it is to be literally interpreted and that Satan did really enter into the Body of the natural Serpent and spoke in him or through his Organs and laboureth though in vain to enervate and overthrow the strong arguments of his Brother in Religion the most learned Cardinal Cajetan Where he rejecteth the opinion of those that hold that the Devil did assume a Body in the shape of a Serpent because he saith that Satan presently after the temptation ended must have deposited and put off the assumed body but that the Serpent was after in Paradise and therefore that he did not act it in an assumed Body Therefore we shall also pass by that opinion of assuming of Bodies as being a meer groundless figment invented by the dreaming Schoolmen as we shall demonstrate hereafter But to proceed in order We shall first shew that the place must of necessity admit of an Allegory or Metaphor And secondly we shall lay down positive Arguments to shew the absurdity and impossibility of the Devils speaking in the Serpent or by his Organs And thirdly we shall answer all objections that are material and that in these particulars 1. The thing that in that History is to be taken literally is that Eve was tempted and seduced but the instrument by which it was done the manner and circumstances must of necessity have an Allegorical or Metaphorical interpretation otherwise no sense rationally can be made of the place at all 2. There can no blame of the action be imputed to Satan himself if neither absolutely nor properly nor Historically nor Allegorically nor Metaphorically nor no ways else he be named in that very History of Evahs tentation wherein the action it self with the several circumstances is fully and plainly expressed For the action especially being so weighty a matter was necessary to be known in every point And therefore it is not to be doubted but that the History concerning the same is so exactly set forth with every circumstance as that any Man may be able to judge of the principal Actors therein at the least So then although the Devil in that History be neither absolutely nor Historically nor properly expressed by name yet must we acknowledge him to be therein Allegorically and Metaphorically set forth at the least or otherways impose no blame upon him at all concerning the action And therefore must Pererius needs confess a Metaphor in the place or else the Devil cannot be made an actor in the business 3. It was no natural Serpent but the Devil himself Metaphorically set forth by the name of a Serpent who gave the onset upon Evah in that tentation Forby Allegories and Metaphors there is evermore some other thing meant than that which is literally expressed And that this is so is thus proved If in that action the Devil himself be not Historically and properly but Allegorically and Metaphorically called a Serpent because he is most crafty and subtile then undoubtedly the objection of a natural Serpent to be used in that action is very inconvenient But the antecedent is true and therefore also the consequent 4. The antecedent to that Hypothetical Argument foregoing is easily thus proved It is an accustomed thing in the Sacred Scriptures to use the names of other creatures in setting forth to our sense the Intellectual Creatures themselves Hereupon it is that in the Apocalypse the Devil by a perpetual Allegory is called a Dragon or Serpent And therefore in this History of Evahs tentation by the like perpetual Allegory he is also called a Serpent For no Man can be so absurd and foolish to think that the Devil literally and properly in that of the Revelation can be called a Dragon or Serpent but only in a Metaphorical and Mystical sense and therefore must in right reason be taken so in that place of Genesis for one part of Scripture is alwaies best interpreted by another 5. Again how can Judah literally be a lions whelp or Christ called the lion of the tribe of Judah must it needs be understood that Christ either assumed the shape of a natural Lion or that he entred into the Body of a natural Lion Surely not that were most absurd to think or believe Even so must it be accounted most absurd and abominable for Pererius or any other to fancy that the Devil may not properly enough in an Allegory or Mystical sense be called a Serpent in that action of tempting of Evah without either assuming the shape of a Serpent or entring into the Body of a natural one I appeal to all rational Men to judge if the absurdities of both be not alike if barely and literally taken But this being one of Cajetans Arguments was too hard a morsel for the teeth of Pererius and therefore he past it over without an answer Further when our Saviour called the Pharisees and Sadducees a generation of vipers must any Man be so extreamly mad as to believe that naturally and literally they were generated by vipers Must it not be understood that they were called so from their poysonous and wicked minds by way of Metaphor Yes surely and so is the Devil called a Serpent by a Metaphor or else literally so taken both appellations are equally absurd And let Pererius or any other unloose this knot 6. How can the Devil be a very murtherer from the beginning which he is Mystically so considered if he had no hand in the destroying of Evah and Adam both in Souls and Bodies But if by the Serpent the Devil was not understood then he stands acquitted and was not guilty of the murdering Adam and Evah both in Souls and Bodies But we must affirm that all learned and rational Divines whether antient middle or modern that have expounded or commented upon that place do by the words of our Saviour calling Satan a murderer from the beginning understand the murdering of Adam and Evah both in Souls and Bodies And we dare referr all those that have taken or will take pains to examine them upon that piece of Scripture that they shall be found as we have averred 7. Moses in that action doth purposely intitle the Devil by the name of a Serpent because by his effectual creeping into the interiour senses as also by infecting Mens minds with venomous perswasions he doth very lively represent the nature disposition and qualities of the venemous Serpent And in this same sense was the Apostle jealous over the Corinthians lest as that Serpent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which must necessarily be understood of Satan by a Metaphor of that Serpent beguiled Evah through his subtilty so they might by the cunning of Satan in his false Apostles have their minds corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 8. The Serpent that tempted Evah in Paradise is there said to be more
sent him and taught him by God by Visions Angels Trances or other such like wayes as God in those times used to reveal his Will to his Prophets by For from first to last it appeareth that he neither professed nor did in this case utter any thing but what the Lord commanded him and so was no false Prophet 3. He was no false Prophet that is he had nor used any Divinations but what he had from God is most clear from these particulars 1. When Balak first sent messengers unto him his responsion was If Balak would give me his house full of Silver and Gold I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God to do less or more Whereby it is apparent that he feared the Lord Jehovah and calls him his God thereby shewing the confidence that he had in him and that he acknowledged him for his only God 2. In the whole transaction of the business betwixt him and Balak he never took upon him to declare any thing but what the Lord would say unto him neither did he at all vary from the same in the least tittle 3. He confesseth all along that he had his eyes opened and that he heard the words of God and had seen the vision of the Almighty falling into a trance but having his eyes open And these were things that were not peculiar to any but such as were the true Prophets of the Lord Jehovah 4. The truth of his Prophecie which was of the Kingdom of Christ and the Glory and Dominion of it with the prosperity of his people doth plainly evince that he was a true Prophet of the Lord and that his Divinations came from the Almighty And this caused S. Hierome and some other of the Fathers believe that by this Prophecie of Balaam the Magi or Wise men were directed to come to Hierusalem to seek and worship Christ the Saviour of the World 4. Though this Prophet fell into hainous crimes and enormous sins as tempting of God who when the first Messengers came from Balak unto him was positively commanded not to go with them and yet as though God would change his mind entertained them again whereby Gods anger was kindled against him And though he was drawn to love the wages of unrighteousness and so was rebuked by the dumb Ass and though he taught Balak to lay a stumbling-block before the children of Israel and therefore had that judgment to be slain among the Midianites Yet none of these do conclude at all that therefore he used Diabolical Divinations or had not what he declared from Divine Revelation no more than the flying of Jonah to Tarshish when he was commanded to go to preach against Nineveh or his repining at Gods mercy shewed to that great City manifested him to be a lying Prophet or to use devilish Divination Neither the Prophets being seduced that cried against the altar at Bethel before Jeroboam by the old Prophet and his being slain in the way by a lion his carkase left there did at all argue that his Prophecie was false or that he had not his message from God but they only shew that even those that have been truly inspired by God and been truly taught by him have notwithstanding often disobeyed him and have had therefore fearful temporal judgments faln upon them and yet no argument that they used unlawful Divinations From hence also the Witchmongers use to urge a frivolous and groundless argument which is this that the Angel did speak in Balaams Ass and therefore the Devil may speak in a Dog or a Cat to a Witch but this is confuted by these reasons 1. What the Angel did there was by command and commission from God but we never read nor can it be proved that the Devil is sent upon such idle and ordinary errands to work a miracle to speak in a Dog or a Cat to a Witch for God doth not work wonders for any such wicked and abominable ends And if he be not sent of God he cannot of himself perform any such matter who could not enter into the Swine without Christs leave and order but is kept in chains of everlasting darkness from whence he is not loosed but when God sends him as an instrument to accomplish his will which is always for good and just ends and not for such execrable and wicked purposes 2. They take up a false supposition for the Angel was not in the Ass either essentially or effectively for at the very instant that the Ass spoke the Angel was standing in a narrow place where was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left and then seeing the Angel of the Lord she fell down under Balaam and spoke and the Angel could not both stand in the narrow way and likewise be in the Ass in the same moment of time except we should grant that absurdity that a creature may be in two distinct places at one and the self-same time which was never yet allowed to any created being But they openly belie and falsifie the words of the Text for it doth not say that the Angel spoke in the Ass but that the Lord the word is Jehovah opened the mouth of the Ass. So that we suppose here is enough demonstrated that from none of the places of Scriptures hitherto enumerated any colourable grounds can be drawn to uphold those particulars that we have laboured to confute and therefore we shall pass to another Chapter CHAP. VIII Of the Woman of Endor that pretended to raise up Samuel and of some other places in the Scriptures not handled yet and of some other objections COncerning the Woman of Endor that our English and many other Translators have falsly rendered a Witch or a Woman that had a familiar Spirit we have spoken sufficiently where we treated of the signification of the word Ob. And there have shewed plainly that she is only called the Mistriss of the bottle or of the Oracle and that what she there did or pretended to do was only by Ventriloquy or casting her self into a feigned Trance lay groveling upon the earth with her face downwards and so changing her voice did mutter and murmur and peep and chirp like a bird coming forth of the shell or that she spake in some hollow Cave or Vault through some Pipe or in a Bottle and so amused and deceived poor timerous and despairing Saul or had a confederate apparelled like Samuel to play his part and that it was neither Samuels Body Soul nor no Ghost or Devil but only the cunning and Imposture of the Woman alone or assisted with a confederate And though this might be amply satisfactory to all sound and serious judgments especially if hereunto be added what Mr. Scot Mr. Ady Mr. Wagstaff and the learned Authors of the Dialogue of Spirits and Devils have written upon this subject yet because we have promised before to speak something of the History
of Gods which are plural and more than one but he asketh in the singular what form is he of By all which it is manifest that he yet saw nothing at all For when we plainly see a thing we do not usually ask others what form it is of because our eyes can inform us of that So that he saw nothing either because he was not in the same room or that there appeared nothing that was visible 6. Now after all these ambigous lies and delatory cheats the crafty quean doth begin to come more near to give satisfaction to the blinded expectation of Saul who all this while stood gaping to see the appearance of Samuel and so she tells him who was fit to believe any thing though never so absurd or impossible behold an old man comes up and he is covered with a mantle In the beginning of the action the Text saith and when the woman saw Samuel she cried out then she said she saw gods ascending out of the earth and now after all this discourse and expence of time Samuel is but coming up all was lies and delayes the more to blind and delude the poor credulous King But yet thus far it is plain that Saul saw nothing at all and so must needs all this while either be in another room or else for certain there was no apparition visible and all the satisfaction that he had was from the lying stories the Woman told him Now let Mr. Glanvil consider and answer whether it be not only intimated but clearly holden forth in the Text that either they were in two distinct rooms or that nothing visible did appear before Saul 7. Now after all this the Text saith and Saul perceived that it was Samuel the Hebrew word doth signifie to know or to perceive and relates to the understanding but how did he know or perceive that it was Samuel not by the sight of his eyes for we have made it plain that he was either in another room or that no visible apparition presented it self before his eyes but he only perceived it by the description of the crafty Woman who knew well enough what habit or garments Samuel wore in his life time as one that was the most publickly known Man in Israel and therefore the subtil and crafty quean knowing that Saul only required Samuel to be brought up and no other doth at the last frame her tale agreeable to Sauls desire and so describes him an old Man covered with a mantle and such an one Saul had known him to be while he was living But if Saul had seen any such thing as the shape or form of Samuel then the Hebrew Verb thrice used in that action that properly signifieth to see with the eyes would have been used in this place as well as when it relateth what she saw and not the verb for knowing or perceiving that relateth to the mind and Samuel he saw not but only believed the lies she told him For otherwise it would have been And Saul saw Samuel and not Saul perceived that it was Samuel which he could not do but only by her relation and forged tales 8. The last thing in this action is that Saul stooped with his face to the ground and bowed himself now to what did he stoop and bow seeing he had seen nothing with his own eyes neither knew any thing that appeared but as the Woman told him Could it be to any thing but to an imaginary Samuel and such an one as she had described whom he conceited in his Phantasie to be Samuel himself Surely in rational consequence it could be nothing else For all that she had done and said before being undeniably lies and cheats this also in just and right reason must be judged to be so also So that it was either the Woman that being in another room did change and alter her voice and so plaid the part of Samuel or else that she had a confederate knave whom she turned out to act the part of dead Samuel 6. The last thing that we shall handle concerning this controverted subject is the examination of the grounds and reasons of those that are of a different judgment which may be comprised in these three several heads 1. Some do conceive that it was the Body of Samuel that was raised up and acted by his soul or by Satan 2. Some hold that it was Samuels Soul that appeared in the shape and habit that he had living 3. Others do positively affirm that it was the Devil that assumed the shape of Samuel and so acted the whole business by a compact betwixt him and the Woman These we shall confute in order 1. That it was not the Body of Samuel that was raised up nor the Soul joyned with it that acted Samuels part is manifest from these reasons 1. Because Samuels Body had lain too long in the grave for some account it near two years and therefore must needs in a great part be corrupted wasted and disfigured that none could have certainly known that it was Samuel 2. It must have been so putrified and stinking that none could have endured near it for the noisome and horrible smell 3. Who should have covered it with the mantle which had it been buried with him must in so long a time have been rotten and consumed Surely there were no Taylors in the Grave to make him a new one but in reason and likelihood if it had been his Body it should have appeared in Linnen or a winding-sheet if that had not been rotten likewise 4. To raise a Body so long dead must needs have required an omnipotent power for it is the Almighty power of Christ alone that raiseth up the vile Bodies of his Saints and maketh them like his glorious Body And therefore neither the woman with all her Divinations nor all the Devils in Hell nor any created power but the Lord Almighty could have wrought this miracle who would never have done it to gratifie the humour or to magnifie the cheating craft of an idolatrous wicked and couzening Witch And if the Devil or any created power could raise up the Body of a departed Saint then the rising out of the Graves of many Bodies of Saints that had slept and their coming into the holy City and appearing unto many after Christ was risen from the dead had been no certain or convincing argument of the undoubted truth of the Divinity and Resurrection of our most Blessed Saviour But they were most infallible evidences of them both as saith the Father S. Hierome in these words Sic multa corpora sanctorum resurrexerunt ut dominum ostenderent resurgentem tamen cum monumenta aperta sunt non antè resurrexerumt quà m resurgeret dominus ut esset primogenitus resurrectionis à mortuis 5. That it was not Samuels Soul joyned with the Body that acted this we thus argue That Tenent that is flatly contrary to the plain Doctrine of the Scripture must
the contrary and therefore it could not be either the true Samuel nor his Soul 8. It is manifest that the Lord had before withdrawn his good Spirit from Saul and an evil one from the Lord was come upon him and therefore it was no way probable that the Lord would in a miraculous manner answer such a wicked person whom he had utterly rejected as a reprobate Neither is it like that God would shew him an extraordinary favour by a dead Prophet that would not vouchsafe him his Spirit in an ordinary way And Samuel that came not at him for a long time though but a little distance asunder while he lived was not like to make so long a journey in a Divine errand to visit him after his death 9. And if Abraham at the request of the rich Man would not send Lazarus to warn his brethren lest they should come into that place of torment which bore with it a fair shew both of Charity and Piety much less would God give way or Samuel be desirous to come to send a blessed Soul from its rest for such a frivolous matter and in no wise to connive at the wickedness of both Saul and the Witch and never move either of them to the amendment of their lives 10. Where doth Mr. Glanvil find it mentioned in any part of Scripture or where is it recorded in the writings of any reformed or Orthodoxal Divines or where in any of their works is it declared that ever any blessed Soul after death was either sent or did come upon a Divine errand to any here below Is it not monstrous confidence not to say impudence to utter such groundless assertions without any proof reason or authority at all Let all learned and judicious persons consider and judge 3. That the Devil assumed the shape of Samuel and acted the whole business is the opinion of all or the most of the learned Divines of the reformed Churches of whom we shall crave pardon if we dissent from them it being no fundamental of Religion nor any Article of the Faith And this we profess is not done out of the spirit of contradiction nor for singularity but only because as we conceive the Tenent hath no sufficient grounds neither from Scripture nor sound reason to support it and therefore we shall labour its confutation by these ensuing arguments 1. Because this opinion that the Devil should perform this apparition doth beg two suppositions never yet sufficiently proved and that have in them no certain truth For first they take for an Hypothesis that Devils are meerly and simply incorporeal Spirits which we shall prove hereafter to be false Secondly they take for another Hypothesis that Spirits and Devils can assume what bodies they please and appear in any figure or shape which is a meer figment invented by the doating Schoolmen as we shall sufficiently make good hereafter 2. We are not of their opinion that think that the Devils do move and rove up and down in this elementary world at their pleasure to act what they list and appear when how and in what shapes they please for then the World would be full of nothing almost but apparitions and every corner replenished with their ludicrous tricks as formerly in the times of blind Popery and ignorance there was no discourse almost but of Fairies Hobgoblins apparitions Spirits Devils and Souls ranting in every house and playing feats in every Town and Village when it was nothing but the superstitious credulity and ignorant fancies of the people joined with the Impostures of the Priests and Monks And if this were true then how should Men know a true natural substance or body from these fictitious apparitions Nay how could a Man have known his Father or Mother his Brethren or Sisters his Kinsmen or Neighbours might they not as well have believed them to be Phantasms and assumed bodies as real and true creatures 3. But though faln Angels in respect of their malice wicked wills and envious desires whereby they seek as much as in them lies the ruine of all mankind both in Soul and Body may in that particular end and regard be said to be like roaring Lions going about and seeking whom they may devour and compassing the earth and walking to and fro in it yet we must affirm that in respect of executing their wicked envious and malicious wills and desires they are restrained nay kept in the chains of everlasting darkness from which fetters and chains they go not out but when and so far as they are sent ordered licensed or as some would have it worded permitted by the purpose and decree of the Divine and Almighties providence So that it is most certain that the faln Spirits cannot go forth of their chains when they list to act what mischief they would contrary to the will of the Almighty who hath fettered and still keeps them in those chains but when they are at any time let loose it is only by the will decree licence and order of Jehovah who sends them forth to accomplish his will either for punishment to the wicked to inflict upon them his just judgments for which they are the appointed ministers and executioners and in the performance of these offices of his wrath they are limited and bounded how far they shall proceed and no further or else they are sent forth to tempt or afflict the godly for the trial of their faith and herein they are so restrained and bounded by the power of the Almighty as they cannot act one jot beyond the limit of his commands or Commissions as is manifest in the case of David who was tempted by Satan to number the people and in the affliction of Job wherein he was bounded how far he should act and no further And when the evil Angels are thus sent forth and limited by God what and how far they shall act it is always for just and righteous ends as in the case of Ahab when a lying Spirit was sent by God into the mouths of his Prophets that he might be persuaded to go up to Ramath Gilead that he might be slain there or as it was for a judgment and destruction upon Sennacheribs Army that Jerusalem might be saved and freed and he sent back with shame and confusion into his own countrey or it is to manifest his glory goodness and mercy to his Saints so David was moved to number the people that falling under that temptation and he and the people therefore plagued might be brought to a greater degree of repentance and to know that their defence stood not in the multitude of men but in the benignity of Jehovah who was their strength and their defender and so Job was so sore afflicted that his Faith and Patience might be made manifest and remain for an example to all succeeding posterities But it is utterly irrational and incredible that God would send the Devil without whose mission he could not have done it to
appear in the shape of Samuel either to magnifie the skil or practice of a lewd wicked and Idolatrous Woman which thing he had forbidden by his plain and open law nor to gratifie the curiosity of a wretched Reprobate such as was Saul whom he had denied to answer by living Prophets and therefore would not answer him by the apparition of a Devil to have committed a counterfeit Imposture in the shape of holy Samuel And therefore we conclude that it was no apparition of the Devil but meerly the Imposture of the Woman either alone or with a Confederate There is also a fourth opinion concerning the transaction of this Woman of Endor that holds that it was neither the Body or Soul of Samuel that was raised up neither the Devil that appeared in his shape nor that it was the Imposture of the Witch alone or with a Confederate but that it was the Sydereal or Astral Spirit as they are pleased to term it of Samuel that was made to appear and speak by the art and skill of the Woman But because this Tenent is not of much Antiquity nor hath many assertors of it as also because it taketh that for an Hypothesis to wit that there are three parts in Man the Body Soul and Spirit and that the Soul goeth immediately after death either to Heaven or Hell the Body to the grave and that the Spirit doth for a certain time after death wander in the air and may be by a certain kind of art brought to appear visibly and to give answers of all things that it knew living which as yet hath never been sufficiently proved therefore we shall pass it over here having perhaps occasion to speak of it more largely hereafter We shall now come to mention some places in the New Testament that are produced by some thereby to prove the great power of Devils and Witches in transferring and carrying bodies in the air as is that of our Saviours temptation where it is said that the Devil took him into an exceeding high Mountain and that he set him upon the pinnacle of the Temple in Jerusalem from whence they thus argue That if the Devil had power to carry our most blessed Saviour in the air into an high mountain and to set him upon the pinnacle of the Temple that much more hath he power to carry the bodies of Witches who are his sworn vassals in the air whither he pleaseth or they desire To annul the force of which objection we give these reasons 1. If it were granted that the Devil did transport our Saviour in the air yet it will not follow that he can at any time when he pleaseth carry the Bodies of Men or Women so likewise for no particular proposition will according to the rules of art infer a general or universal conclusion nor one example or instance inductively prove a general practice one Swallow doth not make a Summer For though once when our blessed Saviour was baptized the Holy Ghost did descend like a Dove and light upon him it will not follow that in all other of his actions of preaching or working of miracles the holy Spirit should appear also in the form of a Dove nor when otheâ— Saints are Baptized will it follow that it doth or should alwaies appear in the same form And though Samson did once slay a thousand of the Philistines with the jaw-bone of an Aâ—s it doth not follow that either he did so in like manner in every battel or that every Man may do the like 2. If it were granted that the Devil did carry Christs Body in the air it will not follow that he can do so at any other times when he pleaseth because in the temptation of Christ there was an extraordinary dispensation of God for the same which cannot be presupposed in the ordinary transportation of Witches and therefore the argument falls quite to the ground 3. In the actions of Satan especially in elementary things for we speak not of the acts of his will the will order and licence of God is chiefly to be considered because his power in respect of execution is under the power of the Almighty so that he can do nothing in this respect but what he is ordered and commanded to do And therefore the end of the action is principally to be regarded for if God should have given way that Christ should be carried by Satan in the air it was for a glorious and good end that the obedience of his will to the Father might be shown and that his victory over the Devil might be made manifest but in carrying the Bodies of Witches in the air there can be no good just or pious end wherefore the Devil should be licensed or permitted to carry them in the air except it were to promote filthiness and abominable wickedness which were absurd and blasphemous to imagine And therefore we may rationally and plainly conclude that the carrying of the Bodies of Witches in the air by the power of the Devil is a false wicked and impious opinion 4. Some are of opinion that this whole transaction was visible sensible and corporeal as Theophylact and many others Some are of opinion that it was wholly in a Vision And some take a middle way that it was partly sensible and visible and partly mental and by way of vision Of which opinion the great Cameron seems to be who compares it with that of Ezekiel who saith And the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem And sheweth that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth agree with the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as applicable to lifting up or carrying in a vision as to bodily transportation And that it was either altogether or partly in a vision the learned Beza gives us this note Hoc videtur satis ostendere haec omnia per visionem quandam non corporali transvectione ostensione esse gesta quomodo nempe humanitus videre potuisset omnia regna orbis gloriam eorum in momento But though it be the more sound and rational opinion that the whole transaction was mental and in a vision yet we shall not altogether stand upon that but if it be granted that it was corporeal and visible yet it doth not appear that our Saviour was in his Body carried by the power of the Devil in the air either to the top of an high mountain nor set upon the pinnacle of the Temple in Jerusalem and that for these reasons 1. Our Saviour did not go to undertake this combat with Satan unwillingly that he need be constrained or carried to try the utmost power and malice of the Devil but readily and willingly by the conduct and leading of the holy Spirit for the Text saith in Matthew Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the Devil
to observe our ordinary Gallus Turcicus vel Gallopavus how quiet and demisly sometimes he goes and then again upon the suddain by some emotion of spirit how will his train be advanced and extended his barbles swelled and puffed up and the appendicle that comes over the bill or rostrum be extended or contracted at the pleasure of the animal And much more to consider the quick and suddain change of the colours of both those parts as sometimes to a whitishness or an ash-colour sometimes purple sometimes blewish and sometimes pure red so quick a motion that creature can give to the spirits and blood that they can so quickly alter and change not only the colours but also the magnitude And much more may we rationally believe that Angels can alter and change the figure and colour of their bodies according to the ministrations they are imployed about 3. The Scripture informeth us that in or at the resurrection the bodies of men shall be as the Angels that are in heaven sicut Angeli Now this Analogy comparison or assimilation would be altogether false if Angels had no bodies at all but were meerly incorporeal then it would follow that the bodies after the resurrection were made meer Spirits and so ceased to be bodies which is false according to the doctrine of S. Paul who sheweth us plainly that after the resurrection they are changed in qualities into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiritual bodies for there is a natural Soul or Animal body and so likewise there is a spiritual body From whence we necessarily conclude that Angels have Bodies and that they are pure spiritual ones Now we shall come to the other point intended in this Chapter that is to shew that the opinion of Angels assuming bodies of the Elements here below is a meer figment as must of necessity follow if this be a truth that we have proved to wit that they have bodies for then assuming of other bodies must needs be in vain and to no purpose but we shall also shew the weakness and folly of that Tenent by these positive reasons following 1. Those that maintain the assumption of bodies dare not affirm that they are so invested with those bodies as are humane souls with their bodies for then there must be vital union which cannot be but by Divine Ordination But it doth not any where either by Scripture or sound rational consequence appear that either God appointed or gave power to Angels to assume to themselves bodies of what shape they pleased or that he ordained a vital union betwixt the Angels and those bodies they are supposed to assume either by Creation or Generation and therefore if they did assume any such bodies it must but be as we put on and off our Garments or as Players put on and off their Perukes Vizards and Garments according to the several things or persons they intend to represent ad personate 2. But the great question will be who are the Taylors that shape and frame them these vestments what must it be themselves that shape and figurate these bodies as snails are supposed to frame and make their shells and houses Surely not because if they be simply incorporeal then they can make no contact with corporeal matter and without a corporeal contact there can be no alteration nor organization of matter and consequently they cannot frame or shape themselves such vestments neither can any other actor or agent be assigned that can frame them and therefore the Tenent is a most ridiculous figment And again if they should have such solid bodies framed of the inferior Elements as the body of a Serpent as the Witchmongers do suppose the Devil assumed when he deceived Evah and such bodies as Demons are vainly supposed to assume to carry the heavy bodies of Men and Women in the air then those bodies must needs be of that solidity and compactness that they cannot suddainly be wasted and dissipated and then doubtlesly we should find them sometimes as we do the sloughs Exuvias or skins of Snakes for they could not be consumed in a moment And it were horrid to suppose that God should instantaneously create them and as suddainly dissipate and waste them So that in verity there is nothing of certitude but it may be looked at as a Chimera and a Poetical Fable 3. And if the Angels had not such bodily organs wherein they could move walk speak and perform other such actions withal before they assumed or crept into such vestments their being inclosed and invested with them and in them would no more fit and inable them to walk or speak in them than would an hollow Image inable a lame Man to walk or a dumb Man to speak that were inclosed in them Therefore suppose as the Witchmongers hold that the Devil should appear to a Witch in the assumed shape of a Cat Dog Foal or such like and walk and talk with him or her if before that assumption of such a shape the Devil could not walk and speak the having crept into such a vestment would no more inable him to speak than a dead Cat in an empty hogshead or wind pent in an empty bladder CHAP. XI Of the Knowledge and Power of faln Angels THese evil Angels of which we treat did doubtless before they left their habitation and did not keep their first estate participate of the same knowledge and power that those Angels still retain that did not fall into that defection and rebellion so that our disquisition must be what knowledge and power they have lost and what they still do retain and this we may consider in these particulars 1. That there are many things of which they are totally ignorant and nescient 2. The knowledge that they have is dark and confused 1. Concerning the first this must of necessity be a certain rule that what the holy and elect Angels do not know the evil and faln Angels must much more ignore except the knowledge of evil and guilt from which the good Angels are free and these may be reduced to these few points 1. We here may consider that the knowledge of Angels is to be restrained into these three ranks first either their innate and congenerate knowledge or secondly their infused or revealed knowledge by God in his Son Jesus Christ or thirdly their experimental knowledge that they gain by observation and experience and it is of the first only that we speak in this Paragraph and the rest we shall handle anon 2. That our cogitations desires and affections are not known to the Angels unless they manifest themselves either by external signs or effects or be revealed from God Andtheseways they may be known but not otherwise for it is manifest that Satan had darted it or put it into the mind of Judas to betray Christ yet had he so cunningly carried himself that neither by any effect nor sign did the Disciples know it until our Saviour did reveal it unto them
cannot be found nor read of having the unquestionable authority of sacred writ to avouch it 2. Another parallel unto it and of equal authority verity and perspicuity is the sending of the Angel Gabriel unto the Virgin Mary her seeing of him hearing of his salutation having discourse with him and seeing his departure both which are undoubted testimonies of the true and real appearance of good Angels even to sight and hearing 3. That sometimes the good Angels have been sent to the servants of God and have appeared and spoken unto them in dreams as that the Angel of the Lord appeared unto Joseph in a dream and bade him to take unto him Mary his wife which was a blessed and clear apparition though in a dream in his sleep And likewise by the appearing of an Angel unto him in a dream he was warned to take the child and his mother and to flee into Aegypt and also again was commanded by an Angel after the death of Herod that appeared in a dream and bade him to take the young child and his mother and to go into the land of Israel 3. Of the visible apparition of evil Angels we scarce have any evidence at all in the Scriptures except we should take supposals for proofs or disputable places to be certain demonstrations or wrest and hale the word of God to make it serve our preconceived opinions For I do not find any one place in all the Scriptures where plainly and positively any apparition of evil spirits is recorded or that by any rational and necessary consequence such a visible appearance can be deduced or proved For we have clearly proved that the tempting of Evah by the Serpent doth not necessarily inferr that it was by a visible apparition but by a mental delusion and that that of Saul and the Woman of Endor or the Mistriss of the bottle was neither Samuel in Soul and Body nor his Soul alone neither the Devil in his shape we suppose we have evinced past answer and that the tempting of our blessed Saviour by Satan was internal or at least the greatest part of it so that there doth remain but little of certain proof of the apparition of Devils in that gross manner and so common and frequent as many do too peremptorily affirm yet for all this we think it rational to grant that as God hath in times past often sent messages by good Angels for the teaching counselling and comforting of his servants both audibly and visibly to be perceived so also that sometimes God might not only send evil Spirits internally and mentally to deceive and seduce the wicked as in the case of the lying spirit in the mouth of Ahabs Prophets but also visibly to appear to terrifie punish and destroy the wicked or to make way for the manifestation of his glory And the Scriptures that mention Demoniacks and such as are commonly said to be possessed though that were not by an essential inhesion but by an effective operation both upon the Souls and Bodies of the persons that were so affected and afflicted do plainly shew that the operative effects of the Devils power was both heard and seen by their words and actions So the Devils using the organs of the man in whom was the legion of them they besought Christ not to command them to go out into the deep but besought him to suffer them to go into the herd of swine Which plainly sheweth that their words were audible and were heard of the multitude that were by and the acts that they performed were visible enough for by the power of the Devil he brake the chains and fetters wherewithal he was bound and was driven of the Devil into the wilderness and that these Devils went forth of the man and entered in amongst the herd of swine by whose effective power the swine ran violently down a steep rock into the sea and were drowned And this doth plainly manifest the present operation of the Devils that was apparent both by the words and actions that were both to be seen and heard so that this in that large sense that it is usually taken in was a real apparition of Devils or at least equivalent thereunto For we do but here inquire after such appearances of Devils that do necessarily infer their presence in operating so in and upon creatures or corporeal matter that by sight hearing or other of the senses it may certainly be manifest to work above the ordinary power of nature and may induce us rationally by the testimony of our senses to believe that those things are brought to pass by those creatures that we call Demons as many of these persons who were said to have been or to be afflicted with Devils were in the days of our blâ—ssed Saviours remaining in the flesh 4. But though it be never so freely and fully granted that in the ages and times mentioned in the Old and New Testament nay it may be for a century or more after there were persons that were possessed and afflicted with Devils and also that for that time there were many miracles wrought Yet now it will be said that miracles are totally ceased as not being any way necessary to confirm the Gospel which is now established and setled This we confess is so strongly and convincingly proved by the Divines of the reformed Churches that we account him wilfully blind that will oppose it Yet notwithstanding all this that miracles are totally ceased I grant that there are some strange things that have happened in late ages and some in our own time that cannot be any way solved by meer ordinary natural causes and apparitions made by some kind of creatures that must be derived from some such causes as those of good or bad Spirits or from creatures of the like nature And that though miracles be ceased it will not therefore follow that every thing that hath a cause above or differing from the usual and ordinary course of nature must be also ceased for quanquam nunc non sint miracula possint tamen esse miranda and though that miracles be ceased yet it will not follow that apparitions are so also because apparitions are not miracles for a good Angel to be sent and to appear cannot be said to be a miracle because it is the end for which he was created they that is the Angels are all ministring spirits sent forth for the good of those that shall be heirs of Salvation And it cannot be said otherwise of evil Angels or of any other creatures that may make these apparitions for as they are and must be creatures so there is and must be some certain ends for which they were created and are imployed unto 5. But to prove the truth of apparitions or other strange Phenomena's equivalent unto them as to have been truly performed as matters of fact is extream difficult and almost impossible because the Histories and relations of things of this nature are
by ten or twelve thrown into one pit and yet not one of them have issued any fresh and pure blood Only from some of their wounds some sanious matter would have flowed putrefaction beginning by reason of the moisture and acidity in the air but no pure blood and therefore is not a common accident to all humane bodies that die naturally or violently but only is peculiar to some and especially to those that are murthered by prepensed malice as appeareth in the Histories recited above 2. We shall acknowledge with Gregorius Horstius Sperlingius and Gothofredus Voigtius that sometimes the bodies of those that have been murthered do bleed when the murtherer is not present as is manifest from the sixth History recited from Horstius of the young Man of twenty five years old that bled so long and so often though the murtherer was not present from whence they conclude that the presence of the murtherer is not a necessary cause of the bleeding of the murthered body and therefore that the bleeding of the body is not always a certain and infallible sign of discovering the murtherer To which we reply that the issuing of fresh and crimson blood from the wound or the nostrils of the persons body that hath been murthered is always a certain sign that the Corps that doth so bleed was murthered because those that die naturally or violently by chance man-slaughter or in the war do not bleed as hath been proved before Again if the murtherer be certainly known or have confessed the crime in regard of the final cause which is discovery there is no reason why the Corps should bleed And though the presence of the murtherer may not be the efficient cause why the Corps doth bleed yet is it the occasional as is manifest undeniably by sundry of the Histories that we have related where the murtherers had not been certainly known but by the bleeding of the body murthered 3. Whereas the three Authors above named thinking they have sufficiently confuted those that ascribed this effect of the bleeding of the dead body to Sympathy or Antipathy or to the moving of the bodies or heat in the air have assigned the cause to be the beginning of putrefaction in the bodies murthered by which a new motion is caused in the humors and so in the blood by which means it floweth afresh against this these two reasons oppose themselves 1. Must putrefaction needs begin at that very moment when the murtherer toucheth the body For in divers of them there was no bleeding until the murtherers were present or did touch the bodies and their touching could not cause the beginning of putrefaction and soon after their removing the bleeding hath ceased so that putrescence in fieri cannot be the cause of the fresh bleeding 2. Putrefaction beginning could not be the cause why the murthered Shepherds body in the ninth History should with its hands point to the wound and to the murtherers nor that the hands of the Wench murthered by the Jews in the tenth History should be stretched forth to the Prince of Baden or that the Lips and Nostrils of the Body of Gawkley should work and open at the touch of the murtherer How this must of necessity proceed from some higher cause than putrefaction or any other they have laid down 4. But though it should be acknowledged that in some of these bleedings there were something that were extraordinary or supernatural yet as learned Horstius tells us It is he saith an inconvenient Tenent of those that hold that the Souls of those that are murthered wandering about the Bodies by reason of the hatred they bear towards those that were their murtherers do cause these bleedings but this in Philosophy cannot stand because the separate form can by no means operate upon the subject any longer And he saith the same thing in Theologie seems to be very impious because the Souls of the dead are without mundane conversation as is sufficiently manifest from the History of the Rich Man and Lazarus Luke 16. 5. And if some should refer these effects immediately unto God as many learned Authors have done as though God by this means would sometimes make known those that are guilty or to refer this unto the Devil as though he would sometimes elude the Judges and to do this that so the innocent might be punished with the wicked We answer he saith to this briefly by adding this only that a supernatural cause is not rashly to be feigned where a natural one is ready at hand And if there be such examples which cannot be reduced to these aforesaid natural causes of which sort many are related by Libanius part 2. sol 172. then we can by no reason be repugnant but that they are preternaturally brought to pass And of this opinion are most of the Pontificial Writers that thereby they might the better maintain their Tenent that miracles are not ceased though we do not understand that if we should grant that in these things there should be some concurrence of Divine Power more than ordinary that therefore it must be a miracle for it is yet not infallibly concluded what a miracle is and every wonderful thing is not therefore concluded to be a miracle and a miracle being not absolutely defined what is not one cannot be certainly resolved 6. Some there are that ascribe these strange bleedings of murthered bodies and of their strange motions with the sweating of blood as upon the Pedlars bended dagger or knife mentioned in the eleventh History unto the Astral or Sydereal spirit and that not improbably that being a middle substance betwixt the Soul and the Body doth when separated from the Body wander or hover near about it bearing with it the irascible and concupiscible faculties wherewith being stirred up to hatred and revenge it causeth that ebullition and motion in the blood that exudation of blood upon the weapon and those other wonderful motions of the Body Hands Nostrils and Lips thereby to discover the murtherer and bring him to condign punishment Neither is any Tenent yet brought by any that is more rationally probable to solve these and many other wonderful Phenomena's than this of the Astral Spirit if it can be but fully proved that there is such a part of Man that doth separately exist which we shall endeavour to prove ere we end this Chapter 7. But it is granted upon all sides that if the murtherer be brought to the presence or touch of the person murthered and not quite dead that then the wounds though closed and staid from bleeding or the nostrils will freshly break forth and bleed plentifully The reason is obvious because the Soul being yet in the Body retaining its power of sensation fancy and understanding will easily have a presension of the murderer and then no marvail that through the vehement desire of revenge the irascible and concupiscible faculties do strongly move the blood that before was
great hater of superstition did cause it to be broken into small pieces and so with the Silk in which it was wrapped threw it into the sink of the House I confess I have heard strange stories of things that have been revealed by these supposed apparitions from persons both of great worth and learning but seeking more narrowly into the matter I found them all to be superstitious delusions fancies mistakes cheats and impostures For the most part the child tells any thing that comes into his fancy or doth frame and invent things upon purpose that he never seeth at all and the inquirers do presently assimilate them to their own thoughts and suspicions Some that pretended to shew and foretel strange things thereby to get money have been discovered to have had confederates that conveied away mens goods into secret places and gave the cunning Man notice where they were hid and then was the child taught a straight framed tale to describe what a like Man took them away and where they were which being found brought credit enough to the couzeners and this I knew was practised by one Brooke and Bolton Some have had artificial glasses whereinto they would convey little pictures as Dr. Lambe had It being manifest by what we have laid down that there are apparitions and some such other strange effects whereby murthers are often made known and discovered and also having mentioned that it may be most rationally probable that they are caused by the Astral or Sydereal Spirit it will be necessary to open and explain that point and to shew what grounds it hath upon which it may be settled which we shall do in this order 1. There are many especially Popish Authors thereby to uphold their Doctrine of Purgatory that maintain that they are the Souls of the persons murthered and deceased and this opinion though unanswerably confuted by the whole company of reformed Divines is notwithstanding revived by Dr. Henry Moore but by no arguments either brought from Scripture or grounded upon any solid reasons but only some weak conjectures seeming absurdities and Platonick whimsies which indeed merit no responsion And we have by positive and unwrested Scriptures in this Treatise afore proved that the Souls of the righteous are in Abrahams bosom with Christ at peace and rest and that the Souls of the wicked are in Hell in torments so that neither of them do wander here or make any apparitions for as S. Augustine taught us Duo sunt habitacula unum in igne aeterno alterum in regno aeterno And in another place Nec est ulli ullus medius locus ut possit esse nisi cum Diabolo qui non est cum Christo. And Tertullian and Justin Martyr two most ancient writers do tell us That Souls being separated from their Bodies do not stay or linger upon the earth And after they be descended into the infernal pit they do neither wander here upon their own accord nor by the power and command of others But that wicked spirits may counterfeit by craft that they are the Souls of the dead Vid. Lavaterum de Spectris secunda parte c. 5. 2. We have also shewed that these apparitions that discover murther and murtherers and brings them to condign punishment cannot be the evil Angels because they are only Ministers of torture sin horror and punishment but are not Authors of any good either Corporeal or Spiritual apparent or real So that it must of necessity be left either to be acted by a Divine Power and that either by the immediate power of the Almighty for which we have no proof but only may acknowledge the possibility of it or mediate by the ministery of good Angels which is hard to prove there being no one instance or the least intimation of any such matter in all the Scriptures and therefore in most rational probability either relations of matters of fact of this nature are utterly false or they are effected by the Astral spirit 3. Concerning the description of this Astral Spirit or Sydereal Body for though it be as a spirit or the image in the looking-glass yet it is truly corporeal we shall give the sum of it as Paracelsus in his magisterial way without proof doth lay down He positively holdeth that there are three essential parts in Man which he calleth the three great substances and that at death every one of these being separated doth return into or unto the Womb from whence it came as The Soul that was breathed in by God doth at death return unto God that gave it And that the Body that is to say that gross part that seems to be composed of the two inferior Elements of Earth and Water doth return unto the Earth and there in time consume away some bodies in a longer time some in a shorter But the third part which he calleth the Astral Spirit or Sydereal Body as being firmamental and consisting of the two superior Elements of Air and Fire it he saith returneth into its Sepulcher of the Air where in time it is also consumed but requireth a longer time than the body in regard it consisteth of more pure Elements than the other and that one of these Astral Spirits or Bodies doth consume sooner than another as they are more impure or pure And that it is this spirit that carrieth along with it the thoughts cogitations desires and imaginations that were impressed upon the mind at the time of death with the sensitive faculties of concupiscibility and irascibility And that it is this spirit or body and not the Soul that resteth in the hands of the Lord that appeareth and is most usually conversant in those places and those negotiations that the mind of the person living whose spirit it was did most earnestly follow and especially those things that at the very point of death were most strongly impressed upon this spirit as in the case of the person murthered whose mind in the very minute of the murther receiveth a most deep impression of detestation and revenge against the murtherer which this spirit bearing with it doth by all means possible seek the accomplishment of that revenge and therefore doth cause dreams of discovery bleedings and strange motions of the body murthered and sometimes plain apparitions of the persons murthered in their usual shape and habit and doth vocally and audibly reveal the murther with all the circumstances as is apparent in the two forementioned Histories of the apparition of Fletcher to Raynard and of the Woman murthered by Mark Sharp to the Miller Grimes 4. And this Astral Spirit is no more than that part in Man that is commonly called the sensitive Soul and by the Schools is commonly defined thus Anima sentiens est vis quae apprehendit percipit ea quae extra ipsam sunt And this is corporeal and as Dr. Willis holdeth mortal and coextended with the Body and that it hath the power of imagination appetite desire and
aversion and the like and in a manner a sensitive way of ratiocination and yet is distinct from the ratinal Soul or Mens that is incorporeal immortal and far more excellent And perspicacious Helmont holding this sensitive Soul to be distinct from the mens or immortal and rational Soul saith thus Est ergo anima sensitiva caduca mortalis mera lux vitalis data à patre luminum nec alio modo verboque explicabilis But of the rational Soul he saith Ipsa autem mens immortalis est substantia lucida incorporea immediate Dei sui imaginem referens quia eandem in creando sive in ipso Empsychosis instanti sibi insculptam suscepit So that both these late and learned Authors hold that in every Man there are two distinct Souls the sensitive that is mortal corporeal and coextended with the Body and the rational that is immortal and absolutely incorporeal so that though in words and terms they seem to differ yet in substance they agree For the Hermetick School the Platonists Paracelsus Jacob Behemen and others do hold three parts in Man which they call Soul Spirit and Body and these two last Authors do hold the body to be one part in Man and two Souls besides the sensitive and rational that are two distinct parts the one corporeal and mortal and the other incorporeal and immortal and so they do but nominally differ And now our task must be to prove that first there are such three parts in Man and that after death they do separately exist which we shall attempt in this order 1. Though arguments taken à notatione nominis do not necessarily prove yet they illustrate and render the case plain and intelligible and we shall find that the Hebrews have three distinct appellations for these three parts As for the Soul either rational or sensitive or vital spirit they use Nephesh which is common to brutes and reptiles as well as to Man as saith the Text And to every beast of the earth and to every sowl of the air and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth in which there is a living soul Nephesh Haiah And therefore to distinguish the rational and immortal Soul from this which is sensitive mortal and common with brutes the Text saith And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. Upon which Tremellius gives us this note Ut clarins appareret discrimen quod est inter animam hominis reliquorum animantium Horum enim animae ex eadem materia provenerunt unde corpora habebant illius verò anima spiritale quiddam est Divinum And upon the words Sic fuit homo Id est ait hac ratione factum est ut terrea illa statua animata viveret Another word they use which is Ruah and this is also generally attributed to Men and Beasts as the words of Solomon do witness Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upwards and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth And in both these touching both Man and Beast the word Ruah is used as common to them both and sometimes it is taken specially for the rational immortal Soul as And the spirit shall return unto God who gave it Also they have the word Niblah and Basar that is corpus caro or cadaver and by these three they set forth or distinguish these three parts And the Grecians have likewise their three several names for these parts as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 anima vita which is taken promiscuously sometimes for the rational and immortal Soul as in this place And fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell And it is taken for the life in that of the Acts And Paul said Trouble not your selves his life is in him Also they have the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spiritus ventus spiritus vitae being variously taken yet sometimes for the rational and immortal Soul as Father into thy hands I commend my spirit So they have the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Corpus the body or gross and fleshly part And to these accord the three Latine terms for these three distinct parts Anima Spiritus and Corpus 2. This opinion of these three parts in Man to wit Body Soul and Spirit is neither new nor wants Authors of sufficient credit and learning to be its Patrons For Hermes Trismegistus an Author almost of the greatest Antiquity saith thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is God is in the mind the mind in the soul and the soul in matter But Marsilius Ficinns gives it thus Beatus Deus Daemon bonus animam esse in corpore mentem in anima in mente verbum pronunciavit And further addeth Deus verò circa omnia simul atque per omnia mens circa animam anima circa aërem aër circa materiam And some give it more fully thus God is in the mind the mind in the Soul the Soul in the Spirit the Spirit in the blood and the blood in the Body But besides this ancient testimony it is apparent that the whole School of the Platonists both the elder and later were of this opinion and also the most of the Cabalists For Ficinus from the Doctrine of of Plato tells us this Humanae cogitationis domicilium anima ipsa est Animae domicilium spiritus Domicilium spiritus hujus est corpus But omitting multitudes of others that are strong Champions for this Tenent we think for authorities to acquiesce in that of our most learned Physician and Anatomist Dr. Willis and in those that he hath quoted which we shall give in the English First he saith Lest I be tedious in rehearsing many it pleaseth me here only to cite two Authors but either of which is a Troop for the confutation of the contrary opinion The one he saith is the most famous Philosopher Petrus Gassendus who Physic. Sect. 3. lib. 9. c. 11. doth divide toto Coelo as is said the mind of man from the other sensitive power as much as is possible to be done by many and most signal notes of discrimination yea disjoining of them as it is said in the Schools by specific differences Because when he had shewed this to be corporeal extended nascible and corruptible he saith the other is an incorporeal substance and therefore immortal which is immediately created and infused into the body by God to which opinion he sheweth Pythagoras Plato Aristotle and for the most part all the ancient Philosophers except Epicurus did much agree excepting notwithstanding that they did hold as not knowing the origin of the Soul which they judged to be immortal that it being cropt off from the soul of the world did slide into the body
supposing it to be the matter of the stone did distill it and work upon it and in the glasses they did perceive certain Phantasms or Shapes of Men of which they were no little afraid 3. Our Countryman Dr. Flud a person of much learning and great sincerity doth tell us this well attested story That a certain Chymical Operator by name La Pierre near that place in Paris called Le Temple received blood from the hands of a certain Bishop to operate upon Which he setting to work upon the Saturday did continue it for a week with divers degrees of fire and that about midnight the Friday following this Artificer lying in a Chamber next to his Laboratory betwixt sleeping and waking heard an horrible noise like unto the lowing of Kine or the roaring of a Lion and continuing quiet after the ceasing of the sound in the Laboratory the Moon being at the full by shining enlightening the Chamber suddenly betwixt himself and the Window he saw a thick little cloud condensed into an oval form which after by little and little did seem compleatly to put on the shape of a Man and making another and a sharp clamour did suddenly vanish And that not only some Noble Persons in the next Chambers but also the Host with his Wife lying in a lower room of the house and also the neighbors dwelling in the opposite side of the street did distinctly hear as well the bellowing as the voice and some of them were awaked with the vehemency thereof But the Artificer said that in this he found solace because the Bishop of whom he had it did admonish him that if any of them from whom the blood was extracted should die in the time of its putrefaction his Spirit was wont often to appear to the sight of the Artificer with perturbation Also forthwith upon Saturday following he took the retort from the Furnace and broke it with the light stroak of a little key and there in the remaining blood found the perfect representation of an humane head agreeable in face eyes nostrils mouth and hairs that were somewhat thin and of a golden colour And of this last there were many ocular witnesses as the Noble Person Lord of Bourdalone the Chief Secretary to the Duke of Guise and that h ehad this relation from the Lord of Menanton living in that house at the same time from a certain Doctor of Physick from the owner of the house and many others So that it is most evident that there are not only three essential and distinct parts in Man as the gross body consisting of Earth and Water which at death returns to the earth again the sensitive and corporeal Soul or Astral Spirit consisting of Fire and Air that at death wandereth in the air or near the body and the immortal and incorporeal Soul that immediately returns to God that gave it But also that after death they all three exist separately the Soul in immortality and the body in the earth though soon consuming and the Astral spirit that wanders in the air and without doubt doth make these strange apparitions motions and bleedings and so we conclude this tedious discourse with the Chapter CHAP. XVII Of the sorce and efficacy of Words or Charms whether they effect any thing at all or not and if they do whether it be by Natural or Diabolical virtue and force THere is nothing almost so common not only in the Poets who have been the chief disseminators of many such things but in most of other Authors as the mention of the force of Charms and Incantations And yet if we narrowly search into the bottom of the matter there is nothing more difficult than to find out any truth of the effects of them in matters of fact and therefore that we may more clearly manifest what we have proposed in this Chapter we shall first premise these few things 1. Those that take the effects of them to be great as many Divines Philosophers and Physicians do suppose no efficacy in them solely holding that quantitates rerum nullius sunt efficaciae but that they are only signs from the Devil to delude the minds of those that use them and in the mean time that the Devil doth produce the effects But it had been well if those that are of this opinion had shewed us the ways and means how the Devil doth operate such things seeing he can do nothing in corporeal matter but by natural means So that either we must confess that there is no force at all in Charms or that the effects produced are by natural means 2. Neither can we assent fully to those that hold that the force of imagination can work strange things upon other bodies distinct and separate from the body imaginant upon which it is not denied to have power to operate very wonderful things and that for the reason given by the most learned Lord Verulam which is this Experimenta quae vim imaginationis in corpora aliena solidè probent pauca aut nulla prorsus sunt cum fascini exempla huc non faciant quod Daemonum interventu fortasse non careant 3. I said not assent fully because there are some reasons that incline me to believe the possibility of it though there be hardly found any experiments that solidly prove it For as the said Lord Verulam saith again Movendi sunt homines ne fidem detrahant operationibus ex transmissione spirituum vi imaginationis quia eventus quandoque fallit And there are so many learned Authors though Dr. Casaubon according to his scurrilous manner stiles them Enthusiastical Arabs of all sorts that do stifly maintain the power of the imagination upon extraneous bodies with such strength of argument that I much stagger concerning the point and therefore dare not say my assent is fully to either For learned Dr. Willis having as we conceive unanswerably proved that there is a twofold Soul in Man and that the one which is the sensitive is corporeal though much approaching to the nature of spirit how far the force of imagination which is its instrument may reach or what it may work at distance is not easy to determine And if the Soul as Helmont laboureth to prove by the Prerogative of its creation can when suscitated by strong desire and exalted phantasie operate per nutum then it must needs follow that it may work upon other bodies than its own and so using Words Charms Characters and Images may bring to pass strange things But if these three conclusions be certain and true written by the pen of a most learned though less vulgarly known Author to wit 1. The Soul is not only in its proper visible body but also without it neither is it circumscribed in an organical body 2. The Soul worketh without or beyond its proper body commonly so called 3. From every body flow corporeal beams by which the Soul worketh by its presence and giveth them energie
and power of working And these beams are not only corporeal but of divers parts also If these I say be certain then doth the imagination work at distance by means of those beams and consequently Words and Charms and such like may be the means and instruments by which the imagination being the principal power of the sensitive Soul may operate strange things at distance and so that not be vain which learned Agrippa tells us Nos habitat non Tartara sed nec sydera Coeli Spiritus in nobis qui viget illa facit And we have before sufficiently proved that the species of bodies are corporeal and it is plain that these operate upon our eyes at a vast distance and do intersect one another in the air without confusion And we must in all reason acknowledge that the sensitive Soul must needs be of as much purity and energie as those that we call the sensible or visible species of things and then it must necessarily follow that it by the means of the imagination may operate at a great distance and so words and charms may from thence have power and operation For learned Agrippa that great Philosopher and master of lawful and natural Magick and not of that which is accounted diabolical as the wretched pen of Paulus Jovius hath painted him holds this Quod unicuique homini impressus est Character Divinus cujus vigore potest pertingere ad operandum mirabilia Which if so then many words charms and the like have a natural efficacy to work wonderful things and that at a great distance also 4. I cannot likewise but take notice of another caution very pertinent to our present purpose given us also by the said Lord Verulam and in English is this Again men are to be holden back from the peril of credulity lest here they too much rashly incline with an easy faith because they often see the event to answer to the operations For the cause of the success is to be referred often to the forces of the affections and imaginations in the body that is the agent which by a certain secondary reason may act in a diverse body As for example If any one carry about the figure of a Planet or a Ring or a part of some beast being certainly perswaded that it will prove helpful unto him in promoting his love or that he may be preserved from danger or wound in battel or in strife that he may overcome c. it may render his wit more stirring or may add spurs to his industry or may cherish confidence and hold up constancie from which perchancie he might have slided Now who is ignorant what industry and a mind tenacious of its purpose may design and bring to pass in civil affairs Therefore he concludeth he should err and deceive and be deceived who should ascribe these things to the force of imagination upon the body of another which his own imagination worketh in his own body And therefore this may caution all that would judge aright of the force and effects of words and charms that they may perhaps neither flow from the nature or efficacy of the words nor from the force of the imagination of him or her that pronounceth writeth giveth or applieth the charm but from the imagination and belief of the person to whom they are applied and for whom they are intended For it is manifest by common experience and we our selves have known it to be certain that these charms either pronounced or written and hung about the patients neck have produced the greatest effects upon such as are of the weakest judgment and reason as Women Children and ignorant and superstitious persons who have great confidence in such vain and inefficacious trifles and that they seldom or never produce any effects at all upon such as are obstinate Infidels in the belief of their operations and I fear we shall not or very hardly find any instance to make this good that they effectively work upon such as are utterly diffident of their force or power 5. It hath sometimes been a question Whether a rational Physician in the curing of melancholy persons or others in some odd diseases ought to grant the use of Characters or Charms and such ridiculous administrations Which is decided in the affirmative that it is lawful and necessary to use them by that able and learned Physician Gregorius Horstius by eight strong and convincing arguments And we our selves having practised the art of medicine in all its parts in the North of England where Ignorance Popery and superstition doth much abound and where for the most part the common people if they chance to have any sort of the Epilepsie Palsie Convulsions or the like do presently perswade themselves that they are bewitched fore-spoken blasted fairy-taken or haunted with some evil spirit and the like and if you should by plain reasons shew them that they are deceived and that there is no such matter but that it is a natural disease say what you can they shall not believe you but account you a Physician of small or no value and whatsoever you do to them it shall hardly do them any good at all because of the fixedness of their depraved and prepossessed imagination But if you indulge their fancy and seem to concur in opinion with them and hang any insignificant thing about their necks assuring them that it is a most efficacious and powerful charm you may then easily settle their imaginations and then give them that which is proper to eradicate the cause of their disease and so you may cure them as we have done great numbers Here it is most manifest that the charm or appension hath no efficacy at all and yet accidentally it conduces to settle their fancies and confidences which conduceth much to their cures And from hence it comes to pass that by reason of the fixed belief of the party to whom the charm is applied there are many helped when the causality and efficiency is solely in the person imaginant and confident of receiving help by the means of the charm and no efficacy at all in the charm it self nor no diabolical concurrence besides what obliquity may be in the minds of the actors nor no agency in the imagination of the charmer to produce the effect yet because often people are cured thereby the common people and sometimes the learned also do attribute the whole effect unto the charm when indeed it effecteth nothing at all And to this purpose Varius doth quote a passage from Galen which is this Sunt quidam natura laeti qui quando agrotant si eos sanos futuros medicus confirmet convaleseunt quorum spes sanitatis est causa medicus si animi desiderium incantatione aut alicujus rei ad collum appensione adjuverit citius ad valetudinem perducet But we now come to examine if we can find any convincing examples from Authors of credit that in words characters and
the sole power of the phantasie of the person imaginant or using the charms and neither by the power of the Devil nor of the charms 3. The argument to prove these things by that they are brought to pass by the strength of imagination used by Cornelius Agrippa is this Non mediocri experientia ait comprobatum est insitam à natura homini quandam dominandi ligandi vim And that there is an active terror in man if it be rightly resuscitated in him and that he know how to direct and make use of it impressed in him by the Creator which is as it were a terrifical character and signacle of God instamped upon man by which all creatures do fear and reverence man as the image of his Creator and as by the law of creation to be Lord and to bear rule over them all And here I cannot but mention that lepid though tedious ludicrous tale that Dr. Casaubon gives us of an horse-rider called John Young that could tame the most fierce Bulls and unruly Horses as also by pipeing to make the most couragious and fierce Mastiff to lie close down and to be quiet by the force of his imagination and charms And this John Youngs Philosophy was agreeable to this of Agrippa's to wit That all creatures were made by God for the use of Man and to be subject unto him and that if men did use their power rightly any man might do what he did Fides sit apud anthorem 4. Avicenna Algazel Alkindus Marsilius Ficinus Jacobus de Forluio Pomponatius Paracelsus and others do sometimes hold that the Soul the sensitive and corporeal it must be understood not by a nude apprehension or meer impery but by the emission of spirits or corporeal beams as we have shewed before do work upon external bodies and so move and alter them Sometimes they hold that the whole Soul sensitive must be meant doth go quite forth of the Body and wander into far distant places and there not only see what things are done but also to act something it self And to this opinion only meaning of the immortal and immaterial Soul Dr. Moore and Mr. Glanvil do seem to agree namely that the Soul may for a time depart forth of its Body and return again And to prove this the argument of Avicen is this Superior things he saith have dominion over the inferior and the Intelligences do rule and change corporeal things And that the Soul is a spiritual and separable substance And therefore after the same manner may act in corporeal things and change them as may be seen at large with responsions in the book of Fienus Now we come to the third and last opinion of those that positively hold that there is a force in words and characters if rightly framed to effect strange things withal and this is as strongly denied by many Therefore we shall only offer the most convincing arguments that we meet withal and leave it to the censure of others and that in this order But before we enter upon the positive arguments we think it fit lest we be mistaken though in part we may have touched some ofthem before to lay down some few cautions and considerations which we shall do in this manner 1. It is to be taken for a certain truth that the greatest part of those pretended charms and characters that are in this our age used by ignorant superstitious and cheating impostors are utterly false and of no power or efficacy at all And this was understood by our learned Countreyman Roger Bacon who tells us thus much For without all doubt he saith all of this sort now a days are false or doubtful or irrational and therefore not at all to be trusted unto And to this doth Paracelsus fully agree saying All characters are not to be trusted to or any confidence to be placed in them nor in like manner in words For the Nigromancers and Poets being very laboriously imployed about them have filled all Books with comments proceeding forth of their brains wanting all truth and foundation of which some thousands are not worth one deaf nut 2. Yet for all this we are to consider that all of them are not totally to be rejected for Bacon tells us That there are certain deprecations of ancient times instituted of men or rather ordained of God and good Angels that are both true and efficacious and such like as these may retain their first virtue As in some Countreys he saith yet some certain prayers are made upon red hot iron and upon the water of the flood and likewise upon other things by which the innocent are tried and the guilty condemned And this was the trial that by the Saxons when used in England was called Drdeall Therefore Paracelsus saith thus Repeto ergo characteribus verbis non omnibus fidendum esse sed eligenda retinenda quae recta genuina ex fundamento veritatis deprompta ac multoties probata sint which is counsel good sound and profitable And somewhere he tells us that even those true and genuine characters and Gamahuis that were rightly fabricated under due constellations and were in old time efficacious may have now lost their virtue because the configurations of the Heavens are altered 3. Many of these strange characters or words were not by wise men inserted into their works that thereby any strange things might be wrought by them but were invented to conceal those grand secrets that they would not have to be made known unto the unworthy And therefore Bacon gives us this profound and honest counsel So therefore he saith there are very many things concealed in the books of the Philosophers by sundry ways In which a Wise Man ought to have this prudence that he pass by the charms and characters and make trial of the work of nature and art And so he shall see as well animate things as inanimate to concur together by reason of the conformity of nature not because of the virtue of the charm or character And so many secrets both of Nature and Art are of the unlearned esteemed to be magical And Magicians do foolishly confide in charms and characters judging virtue to be in them and because of their vain confidence in them they forsake the work of Nature and Art by reason of the error of charms and characters And so both these sort of Men are deprived of the benefit of wisdom their own foolishness so compelling them 3. The same most learned Countryman of ours Roger Bacon doth further give us this advice saying But those things that are contained in the books of Magicians ought by right to be banished although they have in them something of truth Because they are mixed with falsities that it cannot be discerned betwixt that which is true and that which is false And also Impostors and ignorant persons have feigned and forged divers writings under the