cast out Devils by Beelzebub in his return to which he denies not the supposition or possibility of the thing in general but clears himself by an appeal to the actions of their own children whom they would not task so severely And I cannot very well understand why those times should be priviledg'd from VVITCHCRAFT and Diabolical compacts more than they were from Possessions which we know were then more frequent for ought appears to the contrary than ever they were before or since But besides this There are intimations plain enough in the Apostles Writings of the being of Sorcery and VVITCHCRAFT St. Paul reckons Witchcraft next Idolatry in his Catalogue of the workâ— of the flesh Gal. V. xx and the Sorcerers are again joyn'd with Idolaters in that sad Denunciation Rev. XXI viii and a little after Rev. XXII xv They are reckon'd again among Idolaters Murderers and those others that are without And methinks the story of Simon Magus and his Diabolical Oppositions of the Gospel in its beginnings should afford clear conviction To all which I adde this more general consideration 3. That though the New Testament had mention'd nothing of this matter yet its silence in such cases is not argumentative Our Saviour spake as he had occasion and the thousandth part of what he did and said is not recorded as one of his Historians intimates He said nothing of those large unknown Tracts of America nor gave he any intimations of as much as the â—â—â—â—…nce of that numerous people much 〈◊〉 did he leave instructions about their conversion He gives no account of the affâ—â—â—s and state of the other world but only 〈◊〉 general one of the happiness of some and the misery of others He made no discovery of the magnalia of Art or 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 I confess the omission of some of these particulars is pretty strange and unaccountable and concludes our ignorance of the reasons and menages of Providence but I suppose nothing else Thus Sir to the FIRST But the other pretence also must be examined 2 Miracles are ceast therefore the presumed actions of Witchcraft are tales and illusions To make a due return to this we must consider a great and difficult Problem which is what is a real Miracle And for answer to this weighty Question I think 1. That it is not the strangeness or unaccountableness of the thing done simply from whence we are to conclude a Miracle For then we are so to account of all the Magnalia of Nature and all the mysteries of those honest Arts which we do not understand Nor 2 is this the Criterion of a Miracle that 't is concluded beyond all natural powers for we are ignorant of the extent and bounds of Natures sphere and possibilities And if this were the character and essential mark of a Miracle we could not know what was so except we could determine the extent of natural causalities and fix their bounds and be able to say to Nature Hitherto canst Thou go and no further And he that makes this his measure whereby to judge a Miracle is himself the greatest Miracle of knowledge or immodesty Besides though an effect may transcend really all the powers of meer nature yet there is a world of spirits that must be taken into our account And as to them also I say 3 Every thing is not a Miracle that is done by Agents supernatural There is no doubt but that Evil spirits can make wonderful combinations of natural causes and perhaps perform many things immediately which are prodigious and beyond the longest line of Nature But yet These are not therefore to be called Miracles for They are SACRED WONDERS and suppose the POWER to be DIVINE But how shall the power be known to be so when we so little understand the capacities and extent of the abilities of lower Agents The Answer to this Question will discover the Criterion of Miracles which must be supposed to have all the former particulars They are unaccountable beyond the powers of meer nature and done by Agents supernatural and to these must be superadded 4. That they have peculiar circumstances that speak them of a Divine original Their mediate Authors declare them to be so and they are alwayes persons of Simplicity Truth and Holiness void of Ambition and all secular Designs They seldom use Ceremonies or natural Applications and yet surmount all the activities of known nature They work those wonders not to raise admiration or out of the vanity to be talk't of but to seal and confirm some divine Doctrine or Commission in which the good and happiness of the world is concern'd I say by such circumstances as these wonderful actions are known to be from a Divine cause and that makes and distinguisheth a Miracle And thus I am prepared for an answer to the Objection to which I make this brief return That though WITCHES by their Confederate Spirit do those odde and astonishing things we believe of them yet are they no Miracles there being evidence enough from the badness of their lives and the ridiculous ceremonies of their performances from their malice and mischievous designs that the POWER that works and the end for which those things are done is not Divine but Diabolical And by singular providence they are not ordinarily permitted as much as to pretend to any new sacred Discoveries in matters of Religion or to act any thing for confirmation of Doctrinal Impostures So that whether Miracles are ceased or not these are none And that such Miracles as are only strange and unaccountable performances above the common methods of art or nature are not ceas'd we have a late great evidence in the famous GREATRAK concerning whom it will not be impertinent to adde the following account which I had in a Letter from the Reverend Dr. R. Dean of C. a person of great veracity and a Philosopher This learned Gentleman then is pleased thus to write The great discourse now at the Coffee-Houses and every where is about Mr. G. the famous Irish Stroker concerning whom it is like you expect an account from me He undergoes various censures here some take him to be a Conjurer and some an Impostor but others again adore him as an Apostle I confess I think the man is free from all design of a very agreeable conversation not addicted to any Vice nor to any Sect or Party but is I believe a sincere Protestant I was three weeks together with him at my Lord Conwayes and saw him I think lay his hands upon a thousand persons and really there is some thing in it more then ordinary but I am convinc'd it is not miraculous I have seen pains strangely fly before his hand till he hath chased
desperate to form an apprehension of the manner of these odde performances and though they are not done the way I have describ'd yet what I have said may help us to a conceit of the possibility which sufficeth for my purpose And though the Hypothesis I have gone upon will seem as unlikely to some as the things they attempt to explain are to others yet I must desire their leave to suggest that most things seem unlikely especially to the conceited and opinionative at first proposal and many great truths are strange and improbable till custom and acquaintance have reconciled them to our fancies And I 'le presume to adde on this occasion though I love not to be confident in affirming that there is none of the Platonical supposals I have used but what I could make appear to be fair and reasonable to the capable and unprejudic'd III. BUT III. I come to another prejudice against the being of Witches which is That 't is very improbable that the Devil who is a wise and mighty spirit should be at the beck of a poor Hag and have so little to do as to attend the errands of the impotent lusts of a silly old woman TO WHICH I might answer 1 That 't is much more improbable that all the world should be deceiv'd in matters of fact and circumstances of the clearest evidence and conviction than that the Devil who is wicked should be also unwise and that he that perswades all his subjects and accomplices out of their wits should himself act like his own temptations and perswasions In brief there is nothing more strange in this objection than that wickedness is baseness and servility and that the Devil is at leasure to serve those he is at leasure to tempt and industrious to ruine And again 2 I see no necessity to believe that the Devil is alwayes the Witches confederate but perhaps it may fitly be considered whether the Familiar be not some departed humane spirit forsaken of God and goodness and swallowed up by the unsatiable desire of mischief and revenge which â—â—â—…ssibly by the laws and capacity of its stâ—â—e it cannot execute immediately And why we should presume that the Devil should have the liberty of wandering up and down the Earth and Air when he is said to be held in the chains of darkness and yet that the separated souls of the wicked of whom no such thing is affirm'd in any Sacred Record should be thought so imprison'd that they cannot possibly wag from the place of their confinement I know no shadow of conjecture This conceit I 'm confident hath prejudic'd many against the belief of Witches and Apparitions they not being able to conceive that the Devil should be so ludricous as appearing spirits are sometimes reported to be in their frolicks and they presume that souls departed never revisit the free and open Regions which confidence I know nothing to justifie For since good men in their state of separation are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why the wicked may not be supposed to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the worst sense of the word I know nothing to help me to imagine And if it be supposed that the Imps of Witches are sometimes wicked spirits of our own kinde and nature and possibly the same that have been Sorcerers and Witches in this life This supposal may give a fairer and more probable account of many of the actions of Sorcery and Witchcraft than the other Hypothesis that they are alwayes Devils And to this conjecture I 'le adventure to subjoyn another which also hath its probability viz. 3 That 't is not impossible but that the Familiars of Witches are a vile kinde of spirits of a very inferiour constitution and nature and none of those that were once of the highest Hierarchy now degenerated into the spirits we call Devils And for my part I must confess that I think the common division of spirits much too general conceiving it likely there may be as great a variety of Intellectual creatures in the invisible world as there is of Animals in the visible and that all the superiour yea and inferiour Regions have their several kindes of spirits differing in their natural perfections as well as in the kinds and degrees of their depravities which being supposed 't is very probable that those of the basest and meanest Orders are they who submit to the mention'd servilities And thus the sagess and grandeur of the Prince of darkness need not be brought into question IV. BUT IV the opinion of Witches seems to some to accuse Providence and to suggest that it hath exposed Innocents to the fury and malice of revengeful Fiends yea and supposeth those most obnoxious for whom we might most reasonably expect a more special tutelary care and protection most of the cruel practices of those presum'd Instruments of Hell being upon Children who as they least deserve to be deserted by that Providence that superintends all things so they most need its guardian influence TO this so specious an Objection I have these things to answer 1 Providence is an unfathomable Depth and if we should not believe the Phoenomena of our senses before we can reconcile them to our notions of Providence we must be grosser Scepticks than ever yet was extant The miseries of the present life the unequal distributions of good and evil the ignorance and barbarity of the greatest part of mankinde the fatal disadvantages we are all under and the hazard we run of being eternally miserable and undone these I say are things that can hardly be made consistent with that Wisdom and Goodness that we are sure hath made and mingled it self with all things And yet we believe there is a beauty and harmony and goodness in that Providence though we cannot unriddle it in particular instances nor by reason of our ignorance and imperfection clear it from contradicting appearances and consequently we ought not to deny the being of Witches and Apparitions because they will create us some difficulties in our notions of Providence But to come more close 2 Those that believe that Infants are Heirs of Hell and Children of the Devil as soon as they are disclosed to the world cannot certainly offer such an objection for what is a little trifling pain of a moment to those eternal tortures to which if they die as soon as they are born according to the tenour of this Doctrine they are everlastingly exposed But however the case stands as to that 't is certain 3 That Providence hath not secur'd them from other violences they are obnoxious to from cruelty and accident and yet we accuse It not when a whole Townful of Innocents fall a Victim to the rage and ferity of barbarous executioners in wars and Massacres To which I adde 4 That 't is likely the mischief is not so often done by the evil spirit immediately but by the malignant influence of the Sorceress whose power of hurting consists
only of Nature which is a constant Prodigy but of Men and Manners it would be to me matter of Astonishment that Men otherwise witty and ingenious are fallen into the conceit that there 's no such thing as a Witch or Apparition but that these are the creatures of Melancholly and Superstition foster'd by ignorance and design which comparing the confidence of their disbelief with the evidence of the things denied and the weakness of their grounds would almost suggest that themselves are an argument of what they deny and that so confident an Opinion could not be held upon such inducements but by some kind of Witchcraft and Fascination in the Fancy And perhaps that evil Spirit whose influences they will not allow in Actions ascribed to such Causes hath a greater hand and interest in their Proposition than they are aware of For that subtil enemy of Mankinde since Providence will not permit him to mischief us without our own concurrence attempts that by stratagem and artifice which he could never effect by open wayes of acting and the success of all wiles depending upon their secrecy and concealment his influence is never more dangerous than when his agency is least suspected In order therefore to the carrying on the dark and hidden designs he manageth against our Happiness and our Souls he cannot expect to advantage himself more than by insinuating a belief That there is no such thing as himself but that fear and fancy make Devils now as they did Gods of old Nor can he ever draw the assent of men to so dangerous an assertion while the standing sensible evidences of his existence in his practices by and upon his instruments are not discredited and removed 'T is doubtless therefore the interest of this Agent of darkness to have the world believe that the notion they have of him is but a phantome and conceit and in order thereunto That the stories of Witches Apparitions and indeed every thing that brings tidings of another world are but melancholick Dreams and pious Romances And when men are arriv'd thus far to think there are no diabolical contracts or apparitions their belief that there are such Spirits rests only upon their Faith and Reverence to the Divine Oracles which we have little reason to apprehend so great in such assertors as to command much from their assent especially in such things in which they have corrupt interests against their evidence So that he that thinks there is no Witch believes a Devil gratis or at least upon such inducements which he is like to finde himself disposed to deny when he pleaseth And when men are arrived to this degree of diffidence and infidelity we are beholden to them if they believe either Angel or Spirit Resurrection of the Body or Immortality of Souls These things hang together in a Chain of connexion at least in these mens Hypothesis and 't is but an happy chance if he that hath lost one link holds another So that the vitals of Religion being so much interessed in this subject it will not be impertinent particularly to discourse it AND in order to the proof that there have been and are unlawful confederacies with evil spirits by vertue of which the hellish accomplices perform things above their natural powers I must premise that this being matter of Fact is only capable of the evidence of authority and sense And by both these the being of Witches and diabolical contracts is most abundantly confirm'd All Histories are full of the exploits of those Instruments of darkness and the testimony of all Ages not only of the rude and barbarous but of the most civiliz'd and polish'd world brings tidings of their strange performances We have the attestation of thousands of eye and ear-witnesses and those not of the easily deceivable vulgar only but of wise and grave discerners and that when no interest could oblige them to agree together in a common Lye I say we have the light of all these circumstances to confirm us in the belief of things done by persons of despicable power and knowledge beyond the reach of Art and ordinary Nature standing publick Records have been kept of these well attested Relations and Epocha's made of those unwonted events Laws in many Nations have been enacted against those vile practises those among the Jews and our own are notorious such cases have been often determined near us by wise and reverend Judges upon clear and convictive evidence and thousands in our own Nation have suffered death for their vile compacts with apostate spirits All these I might largely prove in their particular instances but that 't is not needful since those that deny the being of Witches do it not out of ignorance of these Heads of Argument of which probably they have heard a thousand times But from an apprehension that such a belief is absurd and the things impossible And upon these presumptions they contemn all demonstrations of this nature and are hardened against conviction And I think those that can believe all Histories are Romances that all the wiser world have agreed together to juggle mankinde into a common belief of ungrounded fables that the sound senses of multitudes together may deceive them and Laws are built upon Chymera's that the gravest and wisest Judges have been Murderers and the sagest persons Fools or designing Impostors I say those that can believe this heap of absurdities are either more credulous than those whose credulity they reprehend or else have some extraordinary evidence of their perswasion viz. That 't is absurd and impossible there should be a Witch or Apparition And I am confident were those little appearances remov'd which men have form'd in their fancies against the belief of such things their own evidence would make its way to mens assent without any more arguments than what they know already to enforce it There is nothing then necessary to be done in order to the establishing the belief I would reconcile to mens minds but to endeavour the removal of those prejudices they have received against it the chief of which I shall particularly deal with and I begin with that bold Assertion That I. I. THE NOTION of a Spirit is impossible and contradictious and consequently so is that of Witches the belief of which is founded on that Doctrine TO WHICH OBJECTION I answer 1 If the notion of a Spirit be so absurd as is pretended that of a God and a Soul distinct from matter and immortal is likewise an absurdity And then that the world was jumbled into this elegant and orderly Fabrick by chance and that our Souls are only parts of Matter that came together we know not whence nor how and shall again shortly be dissolv'd into those loose Atoms that compound them That all our conceptions are but the thrusting of one part of matter against another and the Idea's of our mindes meer blind and casual motions These and a thousand more the grossest impossibilities and absurdities consequents of
the action by the evidence and not the evidence by the measures of our fancies about the action This is proudly to exalt our own opinions above the clearest testimonies and most sensible demonstrations of fact and so to give the Lye to all Mankind rather than distrust the little conceits of our bold imaginations But yet further 3 I THINK there is nothing in the instances mention'd but what may as well be accounted for by the Rules of Reason and Philosophy as the ordinary affairs of Nature For in resolving natural Phoenomena we can only assign the probable causes shewing how things may be not presuming how they are And in the particulars under our Examen we may give an account how 't is possible and not unlikely that such things though somewhat varying from the common rode of Nature may be acted And if our narrow and contracted mindes can furnish us with apprehensions of the way and manner of such performances though perhaps not the true ones 't is an argument that such things may be effected by creatures whose powers and knowledge are so vastly exceeding ours I shall endeavour therefore briefly to suggest some things that may render the possibility of these performances conceivable in order to the removal of this Objection that they are contradictions and impossible FOR the First then That the confederate Spirit should transport the Witch through the Air to the place of general Rendezvous there is no difficulty in conceiving it and if that be true which great Philosophers affirm concerning the real separability of the Soul from the Body without death there is yet less for then 't is easie to apprehend that the Soul having left its gross and sluggish Body behinde it and being cloath'd only with its immediate vehicle of Air or more subtile matter may be quickly conducted to any place it would be at by those officious Spirits that attend it And though I adventure to affirm nothing concerning the truth and certainty of this supposition yet I must needs say it doth not seem to me unreasonable And our experience of Apoplexies Epilepsies Extastes and the strange things men report to have seen during those deliquiums look favourably upon this conjecture which seems to me to contradict no principle of Reason or Philosophy since Death consists not so much in the actual separation of Soul and Body as in the indisposition and unfitness of the Body for vital union as an excellent Philosopher hath made good On which Hypothesis the Witches anointing her self before she takes her flight may perhaps serve to keep the Body tenantable and in fit disposition to receive the Spirit at its return These things I say we may conceive though I affirm nothing about them and there is nothing in such conceptions but what hath been own'd by men of worth and name and may seem fair and accountable enough to those who judge not altogether by the measures of the populace and customary opinion And there 's a saying of a great Apostle that seems to countenance this Platonick opinion what is the meaning else of that expression Whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell except the Soul may be separated from the body without death which if it be granted possible 't is sufficient for my purpose And 2. The Transformations of Witches into the shapes of other Animals upon the same supposal is very conceivable since then 't is easie enough to imagine that the power of imagination may form those passive and pliable vehicles into those shapes with more ease than the fancy of the Mother can the stubborn matter of the Foetus in the womb as we see it frequently doth in the instances that occur of Signatures and monstrous Singularities and perhaps sometimes the confederate Spirit puts tricks upon the senses of the spectators and those shapes are only illusions BUT then 3. when they feel the hurts in their gross bodies that they receive in their aiery vehicles they must be supposed to have been really present at least in these latter and 't is no more difficult to apprehend how the hurts of those should be translated upon their other bodies then how diseases should be inflicted by the imagination or how the fancy of the Mother should wound the Foetus as several credible relations do attest AND 4. for their raising storms and tempests they do it not be sure by their own but by the power of the Prince of the Air their friend and allie and the Ceremonies that are enjoyn'd them are doubtless nothing else but entertainments for their imaginations and are likely design'd to perswade them that they do these strange things themselves AND lastly for their being suck'd by the Familiar I say 1 we know so little of the nature of Doemons and Spirits that 't is no wonder we cannot certainly divine the reason of so strange an action And yet 2 we may conjecture at some things that may render it less improbable For some have thought that the Genii whom both the Platonical and Christian Antiquity thought embodied are recreated by the reeks and vapours of humane blood and the spirits that derive from them Which supposal if we grant them bodies is not unlikely every thing being refresh'd and nourish'd by its like And that they are not perfectly abstract from all body and matter besides the reverence we owe to the wisest antiquity there are several considerable arguments I could alledge to render it exceeding probable Which things supposed the Devil 's sucking the Sorceress is no great wonder nor difficult to be accounted for Or perhaps 3 this may be only a diabolical Sacrament and Ceremony to confirm the hellish covenant To which I added 4 That which to me seems most probable viz That the Familiar doth not only suck the Witch but in the action infuseth some poisonous ferment into her which gives her imagination and spirits a magical tincture whereby they become mischievously influential and the word venefica intimates some such matter Now that the imagination hath a mighty power in operation is seen in the just now mention'd Signatures and Diseases that it causeth and that the fancy is modified by the qualities of the blood and spirits is too evident to need proof which things supposed 't is plain to conceive that the evil spirit having breath'd some vile vapour into the body of the Witch it may taint her blood and spirits with a noxious quality by which her infected imagination heightned by melancholly and this worse cause may do much hurt upon bodies that are impressible by such influences And 't is very likely that this ferment disposeth the imagination of the Sorceress to cause the mentioned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or separation of the soul from the body and may perhaps keep the body in fit temper for its re-entry as also it may facilitate transformation which it may be could not be effected by ordinary and unassisted imagination Thus we see 't is not so
in the fore-mention'd ferment which is infused into her by the Familiar So that I am apt to think there may be a power of real fascination in the Witches eyes and imagination by which for the most part she acts upon tender bodies Nescio quis teneros oculus For the pestilential spirits being darted by a sprightful and vigorous imagination from the eye and meeting with those that are weak and passive in the bodies which they enter will not fail to infect them with a noxious quality that makes dangerous and strange alterations in the person invaded by this poysonous influence which way of acting by subtil and invisible instruments is ordinary and familiar in all natural efficienties And 't is now past question that nature for the most part acts by subtil streams and aporhaea's of minute particles which pass from one body to another Or however that be this kinde of agency is as conceivable as any of those qualities ignorance hath call'd sympathy and antipathy the reality of which we doubt not though the manner of action be unknown Yea the thing I speak of is as easie to be apprehended as how infection should pass in certain tenuious streams through the air from one house to another or as how the biting of a mad Dog should fill all the blood and spirits with a venomous and malign ferment the application of the vertue doing the same in our case as that of contact doth in this Yea some kindes of fascination are perform'd in this grosser and more sensible way as by striking giving Apples and the like by which the contagious quality may be transmitted as we see diseases often are by the touch Now in this way of conjecture a good account may be given why Witches are most powerful upon Children and timorous persons viz. because their spirits and imaginations being weak and passive are not able to resist the fatal invasion whereas men of bold mindes who have plenty of strong and vigorous spirits are secure from the contagion as in pestilential Airs clean bodies are not so liable to infection as are other tempers Thus then we see 't is likely enough that very often the Sorceress her self doth the mischief and we know de facto that Providence doth not alwayes secure us from one anothers injuries And yet I must confess that many times also the evil spirit is the mischievous Agent though this confession draw on me another objection which I next propose V. V. THEN it may be said that if wicked spirits can hurt us by the direction and at the desire of a Witch one would think they should have the same power to do us injury without instigation or compact and if this be granted 't is a wonder that we are not alwayes annoy'd and infested by them To which I RETURN 1 That the laws liberties and restraints of the inhabitants of the other world are to us utterly unknown and this way we can only argue our selves into confessions of our ignorance which every man must acknowledge that is not as immodest as ignorant It must be granted by all that own the being power and malice of evil spirits that the security we enjoy is wonderful whether they act by Witches or not and by what Laws they are kept from making us a prey to speak like Philosophers we cannot tell yea why they should be permitted to tempt and ruine us in our Souls and restrain'd from touching or hurting us in our Bodies is a mystery not easily accountable But yet 2 though we acknowledge their power to vex and torment us in our bodies also yet a reason may be given why they are less frequent in this kind of mischief viz. because their main designs are levell'd against the interest and happiness of our Souls which they can best promote when their actions are most sly and secret whereas did they ordinarily persecute men in their bodies their agency and wicked influence would be discover'd and make a mighty noise in the world whereby men wonld be awaken'd to a more suitable and vigorous opposition by the use of such means as would engage Providence to rescue them from their rage and cruelties and at last defeat them in their great purposes of undoing us eternally Thus we may conceive that the security we enjoy may well enough consist with the power and malice of those evil spirits and upon this account we may suppose that Laws of their own may prohibit their unlicenc'd injuries not from any goodness there is in their Constitutions but in order to the more successful carrying on the projects of the dark Kingdom as Generals forbid plunder not out of love to their Enemies but in order to their own success And hence 3 we may suppose a Law of permission to hurt us at the instance of the Sorceress may well stand with the polity of Hell since by gratifying the wicked person they encourage her in malice and revenge and promote thereby the main ends of their black confederacy which are to propagate wickedness and to ruine us in our eternal interests And yet 4 't is clear to those that believe the History of the Gospel that wicked spirits have vexed the bodies of men without any instigation that we read of and at this day 't is very likely that many of the strange accidents and diseases that befall us may be the infliction of evil spirits prompted to hurt us only by the delight they take in mischief So that we cannot argue the improbability of their hurting Children and others by Witches from our own security and freedom from the effects of their malice which perhaps we feel in more instances than we are aware of VI. BUT VI another prejudice against the belief of Witches is a presumption upon the enormous force of melancholy and imagination which without doubt can do wonderful things and beget strange perswasions and to these causes some ascribe the presum'd effects of Sorcery and Witchcraft To which I reply briefly and yet I hope sufficiently 1 THAT to resolve all the clear circumstances of Fact which we finde in well attested and confirm'd Relations of this kinde into the power of deceivable imagination is to make fancy the greater prodigy and to suppose that it can do stranger feats than are believed of any other kinde of fascination And to think that Pins and Nails for instance can by the power of imagination be convey'd within the skin or that imagination should deceive so many as have been witnesses in objects of sense in all the circumstances of discovery this I say is to be infinitely more credulous than the assertors of Sorcery and Demoniack contracts And by the same reason it may be believ'd that all the Battels and strange events of the world which our selves have not seen are but dreams and fond imaginations and like those that are fought in the clouds when the brains of the deluded spectators are the only Theatre of those fancied transactions And 2 to
deny evidence of fact because their imagination may deceive the Relators when we have no reason to think so but a bare presumption that there is no such thing as is related is quite to destroy the credit of all humane testimony and to make all men lyars in a larger sense than the Prophet concluded in his haste For not only the melancholick and the fanciful but the grave and the sober whose judgements we have no reason to suspect to be tainted by their imaginations have from their own knowledge and experience made reports of this nature But to this it will possibly be rejoyn'd the Reply will be another prejudice against the belief I contend for viz. VII VII THAT 't is a suspicious circumstance that Witchcraft is but a fancy since the persons that are accused are commonly poor and miserable old women who are overgrown with discontent and melancholy which are very imaginative and the persons said to be bewitch'd are for the most part Children or people very weak who are easily imposed upon and are apt to receive strong impressions from nothing whereas were there any such thing really 't is not likely but that the more cunning and subtil desperado's who might the more successfully carry on the mischievous designs of the dark Kingdom should be oftner engaged in those black confederacies and also one would expect effects of the hellish combination upon others than the innocent and ignorant TO WHICH Objection it might perhaps be enough to return as hath been above suggested that nothing can be concluded by this and such like arguings but that the policy and menages of the instruments of darkness are to us altogether unknown and as much in the dark as their natures mankinde being no more acquainted with the reasons and methods of action in the other world than poor Cottagers and Mechanicks are with the intriques of Government and reasons of State Yea peradventure 2 't is one of the great designs as 't is certainly the interest of those wicked Agents and Machinators industriously to hide from us their influences and wayes of acting and to work as near as is possible incognito upon which supposal 't is easie to conceive a reason why they most commonly work by and upon the weak and the ignorant who can make no cunning observations or tell credible tales to detect their artifice Besides 3 't is likely a strong imagination that cannot be weaken'd or disturb'd by a busie and subtil ratiocination is a necessary requisite to those wicked performances and without doubt an heightned and obstinate fancy hath a great influence upon impressible spirits yea and as I have conjectur'd before on the more passive and susceptible bodies And I am very apt to believe that there are as real communications and intercourses between our spirits as there are between material agents which secret influences though they are unknown in their nature and wayes of acting yet they are sufficiently felt in their effects for experience attests that some by the very majesty and greatness of their spirits discover'd by nothing but a certain noble air that accompanies them will bear down others less great and generous and make them sneak before them and some by I know not what stupifying vertue will tie up the tongue and confine the spirits of those who are otherwise brisk and voluble Which thing supposed the influences of a spirit possess'd of an active and enormous imagination may be malign and fatal where they cannot be resisted especially when they are accompanied by those poisonous reaks that the evil spirit breathes into the Sorceress which likely are shot out and applied by a fancy heightned and prepared by melancholy and discontent And thus we may conceive why the melancholick and envious are used upon such occasions and for the same reason the ignorant since knowledge checks and controuls imagination and those that abound much in the imaginative faculties do not usually exceed in the rational And perhaps 4 the Daemon himself useth the imagination of the Witch so qualified for his purpose even in those actions of mischief which are more properly his for it is most probable that spirits act not upon bodies immediately and by their naked essence but by means proportionate and suitable instruments that they use upon which account likely 't is so strictly required that the Sorceress should believe that so her imagination might be more at the devotion of the mischievous Agent And for the same reason also Ceremonies are used in Inchantments viz. for the begetting this diabolical faith and heightning the fancy to a degree of strength and vigour sufficient to make it a fit instrument for the design'd performance And these I think are reasons of likelihood and probability why the hellish confederates are mostly the ignorant and the melancholick To pass then to another prejudice VIII VIII THE frequent impostures that are met with in this kinde beget in some a belief that all such relations are forgeries and tales and if we urge the evidence of a story for the belief of Witches or Apparitions they will produce two as seemingly strong and plausible which shall conclude in mistake or design inferring thence that all others are of the same quality and credit But such arguers may please to consider 1 THAT a single relation for an Affirmative sufficiently confirmed and attested is worth a thousand tales of forgery and imposture from whence cannot be concluded an universal Negative So that though all the Objectors stories be true and an hundred times as many more such deceptions yet one relation wherein no fallacy or fraud could be suspected for our Affirmative would spoil any Conclusion could be erected on them And 2 IT seems to me a belief sufficiently bold and precarious that all these relations of forgery and mistake should be certain and not one among all those which attest the Affirmative reality with circumstances as good as could be expected or wish'd should be true but all fabulous and vain And they have no reason to object credulity to the assertors of Sorcery and Witchcraft that can swallow so large a morsel And I desire such Objectors to consider 3 WHETHER it be fair to infer that because there are some Cheats and Impostures that therefore there are no Realities Indeed frequency of deceit and fallacy will warrant a greater care and caution in examining and scrupulosity and shiness of assent to things wherein fraud hath been practised or may in the least degree be suspected But to conclude because that an old woman's fancy abused her or some knavish fellows put tricks upon the ignorant and timorous that therefore whole Assises have been a thousand times deceived in judgements upon matters of fact and numbers of sober persons have been forsworn in things wherein perjury could not advantage them I say such inferences are as void of reason as they are of charity and good manners IX BUT IX It may be suggested further That it cannot
And this is perhaps a reason why there are so few Apparitions and why appearing spirits are commonly in such haste to be gone viz. that they may be deliver'd from the unnatural pressure of their tender vehicles which I confess holds more in the apparitions of good than of evil Spirits most Relations of this kinde describing their discoveries of themselves as very transient though for those the Holy Scripture records there may be peculiar reason why they are not so whereas the wicked ones are not altogether so quick and hasty in their Visits The reason of which probably is the great subtilty and tenuity of the bodies of the former which will require far greater degrees of compression and consequently of pain to make them visible whereas the latter are more foeculent and gross and so nearer allyed to palpable consistencies and more easily reduceable to appearance and visibility AT this turn Sir you may perceive that I have again made use of the Platonick Hypothesis That Spirits are embodied upon which indeed a great part of my Discourse is grounded And therefore I hold my self obliged to a short account of that supposal It seems then to me very probable from the Nature of Sense and Analogy of Nature For 1. We perceive in our selves that all Sense is caus'd and excited by motion made in matter and when those motions which convey sensible impressions to the Brain the Seat of Sense are intercepted Sense is lost So that if we suppose Spirits perfectly to be disjoyn'd from all matter 't is not conceivable how they can have the sense of any thing For how material Objects should any way be perceiv'd or felt without vital union with matter 't is not possible to imagine Nor doth it 2. seem suitable to the Analogy of Nature which useth not to make precipitious leaps from one thing to another but usually proceeds by orderly steps and gradations whereas were there no order of Beings between us who are so deeply plunged into the grossest matter and pure unbodied Spirits 't were a mighty jump in Nature Since then the greatest part of the world consists of the finer portions of matter and our own Souls are immediately united unto these 't is infinitely probable to conjecture that the nearer orders of Spirits are vitally joyn'd to such Bodies And so Nature by Degrees ascending still by the more refin'd and subtile matter gets at last to the pure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or immaterial minds which the Platonists made the highest Order of created Beings But of this I have discoursed elsewhere and have said thus much of it at present because it will enable me to adde another Reason of the unfrequency of Apparitions and Compacts viz. 3. BECAUSE 't is very likely that these Regions are very unsuitable and disproportion'd to the frame and temper of their Senses and Bodies so that perhaps the Courser Spirits can no more bear the Air of our World than Bats and Owls can the brightest beams of Day Nor can the Purer and Better any more endure the noysom steams and poysonous reeks of this Dunghil Earth than the Delicate can bear a confinement in nasty Dungeons and the foul squallid Caverns of uncomfortable Darkness So that 't is no more wonder that the better Spirits no oftner appear than that men are not more frequently in the Dark Hollows under ground Nor is 't any more strange that evil Spirits so rarely visit us than that Fishes do not ordinarily fly in the Air as 't is said one sort of them doth or that we see not the Batt daily fluttering in the beams of the Sun And now by the help of what I have spoken under this Head I am provided with some things wherewith to disable another Objection which I thus propose XI XI IF THERE be such an intercourse between Evil Spirits and the Wicked how comes it about that there is no correspondence between Good Spirits and the Vertuous since without doubt these are as desirous to propagate the Spirit and Designs of the upper and better World as those are to promote the Interest of the Kingdom of Darkness WHICH way of arguing is still from our Ignorance of the State and Government of the other World which must be confest and may without prejudice to the Proposition I defend But particularly I say 1 That we have ground enough to believe that Good Spirits do interpose in yea and govern our Affairs For that there is a Providence reaching from Heaven to Earth is generally acknowledg'd but that this supposeth all things to be order'd by the immediate influence and interposal of the Supreme Deity is not very Philosophical to suppose since if we judge by the Analogy of the Natural World all things we see are carried on by the Ministry of Second Causes and intermediate Agents And it doth not seem so Magnificent and Becoming an apprehension of the Supreme Numen to fancy His immediate Hand in every trivial Management But 't is exceeding likely to conjecture that much of the Government of us and our Affairs is committed to the better Spirits with a due subordination and subserviency to the Will of the chief Rector of the Universe And 't is not absurd to believe that there is a Government runs from Highest to Lowest the better and more perfect orders of Being still ruling the inferiour and less perfect So that some one would fancy that perhaps the Angels may manage us as we do the Creatures that God and Nature have placed under our Empire and Dominion But however that is That God rules the lower World by the Ministry of Angels is very consonant to the sacred Oracles Thus Deut. XXXII viii ix When the most High divided the Nations their inheritance when he separated the sons of Adam he set the bounds of the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the number of the Angels of God as the Septuagint renders it the Authority of which Translation is abundantly credited and asserted by its being quoted in the New Testament without notice of the Hâ—brew Text even there where it differs from it as learned men have observ'd We know also that Angels were very familiar with the Patriarchs of old and Jacob's Ladder is a Mystery which imports their ministring in the affairs of the Lower World Thus Origen and others understand that to be spoken by the Presidential Angels Jer LI. ix We would have healed BABYLON but she is not healed forsake her and let us go Like the Voice heard in the Temple before the taking of Jerusalem by Titus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And before Nebuchadnezzar was sent to learn Wisdom and Religion among the Beasts He sees a Watcher according to the 70. an Angel and an holy One come down from heaven Dan. IV. xiii who pronounceth the sad Decree against Him and calls it the Decree of the Watchers who very probably were the Guardian Genii of Himself and his Kingdom And that there are particular Angels that
have the special Rule and Government of particular Kingdoms Provinces Cities yea and of Persons I know nothing that can make improbable The instance is notorious in Daniel of the Angels of Fersia and Graecia that hindred the other that was engaged for the concerns of Judaea yea our Saviour himself tells us that Children have their Angels and the Congregation of Disciples supposed that St. Peter had his Which things if they be granted the good Spirits have not so little to do with us and our matters as is generally believed And perhaps it would not be absurd if we referr'd many of the strange thwarts and unexpected events the disappointments and lucky coincidences that befal us the unaccountable fortunes and successes that attend some lucky men and the unhappy fates that dog others that seem born to be miserable the Fame and Favour that still waits on some without any conceivable motive to allure it and the general neglect of others more deserving whose worth is not acknowledg'd I say these and such like odde things may with the greatest probability be resolv'd into the Conduct and Menages of those invisible supervisors that preside over and govern our affairs BUT if they so far concern themselves in our matters how is it that they appear not to maintain a visible and confest correspondence with some of the better Mortals who are most fitted for their Communications and their influence To which I have said some things already when I accounted for the unfrequency of Apparitions and I now adde what I intend for another return to the main Objection viz. 2. THAT the apparition of good Spirits is not needful for the Designs of the better world whatever such may be for the interest of the other For we have had the Appearance and Cohabitation of the Son of God we have Moses and the Prophets and the continued influence of the Spirit the greatest Arguments to strengthen Faith the most powerful Motives to excite our Love and the Noblest Encouragements to quicken and raise our desires and hopes any of which are more than the apparition of an Angel which would indeed be a great gratification of the Animal Life but 't would render our Faith less noble and less generous were it frequently so assisted Blessed are they that believe and yet have not seen Besides which the good Angels have no such ends to prosecute as the gaining any Vassals to serve them they being ministring Spirits for our good and no self-designers for a proud and insolent Dominion over us And it may be perhaps not impertinently added That they are not alwayes evil Spirits that appear as is I know not well upon what grounds generally imagined but that the extraordinary detections of Murders latent Treasures falsified and unfulfill'd Bequests which are sometimes made by Apparitions may be the courteous Discoveries of the better and more benign Genii Yea 't is not unlikely that those Warnings that the world sometimes hath of approaching Judgements and Calamities by Prodigies and sundry odde Phoenomena are the kind Informations of some of the Inhabitants of the upper world Thus was Jerusalem forewarned before its sacking by Antiochus by those Aiery Horsemen that were seen through all the City for almost forty dayes together 2 Mac. V. ii iii. And the other Prodigious Portents that fore-ran its Destruction by Titus which I mention because they are notorious instances And though for mine own part I scorn the ordinary Tales of Prodigies which proceed from superstitious fears and unacquaintance with Nature and have been used to bad purposes by the Zealous and the Ignorant Yet I think that the Arguments that are brought by a late very ingenious Author to conclude against such Warnings and Predictions in the whole kinde are short and inconsequent and built upon too narrow Hypotheseis For if it be supposed that there is a sort of Spirits over us and about us who can give a probable guess at the more remarkable futurities I know not why it may not be conjectured that the kindness they have for us and the appetite of fore-telling strange things and the putting the world upon expectation which we finde is very grateful to our own Natures may not incline them also to give us some general notice of those uncommon Events which they foresee And I yet perceive no reason we have to fancy that whatever is done in this kinde must needs be either immediately from Heaven or from the Angels by extraordinary commission and appointment But it seems to me not unreasonable to believe that those officious Spirits that oversee our affairs perceiving some mighty and sad alterations at hand in which their Charge is much concerned cannot chuse by reason of their affection to us but give us some seasonable hints of those approaching Calamities to which also their natural desire to foretell strange things to come may contribute to incline them And by this Hypothesis the fairest probabilities and strongest ratiocinations against Prodigies may be made unserviceable But this only by the way I proceed to the next objection which may be made to speak thus XII XII THE BELIEF of Witches and the wonderful things they are said to perform by the help of the Confederate Daemon weakens our Faith and exposeth the World to Infidelity in the great matters of our Religion For if They by Diabolical assistance can inflict and cure Diseases and do things so much beyond the comprehension of our Philosophy and activity of common Nature What assurance can we have that the Miracles that confirm our Gospel were not the effects of a Compact of like nature and that Devils were not cast out by Beelzebub If evil Spirits can assume Bodies and render themselves visible in humane likeness What security can we have of the reality of the Resurrection of Christ And if by their help Witches can enter Chambers invisibly through Key-holes and little unperceived Crannies and transform themselves at pleasure What Arguments of Divinity are there in our Saviour's shewing himself in the midst of his Disciples when the Doors were shut and his Transfiguration in the Mount Miracles are the great inducements of Belief and how shall we distinguish a Miracle from a Lying Wonder a Testimony from Heaven from a Trick of the Angels of Hell if they can perform things that astonish and confound our Reasons and are beyond all the Possibilities of Humane Nature This Objection is spiteful and mischievous but I thus endeavour to dispatch it 1. THE WONDERS done by Confederacy with wicked Spirits cannot derive a suspition upon the undoubted Miracles that were wrought by the Author and Promulgers of our Religion as if they were performed by Diabolical Compact since their Spirit Endeavours and Designs were notoriously contrary to all the Tendencies Aims and Interests of the Kingdom of Darkness For as to the Life and Temper of the Blessed and adorable JESUS we know there was an incomparable sweetness in his Nature Humility in his Manners
and a vigorous Endeavour For all things are possible to him that believeth So that that which makes a Sin incurable must be somewhat that makes Faith impossible and obstructs all means of Conviction In order to the finding which we must consider the wayes and methods the Divine Goodness hath taken for the begetting Faith and cure of Infidelity which it attempted first by the Prophets and holy men of antient times who by the excellency of their Doctrine the greatness of their Miracles and the holiness of their Lives endeavoured the conviction and reformation of a stubborn and unbelieving World But though Few believed their report and men would not be prevail'd on by what they did or what they said yet their Infidelity was not hitherto incurable because further means were provided in the Ministry of John the Baptist whose Life was more severe whose Doctrines were more plain pressing and particular and therefore 't was possible that He might have succeeded Yea and where He failed and could not open mens hearts and their eyes the Effect was still in possibility and it might be expected from Him that came after to whom the Prophets and John were but the Twilight and the Dawn And though His miraculous Birth the Song of Angels the Journey of the Wise Men of the East and the correspondence of Prophesies with the Circumstances of the first appearance of the Wonderful Infant I say though these had not been taken notice of yet was there a further provision made for the cure of Infidelity in his astonishing Wisdom and most excellent Doctrines For He spake as never Man did And when These were despised and neglected yet there were other means towards Conviction and Cure of Unbelief in those mighty Works that bore Testimony of Him and wore the evident marks of Divine Power in their foreheads But when after all these clear and unquestionable Miracles which were wrought by the Spirit of God and had eminently his Superscription on them shall be ascribed to the Agency of evil Spirits and Diabolical Compact as they were by the malicious and spightful Pharisees in the periods above-mentioned when those great and last Testimonies against Infidelity shall be said to be but the Tricks of Sorcery and Complotment with Hellish Confederates This is Blasphemy in the highest against the Power and Spirit of God and such as cuts off all means of Conviction and puts the Unbeliever beyond all possibilities of Cure For Miracles are God's Seal and the great and last evidence of the truth of any Doctrine And though while these are only dis-believed as to the Fact there remains a possibility of perswasion yet when the Fact shall be acknowledg'd but the Power blasphemed and the effects of the adorable Spirit maliciously imputed to the Devils such a Blasphemy such an Infidelity is incurable and consequently unpardonable I say in summe the Sin against the Holy Ghost seems to be a malicious imputation of the Miracles wrought by the Spirit of God in our Saviour to Satanical Confederacy and the power of Apostate Spirits Then which nothing is more blasphemous and nothing is more like to provoke the Holy Spirit that is so abused to an Eternal Dereliction of so Vile and so Incurable an Unbeliever THIS account as 't is clear and reasonable in it self so it is plainly lodg'd in the mention'd Discourse of our Saviour And those that speak other things about it seem to me to talk at random and perfectly without Book But to leave them to the fondness of their own conceits I think it now time to draw up to a Conclusion of the whole THEREFORE briefly Sir I have endeavoured in these Papers which my respect and your concernment in the subject have made yours to remove the main prejudices I could think of against the existence of Witches and Apparitions and I 'm sure I have suggested much more against what I defend than ever I heard or saw in any that opposed it whose Discourses for the most part have seemed to me inspired by a lofty scorn of common belief and some trivial Notions of Vulgar Philosophy And in despising the Common Faith about matters of Fact and fondly adhering to it in things of Speculation they very grosly and absurdly mistake For in things of Fact the People are as much to be believ'd as the most subtile Philosophers and Speculators since here Sense is the Judge But in matters of Notions and Theory They are not at all to be heeded because Reason is to be Judge of these and this they know not how to use And yet thus it is with those wise Philosophers that will deny the plain evidence of the Senses of Mankinde because they cannot reconcile appearances with the fond Crotchets of a Philosophy which they lighted on in the High-way by chance and will adhere to at adventure So that I profess for mine own part I never yet heard any of the confident Declaimers against Witchcraft and Apparitions speak any thing that might move a mind in any degree instructed in the generous kinds of Philosophy and Nature of things And for the Objections I have recited they are most of them such as rose out of mine own thoughts which I obliged to consider what was possible to be said upon this oâ—casion For though I have examined Scot's Discovery fancying that there I should finde the strong reasons of mens dis-belief in this matter yet I profess I met not with the least suggestion in all that Farrago but what it had been ridiculous for me to have gone about to answer For the Author doth little but tell odde Tales and silly Legends which he confutes and laughs at and pretends this to be a Confutation of the Being of Witches and Apparitions In all which His Reasonings are trifling and Childesh and when He ventures at Philosophy He is little better than absurd So that 't will be a wonder to me if any but Boyes and Buffoons imbibe any Prejudices against a Belief so infinitely Confirmed from the Loose and Impotent Suggestions of so weak a Discourser But however observing two things in that Discourse that would pretend to be more then ordinary Reasons I shall do them the civility to examine them It is said then 1. That the Gospel is silent as to the being of WITCHES and 't is not likely if there were such but that our Saviour or his Apostles had given intimations of their existence The other is 2. Miracles are ceased and therefore the prodigious things ascribed to WITCHCRAFT are supposed Dreams and Impostures FOR ANSWER to the FIRST in order I consider 1. That though the History of the New Testament were granted to be silent in the Business of Witches and Compacts yet the Records of the Old have a frequent mention of them The Law Exod. XXII xviii against permitting them to live which I mention'd in the beginning is famous And we have another remarkable prohibition of them Deut. XVIII x xi There shall not be
of which your Lordship is an illustrious Member direct some of its wary and luciferous enquiries towards the World of Spirits I believe we should have other kinde of Metaphysicks than those are taught by men that love to write great Volumns and to be subtil about nothing For we know not any thing of the world we live in but by experiment and the Phoenomena and there is the same way of speculating immaterial nature by extraordinary Events and Apparitions which possibly might be improved to notices not contemptible were there a Cautious and Faithful History made of those certain and uncommon appearances At least it would be a standing evidence against SADDUCISM to which the present Age is so unhappily disposed and a sensible Argument of our Immortality NOW though you My Lord are in no danger of that cold and desperate Disease the Disbelief of Spirits and Apparitions nor need confirmation in the Article of our future existence yet being ingaged by my promise and more by my desire of serving you to send your Lordship the Story of the DRUMMER at Mr. MOMPESSONS house at Tedworth one of the most remarkable ones in our time for the confirmation of that great affair I have now at length put the most of those particulars I could obtain into your hands which I had sooner done but that I have been in a long expectation of additional circumstances which Mr. Mompesson promised me But his occasions it seems have hindered the performance and mine by reason of the distance of our abodes would not permit personal solicitations which possibly might have expedited the matter To which I might adde My Lord that a person intimately concerned in it was unwilling Mr. M. should meddle any more with Relations lest thereby the troublesome guest should be awakened to an unwelcome return which fear though perhaps but a panick had yet an interest in the frustrating my expectations of the desired Additionals That which I had from the Gentleman himself I now send your Lordship in the subsequent Relation which you may please to take as follows MASTER JOHN MOMPESSON of Tedworth in Wiltshire being about the middle of March in the year 1661. at a neighbouring Town called Ludgarshal heard a Drum beat there and being concerned as a Commission Officer in the Militia he enquired of the Bayliffe of the Town at whose House he then was what it meant The Bayliffe told him that they had for some dayes been troubled by that Idle Drummer who demanded money of the Constable by vertue of a pretended pass which he thought was counterfeit Upon this Information Master Mompesson sent for the fellow and ask't him by what Authority he went up and down the Countrey in that manner demanding money and keeping a clutter with his Drum The Drummer answered he had good Authority and produced his pass with a warrant under the hands of Sir William Cawly and Colonel Ayliffe of Gretexham These papers discover'd the knavery for Mr. Mompesson knowing those Gentlemens hands found that his pass and warrant were forgeries and upon the discovery commanded the vagrant to put off his Drum and charged the Constable to carry him to the next Justice of Peace to punish him according to the desert of his Insolence and Roguery The fellow then confest the cheat and begg'd earnestly for his Drum But Mr. Mompesson told him that if he understood from Collonel Ayliffe whose Drummer he pretended to be that he had been an honest man he should have it again but that in the interim he would secure it So he left the Drum with the Bayliffe and the Drummer in the Constables hands who it seems after upon intreaty let him go About the midst of April following when Mr. M. was preparing for a Journey to London the Bayliffe sent the Drum to his house and being returned his Wife told him that they had been much affrighted in the night by Thieves in his absence and that the House had like to have been broken up He had not been at home above three nights when the same noise returned that had disturbed his Family when he was abroad It was a very great knocking at his Doors and the out-sides of his House Mr. M. arose and with a brace of Pistols in his hands went up and down searching for the cause of the Disturbance He open'd the door where the great knocking was and presently the noise was at another he opened that also and went forth rounding his House but could discover nothing only he still heard a strange noise and hollow sound but could not perceive what was the occasion of it When he was returned to his Bed the noise was a thumping and Drumming on the top of his House which continued a good space and then by degrees went off into the Air. After this It would come 5 nights together and absent it self 3. knocking very hard on the out-sides of the House which is most of it of Board This It did constantly as they were going to sleep either early or late After a months racket without It came into the room where the Drum lay where it would be 4 or 5 nights in 7 making great hollow sounds and sensibly shaking the Beds and Windows It would come within half an hour after they were in Bed and stay almost two The sign of its approach was an hurling in the Air over the House and at its recess they should hear a Drum beat like the breaking up of a Guard It continued in this Room for the space of two months the Gentleman himself lying there to observe It and though it was very troublesome in the fore-part of the night yet after two hours disturbance it would desist and leave all in quietness At which time perhaps the Laws of the Black Society required its presence at the general Rendezvous elsewhere About this time the Gentleman's Wife was brought to Bed the noise came a little that night she was in Travail but then forbore for three weeks till she had recover'd strength After this civil cessation it returned in a ruder manner than before applying wholly to the younger Children whose Bedsteads it would beat with that violence that all present would expect when they would fall in pieces Those that laid their hands upon them could feel no blows but perceived them to shake exceedingly It would for an hour together beat what they call ROUNDHEADS and CUCKOLDS the TATTOO and several other Points of Warre and that as dexterously as any Drummer After which it would get under the Bed and scratch there as if it had Iron Tallons It would lift the Children up in their Beds follow them from one room to another and for a while applyed to none particularly but them There was a Cockloft in the House which had been observed hitherto to be untroubled thither they removed their children putting them to bed while it was fair day and yet they were no sooner covered but the unwelcome Visitant was come and
played his Tricks as before On the 5th of Novemb. 1662. it kept a mighty noise and one of the Gentlemans Servants observing two Boards in the Childrens room that seemed to move he bid it give him one of them and presently the Board came within a yard of him The Fellow added Nay let me have it in my hand upon which it was shuft quite home The man thrust it back and the Daemon returned it to him and so from one to another at least 20 times together till the Gentleman forbad his Servant such Familiarities That morning it left a Sulphurous smell behind it very displeasant and offensive which possibly My Lord some would conjecture to be a smack of the bituminous matter brought from the mediterranious vaults to which we may suppose the vehicles of those impure Spirits to be nearly allyed At night the Minister of the place one Mr. Cragge and many of the Neighbours came to the House and went to prayer at the Childrens Bed-side where at that time It was very troublesome and loud During the time of Prayer it withdrew into the Cockloft but the Service being ended it returned and in the sight and presence of the company the Chairs walked about the Room the Childrens Shooes were thrown over their heads and every loose thing moved about the Chamber Also a Bed-staffe was thrown at the Minister which hit him on the Leg but so favourably that a lock of Wooll could not have fallen more softly And a circumstance more was observ'd viz. that it never in the least roul'd nor mov'd from the place where it lighted The Gentleman perceiving that It so much persecuted the little Children lodg'd them out at a Neighbours House and took his eldest Daughter who was about 10 years of Age into his own Chamber where It had not been in a month before But no sooner was she in Bed but the troublesome Guest was with her and continued his unquiet visits for the space of three weeks during which time it would beat the Drum and exactly answer any Tune that was knock't or call'd for The House where the Gentleman had lodged his Children being full of Strangers he was forced to take them home again and because they had never observed any disturbance in the Parlor he laid them there where also their old Visitant found them but at this time troubled them no otherwise than by plucking them by the hair and night-cloathes It would sometimes lift up the Servants with their Beds and lay them down again gently without any more prejudice than the fright of being carried to the Drummers Quarters And at other times it would lie like a great weight upon their Feet 'T was observed that when the noise was loudest and came with the most suddain and surprizing violence yet no Dog would move The knocking was oft so boysterous and rude that it hath been heard at a considerable distance in the Fields and awakened the Neighbours in the Village none of which live very near this house About the latter end of Decemb. 1662. The Drummings were less frequent and the noise the Fiend made was a gingling as it had been of money occasioned as 't was thought by some discourse of an antient Gentlewoman Mother to Mr. M. who was one day saying to a Neighbour that talked of Fairies leaving money That she should like it well if it would leave them some to make amends for the trouble it made them for that night there was a great chinking of money all the house over but he that rose earliest next morning was ne're a groat the richer After this it desisted from its ruder noises and imployed it self about little apish Tricks and less troublesome Caprichio's On Christmas-Eve an hour before day one of the little Boyes arising out of his Bed was hit on a sore place in his Heel by the latch of the Door which the waggish Daemon had pluckt out and thrown at him The Pin that fastned it was so small that 't was for the credit of his Opticks that he pick't it out without Candle light The night after Christmas-Day It threw all the old Gentlewomans Cloaths about the Room and hid her Bible in the Ashes In such impertinent ludricous fegaries it was frequent And such passages are to me considerable intimations that the Imps of Witches and other troublesome appearing Spirits are not alwayes Devils as I have discours 't in my Considerations about Witchcraft After this the Spirit was very troublesome to a Servant of Mr. Mompessons who was a stout Fellow and of sober conversation In the Relation of whose vexations I beg your Lordships leave to be a little less solemn This gamester then had the hardiness to lye within during the greatest disturbance His Master permitted him to give this proof of his Courage and lodg'd him in the next room to his own There was John engarison'd and provided for the assault with a trusty Sword and other implements of War And for some time there was scarce a night past without some doubty action and encounter in which the success was various One while John's bag and baggage would be in the Enemies power Doublet and Breeches surprized and his Shooes raised in rebellion against him and then lusty John by Dint of Weapon recovers all again suppresseth the insurrection of his Shooes and holds his own in spight of Satan and the Drummer And for the most part our Combatant came off with honour and advantage except when his enemy out-watch'd and surprized him and then he 's made a prisoner bound hand and foot and at the mercy of the Goblin till he hath got the opportunity of recovering his Diabolical Blade and then our Champion is in good plight again Sometimes the Scuffle was so great and loud that Mr. M. himself was fain to come in to John's assistance which he took in very ill part as a distrust of his courage as if he were not singly able to deal with the Devil who is a very Coward and fights with the disadvantage of a Chain at his Heels After these contrasts Sir Tho. Bennet's Son whose workman the Drummer had sometimes been came to the house and told Mr. M. some words that he had spoken which it seems was not well resented for as soon as they were in bed the Drum came with a mighty rattle the Gentleman arose and call'd his man to him who lay with John and no sooner was Mr. Bennets Servant gone but there came a rushing noise as if it had been a Gentlewoman in Silk to Johns bed-side Our Champion takes the Alarm and catches at his Sword to assault the Lady contrary to all the rules of Knight errantry 'T was with much difficulty and tugging that he got it into his possession for it seems the Aiery Damosel was not willing to be courted with John's Cutting Complements But being possest of that dreadful Blade the Amazon of the Aire withdrew her self from the danger of his provoked ire and left
for the most part remarkably defective in close ratiocinations and the worst in the world at inference which is no wonder since fancy is a desultory and roving faculty and when 't is not under the conduct of a severe judgment not able to keep it self to a steady and resolved attention much less to make coheherent chains of rational Deduction So that 't is next to impossible for such Wits as these to arrive to more than a knack of scoffing at what they understand not And they are under almost an invincible temptation of doing so by every thing that is too great for their comprehension for the humour that acts them is proud and assuming and would not have any thing to be valu'd of which it self is incapable and therefore it depreciates all the nobler and more generous matters which It hath very great reason to despair of and endeavours by a ridiculous and insolent scorn to lift it self above them And yet this presumed wit which raiseth them to such an elevation in their own conceit is but a young and boyish humour and the very first essayes of Juvenile Inventions are in these exercises of Fancy which the maturer spirit out-grows For you know Sir our sences are the first powers we exercise and indulge in our greenest years From them by degrees our imaginations grow up and their actions and gratifications are the pleasures and entertainments of youth which is easie to observe in the little flirts quibbles and tricks of Fancy with which the younger Students in the Universities are so much tickled and transported But when age and experience ripens the Judgment which is the faculty of slowest growth we then slight this wantonness and ioying of our Fancies and apply our selves to pursuites that are more manly and concerning And when the Judgment is come to its full exercise and pitch and hath overcome and silenc'd the futilities and prejudices of imagination we are then and not till then grown into manhood And those that never arrive to this consistence but spend their age in fooling with their Fancies They are yet children though they have gray hairs and are still boyes though past their great climacterical I confess Sir I am not so cynical and severe but that I allow even to the more improved genuises their relaxations and pleasant Intervals And sage Socrates himself sometimes rid the Boyes Hobby-Horse Fancy may be permitted its plaisance and in-offensive raileries so long as they are governed by the rules of vertue and a prudent Judgment And no doubt God himself allows all our powers and faculties their innocent gratifications yea and I acknowledge a delightful prettiness in the results of a managed and judicious fancy while it is employed in exposing vice and conceited follies to deserved scorn and laughter But when Imagination is rampant loose and ungoverned when it knows no bounds and observes no Decorums but shoots at Randome and insolently flies at all things that are august and venerable its sallies are then vitious and detestable excesses and those that are of this humour are but a sort of fleering Buffoons that is a better kinde of Apes in the judgment of the Wise though Wits in their own But Sir I intimated a greater charge against these quibbling debauches viz. that they are the enemies of GOVERNMENT and RELIGION and shall prove it with this addition that they are so of all the better sorts of KNOWLEDGE For GOVERNMENT you know Sir its influence depends much upon the reverence its Rulers have from the people and while They are men there will be miscarriages in publick affairs and managements of State And if all the slips and imperfections all the mistakes and faults of the supreme Ministers of Rule be tattled and aggrevated among the heard The Government will thereby be exposed to the scorns of the Rabble and lose a great part of its force with its reverence And in this it suffers infinitely from the drolling phantasticks who blow in the sores till they have rankled them with their malicious and poysonous breath and shoot Libels at the Government till they have made deep wounds in its reputation and Reverence and turned every tongue into a weapon of War against it Thus do these Chams discover their Fathers nakedness and rejoyce to publish the shame of those whose failures and infirmities Loyalty Prudence and regard to the publick quiet should oblige them to conceal Nor 2. is RELIGION more beholden to them For a minde that useth to whiffle up and down in the Levities of Fancy will finde a very great indisposition to the serious and solemn exercises of Piety and that will grow into an aversation which will be sure to prompt the humourist to take all occasions to expose it so that he quickly jests at Scripture and makes a mock of sin playes with eternal flames and scoffs at those that fear them As if the sacred Oracles were but a Legend of idle Tales and sin but a name coin'd by Fancy and vain fears as if Hell were but a painted fire and the Religious a sort of timerous Fools that are afraid of Buggs and the Imagery of Dreams and if these are not yet the real Articles of their Creed their extravagant Fancies and vile affections are like in a short time to encline these light and impure spirits to make them so And this sort of Wits are either Atheists or as great prodigies of Folly if they are not since to believe a God that made sees and will judge them and to scoff at that Tremendous Majesty before whom their Brother-WITS below tremble to think the Scriptures are the Inspirations of the God of Heaven the Laws of Souls and grand Instruments of Immortal happiness and yet to droll upon them and to jest with the records of eternity to believe endless Torments and everlasting Joyes in the state immediately succeeding these our short and uncertain beings and yet to sport with the wrath of God and to make tricks at eternal terrors to talk trivially of beatifical enjoyments and to make as bold with Heaven as they do with an imaginary Elisium These I say are follies these are degrees of impudence beyond all aggravation or possibilities of expression and did not sad experience shew them one would scarce believe there were such prodigious Monsters in nature And to these things I adde 3. These idle Drollists have an utter antipathy to all the braver and more generous kindes of KNOWLEDGE For that they are perfectly indisposed for Philosophy and all deep researches I have said some things that may suffice for proof already And I adde this observation to confirm it That among the numerous Youth I have seen bred in a Great School and in the University I have noted that those of them who were most remarkable for waggishness and jesting seldom arrived to any great maturities or capacity for things of consequence and weight And indeed frolickness of Fancy and solidity of Judgment require dispositions
of brain that are very different and such as seldom meet in great degrees but in some very few extraordinary tempers But generally I believe the Droll is very unfit for matters of sublimity and substance and therefore as I intimated indeavours by his scoffs and injuries to make them appear as much below his serious notice as they are indeed above his reach and in this design he hath many great advantages for his abuses For the pedantry of Disputers that make a loud claim to knowledge the vanity of the extravagant sort of Chymists the fond boasts of some hold pretenders to Philosophy and experiment the strangeness of things that soberer Inquisitors declare practicable but have not yet succeeded the meanness and seeming contemptibleness of many Subjects the experimenter is often obliged to deal in These afford plausible arguments for Drolling Harangues and those advantages are taken to make the most useful Theories and endeavours appear ridiculous and vain And for the incouragement of the phantastick in his insolent humour of injustice and abuse there is a certain envy in mankinde against those that attempt any thing extraordinary which makes men willing to embrace and applaud that which exposeth what themselves cannot act nor comprehend by reason of which ill nature in the generality yea even of those that pretend to something This kinde of Wit becomes the most pestilent enemy to knowledge and its improvements especially to philosophick wisdom For Philosophy can shame and disable all the reasons that can be urged against it but jests and loud laughter are not to be confuted and yet these are of more force to degrade a thing in the esteem of some sort of Spirits than the most potent demonstrations and the mischief of it is that these Quibblers and Buffoons that have some little scraps of Learning matcht with a great proportion of Confidence have commonly the luck to be celebrated among the vulgar for men of great parts and knowledge and that opinion of them gains credit to their insolencies and abuses But Sir I perceive my zeal against those pedlars of Wit hath transported me to your trouble I therefore make an abrupt return to my other reason mention'd of mens disbelief of the being of Witches and Apparitions and that is 2. ATHEISM the Folly of which accursed madness you Sir have so fully discovered to the world in your incomparable Works and so throughly understand the mysteries of that black conspiracy against heaven that 't would be fond for me to think to suggest any notion on the Subject which you could not teach But Sir I have a Relation about this matter to make you which I believe you will not be unwilling to hear And you shall have it when I have said something to the purpose of the particular I have mention'd Concerning which 't is too sadly certain that there is a latent Atheism at the root of the SADDUCEAN principle for too many deny Witches because they believe there are no Spirits and they are so perswaded because they own no being in the world but matter and the results of motion and consequently can acknowledge nothing of a God It hath indeed been a question whether 't is possible there should be such a prodigy as a speculative Atheist in nature and I could wish it were so still But alas our Age and Experience hath ended the Dispute and we need not search the dark and barbarous corners of America nor seek the Monster among the wilde Men of the Desart we have found him in Times of Light in a witty and civiliz'd Region and in an Age of the greatest knowledge and improvements he sculps not among the thickest of the Woods nor seeks Caverns for concealment but braves the Sun and appears in the clearest day And the Fool is not so modest as he was in the dayes of the Royal Prophet to say only in his heart There is no God we know a bolder sort of Infidels and I can say Sir from a particular experience That there are who deny the existence of a Deity I met with one such some years since in London who confidently and without mincing denyed that there was any such being and bid me prove it I wondered at the boldness as well as the impiety of his saying and because I had a great compassion for one in so deplorable a state I resolved not to exasperate him by passion hard words or damning Sentences but calmly and without seeming emotion discoursed the business with him I granted him all I safely or reasonably could and all that might serve my design for his conviction before we began the close ingagement that so he might have less prejudice against what was said by one whom he might see not to be of a narrow confined judgment and that I might not have the disadvantage of being put upon the impugning of principles which are plausible by the great names or reasons of any eminent Philosophers and that were not absolutely necessary for the defence of the Proposition for which I undertook such were the Platonick Anima Mundi the eternity and immensity of the world which Sir though I should not affirm yet I would not at that time deny but quietly granted them as Hypotheseis being willing to permit his belief of these in order to the convincing and abusing him in his main and deadly conclusion And by these concessions I gain'd the advantages I expected for hereby he was disappointed of all those plausibilities which I perceived he was wont to urge for those Doctrines And I saw that when he was prest with the necessity of a cause of all things and a First his refuge was that old Epicurean one of an eternal infinite matter which when his unwary opposites would attempt to disprove by endeavouring to demonstrate the beginning and Finiteness of the world They gave him the opportunity of a colourable Defence and diverted from the main Thesis which might be evinced though the Immensity and Eternity of the universe were granted And so they let him go from an assertion that is most impious and absurd to another which is tollerably accountable and specious And the Conclusion would be at last that since the undertaker could not prove the world was not infinite and eternal he could not make it appear There was a God By which procedure the arguer falls from a Proposition which is the most demonstrative one in nature to an other which cannot be cleared but by supposing the main thing in Question But besides this shift which my concession made insignificant when my Atheist was urged with the Order Harmony Contrivance and Wisdom that is visible in the Creatures he would betake him to his Anima Mundi the existence of which when those other Antagonists he had dealt with would endeavour to overthrow they undertook a thing of harder profusion than the main conclusion I say therefore Sir I permitted him to assume these Principles and then proved That though the