Translation is abundantly credited and asserted by its being quoted in the New Testament without notice of the Hebrew 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 Iacob'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 Voyce heard in the Temple before the taking of Ierusalem by Titus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And before Nebuchadnezzar was sent to learn Wisdome 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 Kingdome And that there are particular Angels that have the special Rule and Government of particular Kingdomes Provinces Cities yea and of Persons I know nothing that can make improbable The instance is notorious in Daniel of the Angels of Persia and Graecia that hindred the other that was engaged for the concerns of Iudaea 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 add what I intend for another return to the main Objection viz. 2. That the apparition of good Spirits is not needful for the Designes 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 always evil Spirits that appear as is I know not well upon what grounds generally imagined but that the extraordinary detections of Murders latent Ireasures 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 Iudgments and Calamities by Prodigies and sundry odd Phaenomena are the kind Informations of some of the Inhabitants of the upper World Thus was Ierusalem forewarned before its sacking by Antiochus by those Aiery Horsemen that were seen through all the City for almost forty days 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 Iealous and the Ignorant Yet I think that the Arguments that are brought by a late very ingenious Author to conclude against such Warnings and Predictions in the whole kind are short and inconsequent and built upon too narrow Hypothesis 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 find is very grateful to our own Natures may not incline them also to give us some general notice of those uncommon Events which they foresee And I yet perceive no reason we have to phancy that whatever is done in this kind must needs be either immediately from Heaven or from the Angels by extraordinary commission and appointment But it seems to me not unreasonable to believe that those officious Spirits that oversee our affairs perceiving some mighty and sad alterations at hand in which their Charge is much concerned cannot chuse by reason of their affection to us but give us some seasonable hints of those approaching Calamities to which also their natural desire to fore-tell strange things to come may contribute to incline them And by this Hypothesis the fairest probabilities and strongest ratiotinations against Prodigies may be made unserviceable But this onely by the way I proceed to the next Objection which may be made to speak thus 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 lnfidelity 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 Cranneys and transform themselves at pleasure
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 the timorous that therefore whole Assises have been a thousand times deceived in judgments 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 But it may be suggested further 9 That it cannot be imagin'd what design the Devil should have in making those solemn compacts since persons of such debauch'd and irreclaimable dispositions as those with whom he is supposed to confederate are pretty securely his antecedently to the bargain and cannot be more so by it since they cannot put their souls out of possibility of the Divine Grace but by the Sin that is unpardonable or if they could so dispose and give away themselves it will to some seem very unlikely that a great and mighty Spirit should oblige himself to such observances and keep such a-do to secure the soul of a silly body which 't were odds but it would be His though He put himself to no further trouble than that of his ordinary temptations To which suggestions 't were enough to say that 't is sufficient if the thing be well prov'd though the design be not known And to argue negatively à fine is very unconclusive in such matters The Laws and affairs of the other world as hath been intimated are vastly differing from those of our Regions and therefore 't is no wonder we cannot judge of their designs when we know nothing of their menages and so little of their natures The ignorant looker-on can't imagine what the Limner means by those seemingly rude lines and scrawls which he intends for the rudiments of a Picture and the Figures of Mathematick Operation are non-sense and dashes at a venture to one uninstructed in Mechanicks We are in the dark to one another's purposes intendments and there are a thousand intrigues in our little matters which will not presently confess their design even to sagacious inquisitors And therefore 't is folly and incogitancy to argue any thing one way or other from the designs of a sort of Beings with whom we so little communicate and possibly we can take no more aim or guess at their projects and designments than the gazing Beasts can do at ours when they see the Traps and Gins that are laid for them but understand nothing what they mean Thus in general But I attempt something more particularly in order to which I must premise that the Devil is a name for a Body Politick in which there are very different Orders and Degrees of Spirits and perhaps in as much variety of place and state as among our selves so that 't is not one and the same person that makes all the compacts with those abused and seduced Souls but they are divers and those 't is like of the meanest and basest quality in the Kingdom of darkness which being supposed I offer this account of the probable design of those wicked Agents viz. That having none to rule or tyrannize over within the Circle of their own nature and government they affect a proud Empire over us the desire of Dominion and Authority being largely spread through the whole circumference of degenerated nature especially among those whose pride was their original transgression every one of these then desires to get him Vassals to pay him homage and to be emploied like Slaves in the services of his lusts and appetites to gratifie which desire 't is like enough to be provided and allowed by the constitution of their State and Government that every wicked spirit shall have those Souls as his property and particular servants and attendants whom he can catch in such compacts as those wild Beasts that we can take in hunting are by the allowance of the Law our own and those Slaves that a man hath purchas'd are his peculiar goods and the vassals of his will Or rather those deluding Fiends are like the seducing fellows we call Spirits who inveigle Children by their false and flattering promises and carry them away to the Plantations of America to be servilly emploied there in the works of their own profit and advantage And as those base Agents will humour and flatter the simple unwary Youth till they are on Ship-board and without the reach of those that might rescue them from their hands In like manner the more mischievous Tempter studies to gratifie please and accommodate to those he deals with in this kind till death hath lanch'd them into the Deep and they are past the danger of Prayers Repentance and Endeavours and then He useth them as pleaseth Him This account I think is not unreasonable and 't will fully answer the Objection For though the matter be not as I have conjectur'd yet 't will suggest a way how it may be conceiv'd which nulls the pretence That the Design is inconceiveable But then we are still liable to be question'd 10 how it comes about that those proud and insolent Designers practise in this kind upon so few when one would expect that they should be still trading this way and everywhere be driving on the project which the vileness of men makes so feisable and would so much serve the interest of their lusts To which among other things that might be suggested I return 1 That we are never liable to be so betraied and abused till by our vile dispositions and tendencies we have forfeited the tutelary care and oversight of the better Spirits which though generally they are our guard and defence against the malice and violence of evil Angels yet it may well enough be thought that sometimes they may take their leave of such as are swallowed up by malice envy and desire of revenge qualities most contrary to their Life and Nature and leave them exposed to the invasion and sollicitations of those wicked Spirits to whom such hateful Attributes make them very suitable And if there be particular guardian Angels as 't is not absurd to fancy it may then well be supposed that no man is obnoxious to those projects and attempts but onely such whose vile and mischievous natures have driven from them their protecting Genius And against this dereliction to the power of evil spirits 't is likely enough what some affirm that the Royal Psalmist
directs that Prayer Psal. 71. 9 10. Cast me not off in the time of old age forsake me not when my strength faileth For They that keep my soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the LXX and the Vulgar Latin Qui custodiunt animam meam they take counsel together saying God hath forsaken him persecute him and take him for there is none to deliver him But I adde 2 That 't is very probable that the state wherein they are will not easily permit palpable intercourses between the bad Genii and our nature since 't is like enough that their own Laws and Government do not allow their frequent excursions into this world Or it may with as great probability be supposed that 't is a very hard and painful thing for them to force their thin and tenuious bodies into a visible consistence and such shapes as are necessary for their designs in their correspondencies with Witches For in this action their bodies must needs be exceedingly compress'd which cannot be well supposed without a painful sense And this is perhaps a reason why there are so few Apparitions and why appearing spirits are commonly in such haste to be gone viz. that they may be deliver'd from the unnatural pressure of their tender Vehicles which I confess holds more in the apparitions of good than of evil Spirits most Relations of this kind describing their discoveries of themselves as very transient though for those the Holy Scripture records there may be peculiar Reasons 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 Embodyed 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 Analogie 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 possiblè to imagine Nor doth it 2. seem suitable to the Analogie 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 else-where and have said thus much of it at present because it will enable me to add 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 then Batts 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 then 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 then 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 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 Designes 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 Analogie 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 phancy 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 phancy 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
Some Philosophical CONSIDERATIONS Touching the Being of WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT WRITTEN In a LETTER to the much Honour'd ROBERT HUNT Esq By I. G. a Member of the Royal Society LONDON Printed by E. C. for Iames Collins at the Kings-head in Westminster-Hall 1667. Some CONSIDERATIONS About WITCHCRAFT In A Letter to Robert Hunt Esquire SIR THE frequent and late dealings you have had in the Examination of Witches and the Regards of one that hath a very particular Honour for you have brought you the trouble of some Considerations on the subject which though they are the careless and hasty products of a sitting or two may yet I hope afford you some not unreasonable accounts of the odd phaenomena of Witchcraft and Fascination and contribute to the Defence of the Truth and certainly of Matters which you know by Experiments that could not deceive in spite of the little exceptions of those that are resolved to believe nothing in affairs of this nature And if any thing were to be much admired in an Age of Wonders not onely of Nature which is a constant Prodigy by of Men and Manners it would be to me matter of Astonishment that Men otherwise witty and ingenious are fall'n into the conceit that there 's no such thing as a Witch or Apparition but that these are the creatures of Melancholy and Superstition foster'd by ignorance and design which comparing the confidence of their disbelief with the evidence of the things denied and the weakness of their grounds would almost suggest that themselves are 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 that they are aware of For that subtil Enemy of Mankind since providence will not permit him to mischief us without our own concurrence attempts that by stratagem and artifice which he could never effect by open ways of acting and the success of all wiles depending upon their secrecy and concealment his influence is never more dangerous 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 onely upon their Faith and Reverence to the Divine Oracles which we have little reason to apprehend so great in such assertors as to command much from their assent especially in such things in which they have corrupt interests against their evidence So that he that thinks there is no Witch believes a Devil gratis or at least upon such inducements which he is like to find himself disposed to deny when he pleaseth And when men are arrived to this degree of diffidence and infidelity we are beholden to them if they believe either Angel or Spirit Resurrection of the Body or Immortality of Souls These things hang together in a Chain of connexion at least in these mens Hypothesis and 't is but an happy chance if he that hath lost one link hold another So that the vitals of Religion being so much interressed in this subject it will not be impertinent particularly to discourse it And in order to the proof that there have been and are unlawfull 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 tesimony of all Ages not onely of the rude and barbarous but of the most civiliz'd and polish'd world brings tidings of their strange performances We have the attestation of thousands of eye and ear-witnesses and those not of the easily deceivable vulgar onely but of wise and grave discerners and that when no interest could oblige them to agree together in a common Lie I say we have the light of all these circumstances to confirm us in the belief of things done by persons of despicable power and knowledge beyond the reach of Art and ordinary Nature standing publick Records have been kept of these well attested Relations and Epocha's made of those unwonted events Laws in many Nations have been enacted against those vile practises those among the Iews and our own are notorious such cases have been often determined near us by wise and reverend Iudges upon clear and convictive evidence and thousands in our own Nation have suffered death for their vile compacts with apostate spirits All these I might largely prove in their particular instances but that 't is not needful since those that deny the being of Witches do it not out of ignorance of these Heads of Argument of which probably they have heard a thousand times but from an apprehension that such a belief is absurd and the things impossible And upon these presumptions they contemn all demonstrations of this nature and are hardned against conviction And I think those that can believe all Histories are Romances that all the wiser world have agreed together to juggle mankind into a common belief of ungrounded fables that the sound senses of multitudes together may deceive them and Laws are built upon Chymera's that the gravest and wisest Iudges have been Murderers and the sagest persons Fools or designing Impostors I say those that can believe this heap of absurdities are either more credulous 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 evidence would make its way to their 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
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 th bloud 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 bloud and spirits with a noxious quality by which her infected imagination heightned by melancholy and this worse cause may do much hurt upon bodies that are impressive 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 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 But I come 3 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 persuades all his subjects and accomplices out of their wits should himself act like his own temptations and persuasions In brief there is nothing more strange in this objection than that wickedness is baseness and servility and that the Devil is at leisure to serve those he is at leisure to tempt and industrious to ruin And again 2 I see no necessity to believe that the Devil is always the Witch's confederate but perhaps it may fitly be consider'd whether the Familiar be not some departed humane spirit forsaken of God and goodness and swallowed up by the unsatiable desire of mischief and revenge which possibly by the laws and capacity of its state it cannot execute immediately And why we should presume that the Devil should have the liberty of 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 re-visit the free and open Regions which confidence I know nothing to justifie For since good men in their state of separation are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why the wicked may not be supposed to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the worst sense of the word I know nothing to help me to imagine And if it be supposed that the Imps of Witches are sometimes wicked spirits of our own kind and nature and possibly the same that have been Sorcerers and Witches in this life This supposal may give a fairer and more probable account of many of the actions of Sorcery and Witchcraft than the other Hypothesis that they are always Devils And to this conjecture I 'l adventure to subjoyn another which also hath its probability viz. 3 That 't is not impossible but that the Familiars of Witches are a servile kind of spirits of a very inferiour constitution and nature and none of those that were once of the highest Hierarchy now degenerated into the spirits we call Devils And for my part I must confess that I think the common division of spirits much too general conceiving it likely there may be as great a variety of Intellectual creatures in the invisible world as there is of Animals in the visible and that all the superiour yea and inferiour Regions have their several kinds of spirits differing in their natural perfections as well as in the kinds and degrees of their depravities which being supposed 't is very probable that those of the basest and meanest Orders are they who submit to the mention'd servilities And thus the sagess and grandeur of the Prince of darkness need not be brought into question But 4 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 a Deep unfathomable and if we should not believe the Phoenomena of our senses before we can reconcile them to our notions of Providence we must be groffer 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 mankind the fatal disadvantages we are all under and the hazard we run of being eternally miserable and undone these I say are things that can hardly be made consistent with that Wisdom and Goodness that we are sure hath made and mingled it self with all things And yet we believe there is a beauty and harmony and goodness in that Providence though we cannot unriddle it in particular instances nor by reason of our ignorance and imperfection clear it from contradicting appearances and consequently
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 Promulgers of our Religion as if they were performed by Diabolical Compact since their Spirit Endeavours and Designes were notoriously contrary to all the Tendencies Aims and Interests of the Kingdome of Darkness For as to the Life and Temper of the Blessed and Adorable IESUS we know there was an incomparable sweetness in his Nature Humility in his Manners Calmness in his Temper Compassion in his Miracles Modesty in his Expressions Holiness in all his Actions Hatred of Vice and Baseness and Love to all the World all which are essentially contrary to the Nature and Constistitution of Apostate Spirits who abound in Pride and Rancour Insolence and Rudeness Tyranny and Baseness universal Malice and Hatred of Men. And their Designes are as opposite as their Spirit and their Genius And now Can the Sun borrow its Light from the bottomless Abyss Can Heat and Warmth flow in upon the World from the Regions of Snow and Ice Can Fire freeze and Water burn Can Natures so infinitely contrary communicate and jump in projects that are destructive to each others known Interests Is there any Balsome in the Cockatrice's Egge or Can the Spirit of Life flow from the Venome of the Asp Will the Prince of Darkness strengthen the Arm that is stretcht out to pluck his Usurp't Scepter and his Spoyls from him And will he lend his Legions to assist the Armies of his Enemy against him No these are impossible Supposals No intelligent Being will industriously and knowingly contribute to the Contradiction of its own Principles the Defeature of its Purposes and the Ruine of its own dearest Interests There is no fear then that our Faith should receive prejudice from the acknowledgment of the Being of Witches and power of evil Spirits since 't is not the doing wonderful things that is the onely Evidence that the Holy IESUS was from God and his Doctrine true but the conjunction of other circumstances the holiness of his Life the reasonableness of his Religion and the excellency of his Designes added credit to his Works and strengthned the great Conclusion That he could be no other than the Son of God and Saviour of the World But besides I say 2. That since infinite Wisdome and Goodness rules the World it cannot be conceiv'd that they should give up the greatest part of men to unavoidable deception And if evil Angels by their Confederates are permitted to perform such astonishing things as seem so evidently to carry God's Seal and Power with them for the confirmation of Falshoods and gaining credit to Impostors without any counter-evidence to disabuse the World Mankind is exposed to sad and fatal delusion And to say that Providence will suffer us to be deceived in things of the greatest concernment when we use the best of our care and endeavours to prevent it is to speak hard things of God and in effect to affirm That He hath nothing to do in the Government of the World or doth not concern Himself in the affairs of poor forlorn Men. And if the Providence and Goodness of God be not a security unto us against such Deceptions we cannot be assured but that we are always abused by those mischievous Agents in the Objects of plain sense and in all the matters of our dayly Converses If ONE that pretends he is immediately sent from God to overthrow the ancient Fabrick of Established Worship and to erect a New Religion in His Name shall be born of a Virgin and honour'd by a miraculous Star proclaimed by a Song of seeming Angels of Light and Worshipped by the wise Sages of the World Revered by those of the greatest austerity and admired by all for a miraculous Wisdome beyond his Education and his Years If He shall feed Multitudes with almost nothing and fast himself beyond all the possibilities of Nature If He shall be transformed into the appearance of extraordinary Glory and converse with departed Prophets in their visible Forms If He shall Cure all Diseases without Physick or Endeavour and raise the Dead to Life after they have stunk in their Graves If He shall be honoured by Voyces from Heaven and attract the universal Wonder of Princes and People If he shall allay Tempests with a Beck and cast out Devils with a Word If He shall fore-tell his own Death particularly with its Tragical Circumstances and his Resurrection after it If the Veil of the most Famous Temple in the World shall be rent and the Sun darkened at his Funeral If He shall within the time foretold break the bonds of Death and lift up his Head out of the Grave If Multitudes of other departed Souls shall arise with Him to attend at the Solemnity of His Resurrection If He shall after Death visibly converse with eat and drink with divers persons who could not be deceived in a matter of clear sense and ascend in Glory in the presence of an astonisht and admiring Multitude I say if such a One as this should prove a Diabolical Impostor and Providence should permit him to be so credited and acknowledged What possibility were there then for us to be assured that we are not always deceived yea that our very Faculties were not given us onely to delude and abuse us And if so the next Conclusion is That there is no God that judgeth in the Earth and the best and most likely Hypothesis will be That the World is given up to the Government of the Devils But if there be a Providence that superviseth us as nothing is more certain doubtless it will never suffer poor helpless Creatures to be inevitably deceived by the craft and subtilty of their mischievous Enemy to their undoing but will without question take such care that the works wrought by Divine Power for the Confirmation of Divine Truth shall have such visible Marks and Signatures if not in their Nature yet in their Circumstances Ends and Designes as shall discover whence they are and sufficiently distinguish them from all Impostures and Delusions And though wicked Spirits may perform some strange things that may excite wonder for a while yet He hath and will so provide that they shall be baffled and discredited as we know it was in the case of Moses and the Aegyptian Magicians Now besides what I have directly said to the Objection I have this to adde