Toaklys Son Languished and Died calling and crying out upon her that she was the cause of his Death She also declared that about eight days before Susan Cock Margaret Landish and Joyce Boanes brought to her House three Imps which Joyce taking her Imp too carried them all four to Robert Turners to Torment his Servant because her refused to give them some Chips his Master being a Carpenter and that he forthwith fell Sick and oft barkt like a Dog and she believed those four Imps were the cause of his Death Rose Hallybread was for this Wickedness Condemned to be Hanged but Died in Chelmsford Goal May 9. 1645. Ibid. p. 16. Susan Lock was another of the Society concerning whom see more in the Chap. of Satans Permission to hurt the Innocent in their Estates 6. Much about the same time in Huntingtonshire Elizabeth Weed of great Catworth being Examined before Robert Bernard and Nicholas Pedley Esq Justices of the Peace March 31. 1646. Said that about Twenty one years before as she was one Night going to Bed there appeared to her three Spirits one like a young Man and the other two in the shape of Puppies one white and the other black He that was in the form of a youth spoke to her and Demanded Whether she would deny God and Christ which she agreed to The Devil then offered her to do what mischief she would require of him provided she would Covenant he should have her Soul after Twenty one years which she granted She confest further that about a week after at Ten a Clock at Night he came to her with a Paper asking whether she were willing to Seal the Covenant she said she was then he told her it must be done with her Blood and so prickt her under the left Arm till it bled with which she scribled and immediately a great lump of Flesh rise on her Arm in the same place which increased ever since After which he came to Bed and had Carnal Knowledge of her then and many times afterwards The other two Spirits came into the Bed likewise and suckt upon other parts of her Body where she had Teats and that the Name of one was Lilly and the other Priscil One of which was to hurt Man Woman or Child and the other to destroy what Cattel she desired and the young Man was to lye with her as he did often And saith that Lilly according to the Covenant did kill the Child of Mr. Henry Bedel of Catworth as she required him to do when she was angry tho she does not now remember for what and that about two or three days before she sent him to kill Mr. Bedel himself who returned and said he had no Power and that another time she sent the same Spirit to hurt Edward Musgrove of Catworth who likewise returned saying He was not able And that she sent her Spirit Priscill to kill two Horses and two Cows of Mr. Musgroves and Thomas Thorps in that Town which was done accordingly And being askt when the one and twenty years would be out she said To the best of my Remembrance about low Sunday next Being further demanded why she did so constantly resort to Church and to hear the Sermons of Mr. Pool the Minister she said She was well pleased with his Preaching and had a desire to be rid of that unhappy Burthen which was upon her VVitches of Huntington p. 2. 7. About the year of our Lord 1632. As near as I can Remember having lost my Notes and the Copy of the Letter to Serjeant Hutton but I am sure that I do most perfectly remember the substance of the Story near unto Chester in the street there lived one VValker a young Man of Good Estate and a Widower who had a young Woman to his Kinswoman that kept his House who was by the Neighbours suspected to be with Child and was towards the Dark of the Evening one Night sent away with one Mark Sharp who was a Collier or one that digged Coals under Ground and one that had been born in Blakeburn-Hundred in Lancashire And so she was not heard of for a long time and no Noise or little was made about it In the Winter time after one James Graham or Grime for so in that Countrey they call them being a Miller and living about two Miles from the place where Walker lived was one Night alone very late in the Mill grinding Corn and as about twelve or one a Clock at Night he came down the Stairs from having been putting Corn in the Hopper the Mill doors being shut there stood a Woman upon the midst of the Floor with her hair about her head hanging down and all Bloody with five large Wounds on her head He being much affrighted and amazed began to Bless him and at last asked her who she was and what she wanted To which she said I am the Spirit of such a Woman who lived with Walker and being got with Child by him he promised to send me to a private place where I should be well lookt to until I was brought to Bed and well again and then I should come again and keep his House And accordingly said the Apparition I was one Night late sent away with one Mark Sharp who upon a Moor Naming a place that the Miller knâ—w slew me with a Pike such as Men dig Coals withal and gave me these five Wounds and after threw my Body into a Coal-Pit hard by and hid the Pike under a Bank And his Shoes and Stockings being Bloody he endeavoured to wash but seeing the Blood would not wash forth he hid them there And the Apparition further told the Miller that he must be the Man to reveal it or else that she must still appear and haunt him The Miller returned home very sad and heavy but spoke not one word of what he had seen but eschewed as much as he could to stay in the Mill within Night without Company thinking thereby to escape the seeing again of that frightful Apparition But notwithstanding one Night when it began to be dark the Apparition met him again and seemed very fierce and cruel and threatned him that if he did not reveal the Murder she would continually pursue and haunt him Yet for all this he still concealed it until St. Thomas's Eve before Christmas when being soon after Sun-set walking in his Garden she appeared again and then so threatned him and affrighted him that he faithfully promised to reveal it the next Morning In the Morning he went to a Magistrate and made the whole matter known with all Circumstances and diligent search being made the Body was found in a Coal-Pit with five Wounds in the Head and the Pike and Shoes and Stockings yet Bloody in every Circumstance as the Apparition had related unto the Miller Whereupon Walker and Mark Sharp were both apprehended but would confess nothing At the Assizes following I think it was at Durham they were Arraigned and found guilty
into the Lungs and so into the Arteria Venosa and thence again into the left Ventricle of the Heart and so into his Arteries and Veins and whose Body at last I speak not of the dreggy part of Nourishment But what should I talk of the Whole Man take but one of his smallest Parts his Eye see its variety of Colours warry glassy and chrystalline Humors consider the Ends and Uses of them the one to defend the bordering Parts from driness to break the Brightness of Objects continually flowing in and to greaten the Representations of them the other to prepare Nourishment for the Chrystalline and to give to passage for the Species to the Retina that it may refract them from Perpendiculars the last to receive and collect the Representations of Things See its Muscles six in number the first to lift the second to press down the third to move the Eye inwards the fourth outwards the two last to rowl and which it about to the outward and inner Corner See its Nerves a seeing and moving Pair those to carry the Faculty of Seeing with the Species from the Brain or the Visible Represeatation of Things to the Brain those to stir and move them to and fro See its Coats the Tunica Admata fastning the Eye to the Socket the Scleretica divided again into the Cornea and Choroides and Retina all which have their particular Uses Consider their Situation in the most eminent place like Watchmen in long Sockets for the better Safeguard sake Consider the Eye-lidsof how soft a Coat they are made left they hurt that tender part how loose to shut and open that they may be in a constant readiness to cover it from harm or danger how eminent in place to overshadow the Picture and render it more illustrious Consider how between the Musâ—es and sundry Vessels there is Fat interspersed left for want of Heat and Moisture the Motion of the Eye should be hindred And lastly take Notice of that little portion of Flesh placed at the great Corner of the Eye spongy to liquor it but placed over a Hole which goes into the Nose-Bone to stop a continual Weeping Consider these things and withal that the Hundredth part hath not been told thee And say if the Finger of a GOD be not plainly discernable in all this Take some time now and then to know thyself and view but the Contexture of thy Body how thou art trusted with Bones and Sinews how curiously thou art wrought in every Part in every Limb and speak the Truth if a wiser Hand than thine than any Creature 's be not concerned there 2. If thou distrustest thy own Judgment ask thy Neighbours If thy own Convictions be not sufficient in the Case we will give thee leave enough to consult others Go ask thy Fathers and they will tell thee and thy Forefathers thy furthermost Ancestors and they will account to thee what God did in their Days and in the Old Time before them Nay enquire of the Nations round about hee Spain and Turkey and the barbarous Tartary the wild Africans and ignorant Americans and they will all confess with one Mouth this undeniable Truth That there is a God 'T is a Universal Dictate of Nature implanted in all Breasts inserted in all Common-wealths of as large a Spread as Reason and Mankind in the World Rom. 1.19 3. From Miracles Prithee Reader answer me whether or no those Wonders in Nature which we call Miracles be nothing else but a meer Lye and Forgery If not then how comes the World to be so generally imposed on How comes not only the Christian but Jewish Religion to be confirmed and ratified in so fixed a posture as they have been amongst Men Or what makes our Scriptures and Annals and Books of History so big with them If yea then I hope they speak a Divinity and a supernatural Power concerned in the performance of them If it be indeed certain that is constantly reported among us for a Truth That Nature's Bounds are sometimes broken and the ordinary Method of Things and Actions is crossed and turned quite another way if ever the Sun stood still or Angels were seen in an Embassy from Heaven if ever God appeared in a flaming Bush or talked with Man in Clouds and Thunder if ever Sin were immediately punished with a Shower of Brimstone if ever Diseases were cured with a Word and the Dead raised to Life by a Groan or Prayer if ever Blasphemies were smitten with present Vengeance and those who have denied or palpably injured the God of Heaven have smarted immediately for the Guile and Sin as our own Age and Country if we will not deafen our Ears and wink with our Eyes will afford us now and then a notorious Instance I say if these Things are so resolve me who it is so able and bold as to transgress the Laws of Nature And I am sure it can be no other than a God Consider these Things raise up thy Thoughts into an admiration of Him with that Heathen King Nebuchadnezzar when he saw the Children saved in the burning Furnace Dan. 4.23 This Knowledge of God is insufficient to save and bless us Here 't is true we may know so much as will reader us inexcusable but yet not enough to instruct and edifie us unto perfect Salvation In the Scripture we may take a more deliberate View of him we may acquaint our selves better with him we may see him look through the Lattices and commune with his Church in a free and familiar way entertaining a Patriarch in solemn Discourses appearing in Visions in Dreams by Prophets by Vrim by Oracles to his Children and People Having briefly proved the Being of a GOD I shall next prove that GOD is a Spirit I hope I need not spend time here in proving the Existence of a Spirit That there are such Things in Nature i. e. immaterial Beings Substances naked of any Matter or Corporeal Parts invisible to the Eye undiscernable to the Touch without Flesh and Bones as ordinary Creatures have Beings hidden from our outward Senses either filling or traversing the World unseen unobserved for the most part by our weak Intellectuals is so certain a Truth attested by the whole Bulk of Holy Writ by a â—ong Train of History and Tradition both amongst Jews Heathens and Christians by the Suggestions of our own Souls the very exact Character and Pourtraicture of immaterial Spirits that I need not now employ my Pen to enlarge upon this Subject only I shall prove that GOD is a Spirit 1. Because he is the Father of Spirits Heb. 12.9 He it is who is the prime Parent of all such Spiritual and Immaterial Substances out of his Bosome did they all come ripened to that Maturity and Perfection of an Existence in the World 't was he made the Angels and Man little lower than them breathing into his Nostrils a more sublime and defecated Substance than any could be squeez'd out of his
the Seed of David Psal 89.37 compared there to the Moon is meant the Church and as for the Sun ye have heard already that God himself stoops to the Metaphor the other part is easily made out viz. That this Sun and this Moon are related one to the other as the Bridegroom and the Bride Isa 62.1 5. You are this Moon God hath set his Love upon the Children of Men with design to marry them to himself Christ the Son of Righteousnes hath died to purchase their Affections and present them to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle c. As a Man loves his Wife so doth Christ the Church Only this Are you willing to accept the Proposal or will you disdain the Motion Shall this Moon scorn to be married to this glorious Sun Or are you willing to take Christ for your wedded Husband to live together after God's Ordinance in the sacred Tye of a Matrimonial Relation God himself courts you Christ hath died for you the Spirit and the Bridegroom say Come and we his Embassadors and Ministers say Come we beseech you in Christ's stead The Commission to us is much the same with Abraham's to his Servant Gen. 24.38 And our Answer may be much the same with Abraham's Servant to his Master ver 39. However our Address to you is the same with his to Rebecca v. 49. If you are willing God is willing and all things are ready and the Match is excellent and no Dowry on your part is required only as the Psalmist Psal 45.10 Hearken O Daughter and consider and incline thine Ear. And if you are thus far willing heartily willing the Espousals may be celebrated now we will very quickly God willing solemnize the Contract in the Sacrament and shortly the Marriage shall be consummate and the Feast prepared when the Scaffold of this World is taken down and the Compeer of our Bridegroom the Man of Sin is destroyed and the Number of the Guests are compleated and Room is made for that Great Solemnity then I say the Marriage-Day will come and the Feast celebrated and the Nuptials consummate and then Rev. 19.7 Let us be glad and rejoyce and give Honour to him for the Marriage of the Lamb i◠come and his Wife hath made herself ready III. Of the Existence of a Separate Soul and Ministry of Angels And was carried by the Angels into Abraham's Bosom Luke 16.22 THE Context is a Parable which I need not make a Rehearsal of The Subject of my Discourse is somewhat abstruse from Common Sence My Text lies all out of sight The Soul of Lazarus lately departed out of the Body the Angels carrying it perceptible to no Mortal Eye the Place whither Abraham's Bosom in the other World From whence we have a fair occasion to Discourse of I. The Existence of a Separate Soul II. The Ministration of Angels to it in that State III. The Conveyance of it to the common Receptacle of Departed Souls I shall propound the Doctrine thus Doct. Vpon the supposition of a Sound Faith in Christ our Souls are well provided for at the Dissolution of our Bodies The Soul of a good Christian is better accommodated after its departure out of the Body than it could be in the Body Thô the outward Tabernacle be taken down and returns to the Dust the Soul is in a safe and comfortable Condition and that in respect of its Immortality and Existence in a Separate State The Foundation I have for this Argument in my Text is this viz. That thô our supposed Friend Lazarus was dead yet he was carried away by Angels His Body cannot be meant in this Case that was to return to its Dust and at the disposal of Mankind it must therefore be his Soul which remained alive after Death Shall I give you some Arguments to prove that the Soul lives when the Man dies 1. The Scripture tells us so The Righteous hath hope in his Death Prov. 14.32 Stephen pray'd Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Acts 7.59 To Day shalt thou be with me in Paradise c. 2. Take away this Doctrine and the Force of all Religion falls to the Ground Then that of the Epicurean takes place Let us eat and drink for to morrow we die Then who would renounce his Lusts to serve a God And quit the present Pleasures of Sin in hopes of a future Reward Were it not that Mankind hath naturally and generally all the World over a sollicitous Care for the other World Religion would be soon banish'd out of this 3. If the Soul live not after the Body 't is more unhappy in the Body than the Souls of Bruits and Man is a more ignoble inferiour Creature than those Creatures which serve him We enjoy less of the Pleasures of this World than many Bruits We are distracted with more Cares Fears and Anxieties about Death and Hell about Duty and Conscience about Body and Soul about Children and Friends about the Concerns of the present Time and Time to come than the innocent pleasant Birds of the Air Beasts of the Forrest and Fishes of the Sea So that we must conclude if the Creator that made us made us with any Wisdom and did not put an absolute Cheat upon us he made us for a longer Life than that of this World And the Soul must live longer or the Workmanship of God's Hands is clouded with a grievous Solecism There are many more Arguments by which this Doctrine is wont to be proved which I shall now pass over supposing my Readers are all willing enough that their souls should survive their Bodies and endure to Eternity 2. When the Soul goes out of the Body 't is conveyed away by Angels into the other World Once out of Prison and it comes into the Society of Spirits whilst 't is here in the Body 't is pent up and cloyster'd within such thick Mud-walls that it hardly enjoys a free and unconfined Breathing can scarce peep out at the Windows or take Acquaintance with those Spiritual Creatures of its own Kind 't is mancipated for the time to a heavy lumpish Body shackled and chained up in a narrow Tabernacle of Flesh and Blood But when Death unties the Knot and open's the Prison-doors then like a Bird broke newly out of the Cage 't is presently saluted with Ghosts its Fellows a sort of Spiritual Intelligent Abstracted Forms naked Spirits which come to congratulate and conduct it to its place of Rest This will appear more probable if you consider 1. That God employs the Angels about the common Providential Government of the World Those Ministring Spirits are ready at hand to do his pleasure and nimble and active if he bids them go they go if come they come c. And this all without Murmur Dispute or Displeasure in a ready pleasant chearful manner Thus we find an Angel attending Hagar by the Fountain of Water Gen. 16.7 And again Gen. 21.17 we read of Angels appearing to Abraham
about the Judgment of Sodom to Jacob to Moses to Balaam to Joshua Gideon Manaoh Elijah to our Saviour often and to his Disciples to Philip to Cornelius to St. Peter So that we may upon the whole conclude safely that Angels are Ministers ordinarily employed about the Concernments of us Men especially for our Salvation 2. That they have a Love for us upon the account of the similitude and resemblance of Nature The great Difference is our Souls are younger Brothers born last and put in Prison for the time Both Spirits both immortal both intelligent both able to exist and live and act without the help of a dull Organical Body both active busie Creatures and both accomplished in the Fruition of the same God the Father of Spirits and therefore no wonder if these Angels thô of a different Species from the Separate Souls of us Men have a dear Affection for us The truth is our Souls are here upon their Probation for Eternity and so long as they have any Time to spend and the Sentence is not passed upon them the Angels of both Worlds are Competitors for them and the Rivalry is importunate and the Soul is courted with much eagerness and contention on both hands The Angels of the bottomless Pit tug hard and bid fair for the greatest part of Souls and no doubt but all those who are immersed deep in Flesh and prefer the ditty Pleasures of Sin to the Light and Purity of the blessed Spirits will all fall to the share of those impure fiends A Man cannot be at his Duty but a Devil is at his Elbow If he goes to Church Satan will meet him there too Job 1. Jesus himself shall not escape without an Assault and after extraordinary Devotion also And as they that are against us are many so they that stand our Friends are many too Psal 68.17 The Chariots of God are Twenty thousand even Thousands of Angels In short the Soul of Man is a Wager staked down between these two divided opposite Armies and the Battle is strong and the Victory doubtful III. The Angels assist in our Second Birth and therefore we may reasonably expect that they will not be wanting in our Third likewise They help on our Conversion and they rejoyce at it Luke 15.10 There is Joy in the Presence of the Angels of God over one Sinner that repenteth The Angel of the Lord appeared to Cornelius Acts 10.3 7. In a word Heb. 1.14 Are they not all Ministring Spirits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sent forth to Minister for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation It is generally agreed upon by all Religions in the World that every Man hath a Guard appointed him of the Angelical Host to be the Guide of his Actions and the Preserver of his Life Menander the Heathen Poet saith That every Man from his Nativity hath his peculiar Daemon assigned him for his Conduct The Egyptians and some of the Platonics assigned Three Many Christians as well Jews as Mahometans are of Opinion That every Man hath some One or more for that purpose However 't is we have great Reason to believe that our God and Saviour hath provided better for the Concerns of our Salvation and allows us a stronger Guard for our safe Convoy through the Temptations and Dangers of this World than the Devil hath to seduce and ruine us And if the Angels as some believe take us at the First Gate of our Nativity but especially at the Second of our Regeneration the Birth of Grace is it probable that they will be wanting to us at the last our Birth of Glory 4. It is but very meet that the Man should have some such Assistants ready at hand to receive the Soul upon its going out of the Body and carry it to its place of Eternal Abode tot he Mansion and Company it is appointed for And that because 't is so in all other the like Cases When the Man is born out of the Womb into the World there must be some of those People present that are already Inhabitants of that World When the Man is Regenerate and Born anew there must be some Members of the Church acquainted with Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Matters to receive it out of the World of Nature into the Assembly of the Church and at the Birth of Glory 't is very requisite also that there be some of those Spiritual People which belong to that place ready to embrace and introduce it to the whole Society of departed Spirits We may not be incorporated into any Society or admitted to any Court without some such Friends related to that Society or that Court to introduce and bring us thither And we may assure our selves that when once these souls of ours are dismissed out of these Earthly Mansions emancipated from the Body and dispeopled out of this World and have left off to converse with Corporeal Beings the Change will look mighty strange and amazing and the naked Spirit will be at first very modest and unskilful to appear immediately and intrude hastily and without Company into that Spiritual Corporation Why thô we grant that the Soul upon the pulling down of the Corpreal Prison is cloathed with a much greater Light and Intelligence and knows more and seeth more clearly into the Affairs of the Spiritual World than ever it did when it only peeped through the Key-hole of the Prison-door yet still it 's the first time it ever appear'd upon that Ground or ever saw such People and its Acquaintance being so new its Introduction is more necessary And besides I doubt not but as long as the Soul is on this side Canaan the Enemy is at his Heels whilst not possess'd actually of the State of Bliss the Evil Spirits challenge him for thier own and threaten to Arrest him and carry him to their own Home And again we find 5. The Proposition true in Fact the Angels attend Lazarus and carry him to the Bosom of Abraham We find the Angels attend at the Ascension of our Saviour into Heaven We find abundance of Stories of this Nature in Modern Ages of Dying People sublimated to that pitch and their Souls so elevated and refined that they have seen the Spiritual Harbingers and Guard prepared for them before the House of Clay was pull'd down or themselves turn'd out God doth sometimes whether for the sake of the Soul itself to chear it with a Cordial or for the sake of us that remain alive put Dying Men sometimes in a Rapture and present them with a Scene of Spirits arrayed in Light and Glory For this Cause Tertullian calls the Angels Evocatores Animarum the Callers forth of Souls and such as shew to them Paraturam Diversorii the Lodging and Entertainment provided for them And thus the Souls of wicked and good Men are both called out and conveyed away I 'll give you one Instance or two Gregory the Great tells of a Boy ill Educated by an ill Father of a vicious
of Lot Gen. 19. of Jacob Gen. 31. of Moses Exod. 3. of Balaam Gideon Manoah Elijah c. in the Old Testament And in the Case of the Baptist's and our Saviour's Birth in the New Testament they appeared to the Two Maries Zechariah and the Shepherds Act. 10.3 Cornelius is said to have seen a Vision evidently viz. An Angel of God coming to him More may be observed by Men of Leisure and Ingenuity that will take the pains to examine their Concordance and turn over a few leaves of the Bible The greatest difficulty is with Men of an Infidel Nature not only of the Sadducean humour who Account Angels no more then Divine Praises or of the Familist's Principle who say they are meer Phantasms created for the present occasion and then presently when their Business is over manumitted into Old Vanity and Nothing but Hobbists and Scepticks and Atheists The first of which Symbolizes much with the Old Sadduces the Sceptick doubts and the Atheist flatly denies them To all which I have no more to say it being not my business now to engage in the Lists of Disputation which would swell my Book into a Volume too big for the Purses of the present Age but to submit fairly the aforesaid Texts and the following stories to the Sober and Mature consideration of the Reader Only be pleased to take this distinction along with you that Angels may appeaâ— visibly to the Eye of the mind as well as to the Eye of sense And now let us lay aside our Bible a while to humour the Infirmity of this Unbelieving Club who could be well enough content there might be Good Angels concerned for us so there were no Bad ones against us Bodinus who had it from the Mouth of the Man whom it concerned a Holy and Pious Man and an Acquaintance of Bodinus's tells us that he had a certain Spirit that did perpetually accompany him which he was then first aware of when he was about Thirty Seven years of Age but conceived that the said Spirit had been with him all his Life time as he gathered from certain Monitory Dreams and Visions whereby he was forewarned as well of several Dangers as Vices That this Spirit discovered himself to him after he had for a whole year together earnestly prayed to God to send a Good Angel to him to be the Guide and Governour of his Life and Actions adding also that before and after Prayer he used to spend two or three hours in Meditation and Reading the Scriptures diligently enquiring with himself what Religion might be the Best beseeching God that he would be pleased to direct him to it And that he did not allow of their way that at all adventures pray for Confirmation of them in that Opinion they are in whether right or wrong That whilst he was thus busy in matters of Religion he light on a passage in Philo Judeus de Srcrificiis where he Writes That a Good and Holy Man can offer no greater nor more acceptable Sacrifice to God then the oblation of himself And therefore following Philo's Counsel that he offered his Soul to God And after that amongst many other Divine Dreams and Visions he once in his sleep seemed to hear the Voice of God saying to him I will save thy Soul I am he that appeared unto thee Afterwards the Spirit would every day knock at the Door about three or four a Clock in the Morning tho he rising and opening the Door could see no body This Trouble and Boysterousness made him begin to conceit that it was some ill Spirit that thus haunted him and therefore he daily Prayed earnestly to the Lord that he would be pleased to send his Good Angel to him and often also Sung Psalms having most of them by heart Wherefore the Spirit afterwards knocked more gently at the Door and One day discovered himself to him Waking which was the first time that he was assured by his senses that it was He for he often touched and stirred a Drinking-Glass that stood in his Chamber which did not a little amaze him Two days after when he entertained a Friend of his Secretary to the King his Friend was much abashed while he heard the Spirit thumping on the Bench hard by him and was strucken with fear but he bid him be of good courage there was no hurt towards him and the better to assure him of it told him the truth of the whole matter From that time saith Bodinus he did affirm that this Spirit was always with him and by some sensible Sign did ever advertise him of things as by striking his Right Ear if he did any thing amiss if otherwise his left If any body came to Circumvent him his right Ear was struck but his left if a good Man and to good Ends accosted him If he was about to Eat or Drink any thing that would hurt him or intended to do any ill Action he was inhibited by a Sign and if he delayed to follow his Business he was quickened by a Sign given him When he began to Praise God in Psalms and to declare him Marvellous Acts he was presently raised and strengthened by a Supernatural Power He daily begg'd of God that he would teach him his Will and set one day of the Week a part for meditation and Reading the Scripture and Singing of Psalms and did not stir out of his House all that day But in his ordinary Conversation he was sufficiently merry and of a cheerful mind for which he cited that saying Vidi facies sanctorum letas But in his conversing with others if he had talked Vainly and Indiscreetly or had some days together neglected his Devotions he was forthwith Admonished thereof by a Dream He was also Admonished to rise betime every Morning about four a Clock with a Voice coming to him while he was asleep saying Who gets up first to Pray He was often Admonish'd likewise to give Alms and observed the more Charity he bestowed the more Prosperous he was On a time when his Enemies sought after his Life knowing he was to go by Water his Father in a Dream brought two Horses to him the one white the other Bay and thereupon he bid his Man hire him two Horses and tho he said nothing of the Colours his Man brought him a White Horse and a Bay one In all Difficulties Journeyings c. He us'd to ask Counsel of God and one Night when he had begg'd his Blessing while he slept he saw a Vision wherein his Father seemed to Bless him At another time when in great danger and was newly gone to Bed he said the Spirit would not let him alone till he had raised him again whereupon he watched and prayed all that Night the day after he escap'd the hands of his Persecutors in a wonderful manner which done in his next sleep he heard a Voice saying Now Sing Qui sedet in latibulo altissimi c. He once attempting to speak to this
my Soul into the Kingdom of Heaven See her Life 23. I Remember says Mr. Increase Mather in his Disc of Angels that once in Discourse with the Learned Doctor Spencer in Cambridge concerning his Book of Prodigies he said to me that his Judgment was That the Evil Angels had Prenotions of many Future Things and did accordingly give strange Premonitions of them No doubt it is often so and yet as Lavater Schottus and others have noted there are sometimes Things signified by Angels which it is not easie to determine of what sort those Genii are VVhat shall be thought of the Phantom which appeared to General Vesselini assuring him that he might take the City of Muran by the Assistance of a Widow which Lived in that City which strangely came to pass accordingly in the Year 1644. There comes to my mind a very Unaccountable Thing which happened at London above Thirty Years ago It was this One Mr. Cutty an honest Citizen passing between Milk-street and Wood-street in Cheap-side on March 2d 1664 took up a Letter Sealed The Superscription whereof was these VVords following From Geneva to a Friend VVithin the Letter these VVords were written This is to give both timely and speedy Notice that in the Year 1665 in the latter end of May shall begin a Plague and hold very hot till the latter end of December and then cease but not quite and then go on till the latter end of the Spring the next Year And in 1665 and 66 putting both together shall not only happen a Plague but great Sea Fights such as the like was scarce ever heard of and this shall not be all but in the Year 1666 on the Second of September shall happen a Fire that shall burn down one of the Eminentest Cities in the World Mr. Cutty carried the Letter to the then Lord Mayor A Reverend Divine in London who was of his Acquaintance had a Copy of it before the sad Things here Predicted came to pass and at my last being at London was pleased to favour me with it as 't is here Related This Account being certainly true and very surprizing I thought it not unworthy the Publication 24. There are sometimes very unaccountable Motions and Impressions on the Spirits of good men which are wrought in them by the ministry of Holy Angels whose work it is to prevent and disappoint the Designs of Satan and of his evil Angels I remember one relates a remarkable Passage of a good man that when he was reading in his House he could not rest in his Spirit but he must step out of Doors which he had no sooner done but he saw a Child in a Pond of VVater ready to perish which would have been gone past recovery had not he gone out of his Doors just at that moment This Impression must needs be from a good Angel And an other like Passage is related in the Life of that Holy Man Mr. Dod One Evening though he had other work to attend he could not but he must got to such a Neighbour's House when he came to him he told him he knew not what he was come for but he could not rest in his Spirit until he had visited him The poor man was astonished for he had in the Violence of a Temptation put a Rope into his Pocket with an intent to have destroyed himself had not Mr. Dod's thus coming prevented it Surely an Angel of the Lord was in this Providence Bishop Hall speaks of one whom he knew that having been for Sixteen Years a Cripple had these monitions in his Sleep that he should go and wash in St. Matherns Well in Cornwell which he did and was suddenly recovered This he thinks was from Angelical Suggestion Marcus Aurelius Antoninus did in a Dream receive the Prescript of a Remedy for his Disease which the Physitians could not cure A Physitian of Vratislavium followed the Counsel he had given him in a Dream concerning the cure of a Disease which was to him incurable and he recovered the Patient It added to the wonder that a few Years after he met with that Receipt in a Book then newly Printed Histories report that the like to this happened to Philip and to Galen If Angels may Suggest things beneficial unto the minds of Men who are Strangers to God much more unto them that fear him Thus far Mr. Mather Converse with Angels and Spirits Extracted from the Miscellanies of John Aubery Esq 25 Dr. Richard Nepier was a Person of great Abstinence Innocence and Piety He spent every Day Two Hours in Family Prayer When a Patient or Querent came to him he presently went to his Closet to Pray and told to admiration the Recovery or Death of the Patient It appears by his Papers that he did converse with the Angel Raphael who gave him the Responses 26. Elias Ashmole Esq had all his Papers where is contained all his Practice for about Fifty Years which he Mr. Ashmole carefully bound up according to the year of our Lord in Volumes in Folio which are now reposited in the Library of the Museum in Oxford Before the Responses stands this Mark viz. R â„ž is which Mr. Ashmole said was Responsum Raphaelis The Angel told him if the Patient were curable or incurable There are also severalâ— other Queries to the Angel as to Religion Transubstantiation c. which I have forgot I remember one is Whether the Good Spirits or the Bad be most in Number R â„ž is The Good It is to be found there that he told John Prideaux D. D. Anno 1621 that Twenty Years hence 1641 he would be a Bishop and he was so sc Bishop of Worcester R â„ž is did resolve him That Mr. Booth of in Cheshire should have a Son that should inherit Three Years hence sc Sir George Booth the first Lord Delamere viz. from 1619. Sir George Booth aforesaid was born Decemb. 18th Anno 1622. This I extracted out of Dr. Nepier's Original Diary then in the possession of Mr. Ashmole It is impossible that the Prediction of Sir George Booth's Birth could be found any other way but by Angelical Revelation This Dr. Richard Nepier was Rector of Lynford in Bucks and did practise Physickâ— but gave most to the Poor that he got by it 'T is certain he foretold his own Death to a Day and Hour he died Praying upon his Knees being of a very great Age 1634. April the First One says why should one think the Intellectual World less Peopled than the Material Pliny in his Natural History tells us that in Africa do sometimes appear Multitudes of Aerial Shapes which suddenly Vanish Mr. Richard Baxter in his certainty of the World of Spirits hath a Discourse of Angels and wonders they are so little taken notice of he hath counted in Newman's Concordance of the Bible the word Angel in above 300 places Thus far Mr. Aubery CHAP. III. Concerning the Appearance of bad Angels or Daemons HEre I have a great Task and
Garden the Devil appeared to him in the shape of a Black Boar but he slighted him and so the Demon Vanished away Another time as he was sitting in a certain place on his Stool there was a great stone over his head in the Vault which being stayed up Miraculously whilst he Sate there so soon as he was up immediately it fell upon the place where he Sate being sufficient to have crushed him in pieces if it had light upon him Clark's marrow of Eccl. Hist p. 145. And again a young Man about Wittemberg being kept bare and needy by his Father was tempted by the Devil to give himself to him upon condition to have his wish satisfied with mony and thereupon an Obligation was made by the young Man VVritten with his own Blood and delivered to the Devil But presently after he began to decay in his Health so that the thing being suspected he was brought before Luther and Examined who at last made confession of the whole matter upon which Luther calling the whole Congregation together where he Prayed with so much Earnestness and Affection that the Devil was at last compelled to throw in his Obligation at the VVindow Ibid. 11. It is credibly reported that the Devil in the likeness of a faithful Ministers at St. Ives near Bosâ—on in Lincolnshire came to one that was in trouble of Mind telling her the longer she lived the worse it would be for her and therefore advising her to Self-murder An eminent Person still living had the Account of this matter from Mr. Cotton the Famous Teacher of both Bosâ—ons He was well acquainted with that Minister who related to him the whole Story with all the Circumstances of it For Mr. Cotton was so affected with the Report as to take a Journey on purpose to the Town where this happened that so he might obtain a satisfactory Account about it which he did Some Authors say that a Doemon appeared in the form of Sylvanus Hierom's Friend attempting a dishonest thing the Devil thereby designing to blast the Reputation of a Famous Bishop 12. Melancthon in his Epistle to Hubert Languetus saith Twelve years ago there was a VVoman in Saxony that never Learnt Letters and yet when she was Acted by the Devil after Torment she spake Greek and Latin of the future Saxon VVar. Sixteen years ago there was in that Market a Girl that when she pulled Hairs from Cloaths they were turn'd into Mark-mony which the Girl devoured with long and loud Gnashing of Teeth and those Figures or Shapes of Money sometimes suddenly snatcht out of her Hands were true Money which are yet kept by some and after the Girl felt great Torment But she was delivered from all that Disease after some Months and yet liveth in Health But frequent Prayers of Godly Persons were made for her and other Ceremonies were purposely then omitted Thus Melancthon Epist l. 2. p. 550 551. 2. In Modern times we have a Multitude of Instances as 1. John Winnick of Molseworth in Huntingtonshire being Examined April 11. 1646. Confessed as follows having lost him Purse with Seven Shillings in it for which he suspected one in the Family where he Lived he saith that on a Friday while he was making Hay-bottles in the Barn and Swore and Curs'd and Rag'd and wisht to himself that some wise Body would help him to his Purse and Money again there appeared unto him a Spirit in the shape of a Bear but not so big as a Coney who promised upon condition that he would fall down and Worship him he would help him to his Purse He assented to it and the Spirit told him to Morrow about this time he should find his Purse upon the floor where he made Bottles and that he would then come himself also which was done accordly And thus at the time appointed recovering his Purse he fell down upon his knees to the Spirit and said My Lord and my God I thank you This Spirit brought then with him two others in the shape the one of a white Cat the other of a Coney which at the command of the Bear-Spirit he Worshipped also The Bear Spirit told him he must have his Soul when he dyed that he must suck of his Body that he must have some of his Blood of seal the Covenant To all which he agreed and so the Bear Spirit leaping up to his shoulder pricked him on the head and thence took Blood After that they all three Vanished but ever since came to him once every twenty four hours and sucked on his Body where the Marks are found And that they had continually done thus for this twenty nine years together That all these things should be a meer Dream is a conceit more slight and foolish then any Dream possibly can be For that receiving of his purse was a palpable and sensible pledge of the truth of all the rest And it is incredible that such a series of Circumstances backed with Twenty Nine years Experience of being sucked and visited daily sometimes in the day time most commonly by Night by the same three Familiars should be nothing but the hanging together of so many Melancholy Conceits and Fancies More 's Antid against Atheism l. 3. c. 6. 2. To that of John Winnick it will not be amiss to add a more late and more notable Narration concerning one Ann Bodenham a Witch who Lived in Fisherton-Anger adjacent to the City of New Sarum in the County of Wilts who was Arraigned and Executed at Salisbury 1653. He that has a mind to read the Story more at large he may consult Edmond Bower But I shall onely set down here what is most material to our present purpose partly out of him and partly from others who were then at the Assizes and had private Conference with the Witch and spoke also with the Maid that gave evidence against her This Ann Bodenham it seems concealed not her skill in foretelling things to come and helping Men to their stolen Goods and other such like feats that the more notable sort of Wizards and Witches are said to pretend to and to practise Amongst others that resorted to her there was one Ann Styles Servant to Rich. Goddard Esq of the Close in New Sarum sent by Mr. Mason this Goddard's Son in Law he having a design to commence a Law-suit against his Father to Learn of the Witch what would be the event of the Suit Who being asked by the Maid who had three Shillings to give her for her pains she took her Staff and there drew it about the House making a kind of a Circle and then took a Book and carrying it over the Circle with her hands and taking a green Glass did lay it upon the Book and placed in the Circle an Earthen Pan of Coals wherein she threw something which burning caused a very noisome stink and told the Maid she should not be afraid of what she should then see for now they would come they are the
words she used and so calling Belzebub Tormentor Satan and Lucifer appear there suddenly Arose a very high VVind which made the House shake and presently the Back door of the House flying open there came five Spirits as the Maid supposed in the likeness of ragged Boys some bigger then others and ran about the House where she had drawn the Staff and the VVitch threw down upon the ground Crumbs of Bread which the Spirits picked up and leapt over the Pan of Coals oftentimes which she set in the midst of the Circle and a Dog and a Cat of the VVitches Danced with them and after sometime the VVitch looked again in her Book and threw some great white Seeds upon the ground which the said Spirits picked up and so in a short time the VVind was laid and the VVitch going forth at her back Door the Spirits Vanished After which they VVitch told the Maid that Mr. Mason should demand Fifteen Hundred Pound and one Hundred and Fifty Pound per Annum of Mr. Goddard and if he denied it he should Prosecute the Law against him and be gone from his Father and then he should gain it VVith which message the Maid returned and acquainted Mr. Mason The same Maid being sent again to her from the same Party to enquire in what part of the House the Poyson was that should be given her Mistress Hereupon she took her Stuff as before and making therewith a Circle the VVind rose forthwith then taking a Beesome she swept over the Circle and made another and looking in her Book and Glass as formerly and using some words softly to her self she stood in the Circle and said Belzebub Tormentor Lucifer and Satan appear There appeared first a Spirit in the shape of a little Boy as she conceived which then turned into another shape something like a Snake and then into the shape of a shagged Dog with great Eyes which went about in the Circle and in the Circle she set an earthen Pan of Coals wherein she threw something which burned and stank and then the Spirit Vanished After which the Witch took her Book and Glass again and shewed the Maid in the Glass Mrs. Sarah Goddard's Chamber the colour of the Curtains and the Bed turned up the wrong way and under that part of the Bed where the Bolster lay she shewed the Poyson in a white Paper The Maid afterwards returned home and acquainted Mistress Rosewel with what the Witch had shewed her in a Glass that the Poyson lay under Mistress Sarahs Bed and also spoke to her that they might go together and take it away When the Maid was another time sent to procure some exemplary Punishment upon Mr. Goddard's two Daughters who yet were unjustly as it seems aspersed with the suspicion of endeavouring to Poyson their Mother in Law The Witch receiving the VVenches errand made a Circle as formerly and set her Pan of Coals therein and burnt somewhat that stunk extreamly and took her Book and Glass as before is related and said Belzebub Tormentor Lucifer and Satan appear and then appeared five Spirits as she conceived in the shape of little Ragged Boys which the VVitch commanded to appear and go along with the Maid to a Meadow at Wilton which the VVitch shewed in a Glass and there to gather Vermin and Dill and forthwith the Ragged Boys ran away before the Maid and she followed them to the said Meadow and when they came thither the Ragged Boys looked about for the Herbs and removed the Snow in two or three places before they could find any and at last they found some and brought it away with them and then the Maid and the Boys returned again to the VVitch and found her in the Circle pairing her Nails and then she took the said Herbs and dried the same and made Powder of some and dried the Leaves of other and threw Bread to the Boys and they Eat and Danced as formerly and then the VVitch reading in a Book they Vanished away And the VVitch gave the Maid in one Paper the Powder in another the Leaves and in the Third the paring of the Nails and which the Maid was to give her Mistress The Powder was to put in the young Gentlewomens Mrs. Sarah and Mrs. Ann Goddard's Drink or Broth to rot their Guts in their Bellies the Leaves to rub about the Brimbs of the Pot to make their Teeth fall out of their Heads and the paring of the Nails to make them drunk and mad And when the Maid came Home and delivered it to her Mistress and told her the Effects of the Powder and the other things her Mistress laughed and said that it is a very brave thing indeed But yet she had the discretion not to make use of it This Powder was shewn at the Assizes so that is could be no Fancy or Dream together with a piece of Money that she received of the Spirits which one of them first bit and gave it to the VVitch and then the VVitch gave it to the Maid The Hole also in her Finger was then shown out of which Blood was squeezed to subscribe a Covenant with the Devil as you may see in the Fourth and Last bout of Conjuring the VVitch performed in the Maids presence For she being advised by Mr. Goddard's Houshold to go to London she went to the VVitches first before she quitted the Countrey who being made acquainted with her Journey asked her whether she would go to London High or Low To which she replied what do you mean by that She answered if you will go on High you shall be carried to London in the Air and be there in Two Hours but if you go a low you shall be taken at Sutton Town 's End and before unless you have help But before the Maid departed the VVitch earnestly desired the Maid to live with her and told her if she would do so she would teach her to do as she did and that she should never be taken Then the Maid asked her what she should do She answered you shall know presently and forthwith she appeared in the shape of a great black Cat and lay along by the Chimney at which the Maid being much affrighted she came into her own Shape again and told her I see you are afraid and I see you are willing to be gone and told her if she was she should say so and not speak against her Conscience and the Maid replied she was willing to go and not dwell with the VVitch Then the VVitch said she must seal unto her Body and Blood not to discover her which she promising to do she forthwith made a Circle as formerly she had done and looking in her Book called Belzebub Tormentor Lucifer and Satan appear Then appeared Two Spirits in the likeness of great Boys with long shagged Hair and stood by her looking over her Shoulder and the VVitch took the Maio's Fore-finger of her Right Hand in her Hand and pricked it with
Devil appeared to her in her House in the likeness of a white Dog and that she called this Imp or Familiar Spirit Elimanzer and that she often fed it and that the Spirit spoke to her very audibly and bid her deny Jesus Christ which she did then assent to but denied that she killed the young maid She was Executed at Mannintree Apr. 15. 1645. 4. Anne West and Rebecca her Daughter were likewise of this black Society against whom Prudence the VVife of Thomas Hart of Lawford in Essex deposed upon Oath that about Eight weeks before going on Sunday to the Parish-Church about half a mile from her House being about Twenty weeks gone with Child and to her thinking very well and healthy upon a sudden she was taken with great Pains and miscarried before she came Home And about Two months after one Night when she was in Bed something fell down upon her Right Side but being dark she could not discover its shapes and that she was presently taken lame on that side with extraordinary Pains and burning and was certainly perswaded that Anne and Rebecca West were the cause of her Pains having expressed much Malice toward her and counted her their greatest Enemy Mr. John Edes a Minister deposed That Rebecca West confessed to him that about Seven Years before she began to have familiarity with the Devil by the instigation of her Mother Anne West and that he appeared in several Shapes As once like a proper young man who desired to have familiarity with her promising that he would then do what she desired and avenge her on her Enemies requiring her also to deny God and put her faith and trust in him which being agreed to she order'd him to avenge her on one Thomas Hart of Lawford by killing his Son who was soon after taken sick and died VVhereupon Rebecca told the Minister she thought the Devil could do like God in destroying whom he pleased After which she gave him Entertainment and he lay with her as a man She likewise confest to him that when she lived at Riverhall in Essex her Mother came and told her The Barley Corn was picked up meaning that the Son of one George Francis a chief Inhabitant of that Town was Dead and his Father very much suspected he was bewitched to Death and her Mother hearing of it said Be it unto him according to his Faith Mr. Matthew Hopkins deposed upon Oath that going to the Prison where Rebecca West and five others were he asked her how she first came to be a Witch who told him that her Mother and she going one Evening after Sunset toward Mannintree her Mother charged her to keep secret whatever she saw which she promising to do they went both to the House of Elizabeth Clark where they found her together with Ana Leach Elizabeth Gooding and Hellen Clark and that Instantly the devil appeared in the shape of a Dog then came two Kitlins and after them two Dogs more who all seemed to reverence Elizabeth Clark skipping into her lap and kissing her and then Kist all in the Room except her self Whereupon one of the Witches askt her Mother if her Daughter were Acquainted with the Business who assuring them of her secrecy Ann Leach pulled out a Book and Swore her not to reveal any thing she saw or heard and if she did she should endure more torments than there could be in Hell Whereupon she again ingaged to be silent They told her she must never confess any thing tho the Rope were about her Neck and she ready to be Hanged To which after she had given her absolute Ingagement the Devil leapt up into her Lap and Kissed her promising to perform whatever she would desire About halt a year after the Devil appeared as she was going to Bed and said he would marry her which she could not refuse whereupon he Kissed her but was as cold as Clay and then took her by the Hand Leading her about the room and promised to be her Loving Husband till Death and to avenge her of all her enemies She likewise obliging her self to be his Obedient Wife till Death and to deny God and Christ Jesus She confest that after this she sent him to kill the Son of Thomas Hart who died within a Fortnight and thereupon she took the Devil for her God and thought he could as God Rebecca West being likewise Examined before the Justices at Mannintree confessed that all was true concerning their Meeting at Elizabeth Clarks where they spent some time in Praying to their Familiar Spirits and then every one made their desires known to them Elizabeth Clark requested her Spirit that Mr. Edwards might be met withal at a Bridge near her House and that his Horse might be frighted and he thrown down and never rise again Mr. Edwards deposed that at the same place his Horse started and greatly indangered him and he heard something about the House Cry Ah Ah much like a Polecat and that with great difficulty he saved himself from being thrown off his Horse Elizabeth Gooding desired her Imp to kill Robert Jaylors Horse for suspecting her to be a Witch which was done accordingly Hellen Clark required to kill some Hogs of a Neighbours Ann Leach that a Cow might be Lamed and Ann West her Mother desired her Spirit to free her from all her enemies and to have no trouble And she her self desired that Thomas Harts Wife might be taken Lame of her right side after which they departed appointing the next Meeting at Elizabeth Goodings House for these and several other Notorious Crimes Ann West was Sentenced and Executed at Mannintree Elizabeth Gooding at Chelmsford and the Bill found against Rebecca West by the Grand Jury but was acquitted by the Jury of Life and Death Ibid p. 14. 5. Rose Hallybread was another of this black Regiment against whom Robert Turner of St. Osyth in Essex deposed that about eight days before his Servant was taken Sick shaking shrieking and crying out of Rose Hallybread that she had bewitched him and that he sometimes Crowed like a Cock sometimes barked like a Dog and sometimes Groaned violently beyond the ordinary course of Nature and tho but a youth struggl'd with so much strength that four or five lusty Men were not able to hold him down in his Bed and sometimes he would Sing several strange Songs and Tunes his Mouth not being opened nor his Lips so much as stirring all the time of his Singing She being examined confest That about sixteen years before one Goody Hagtree brought an Imp to her House which she entertained and fed it with Oat-Meal and Suckled it on her Body a Year and a half and then lost it She confessed likewise that about half a year before one Joyce Boanes brought to her another Imp in the likeness of a small gray Bird which she received and carried to the House of one Thomas Toakly of St. Osyths and put it under his Door after which
tell any one of it The Gentlewoman died and afterwards in a Tavern in London he spake of it and there going to make Water the Ghost of the Gentlewoman did appear to him He was afterwards troubled with the Apparition of her even sometimes in Company when he was drinking but he only perceiv'd it Before she did appear he did find a kind of a Chilness upon his Spirits she did appear to him in the morning before he was kill'd in a Duel This Account I have from an intimate Friend of mine who was an Acquaintance of his 13. In James-street in Covent-Garden 1647. did lodge a Gentlewoman a handsome Woman but common who was Mr. Mohun's Son to the Lord Mohun Sweet-heart Mr. Mohun was murthered about Ten a Clock in the Morning and at that very time his Mistress being in Bed saw Mr. Mohun come to her Bed-side drew the Curtain looked upon her and went away She call'd upon him but no answer She knock'd for her maid ask'd her for Mr. Mohun she said she did not see him and had the Key of her Chamber Door in her Pocket This Account I had from the Gentlewoman's own mouth and her maid's A parallel Story to this is That Mr. Brown Brother-in-law to the Lord Conningsby discover'd his being murther'd to several His Phantome appear'd to his Sister and her maid in Fleet-street about the time he was Killed in Herefordshire which was about a Year since 1693. 14. I must not forget an Apparition in my Country which appear'd several times to Dr. Turbervile's Sister at Salisbury which is much talk'd of One marry'd a second Wife and contrary to the Agreement and Settlement at the first VVife's marriage did wrong the Children by the first Venter The Settlement was hid behind a VVainscot in the Chamber where the Doctor 's Sister did lie And the Apparition of the first VVife did discover it to her By which means Right was done to the first Wife's Children 15. One Mr. Towes who had been School-fellow with Sir George Villers the Father of the first Duke of Buckingham and was his Friend and Neighbour as he lay in his Bed awake and it was Day-light came into his Chamber the Phantome of his dear Friend Sir George Villers Said Mr. Towes to him Why you are Dead what make you here Said the Knight I am dead but cannot rest in Peace for the Wickedness and Abomination of my Son George at Court I do appear to you to tell him of it and to advise and dehort him from his Evil ways Said Mr. Towes The Duâ—e will not believe me but will say that I am Mad or Dâ—at Said Sir George Go to him from me and tell him by such a Token some Mole that he had in some secret place which none but himself knew of Accordingly Mr. Tomes went to the Duke who laugh'd at his message At his return home the Phantome appear'd again and told him that the Duke would be stabb'd he drew out a Dagger a quarter of a Year after and you shall outlive him half a Year and the Warning that you shall have of your Death will be That your Nose shall fall a-bleeding All which accordingly fell out so 16. The Learned Henry Jacob Fellow of Merton-College in Oxford died at Dr. Jacob's M. D. House in Canterbury About a Week after his Death the Doctor being in Bed and awake and the Moon shining bright saw his Cousin Henry standing by his Bed in his Shirt with a white Cap on his Head and his Beard mustaches turning up as when he was alive The Doctor pinched himself and was sure he was awaked He turned to the other side from him and after some time took Courage to turn the other way again towards him and Henry Jacob stood there still he should have spoken to him but did not for which he has been ever since sorry About half an Hour after he vanished Not long after this the Cook-maid going to the Woodpile to fetch VVood to dress Supper saw him standing in his Shirt upon the VVoodpile This Account I had in a Letter from Dr. Jacob. 1673. relating to his Life for Mr. Anthony Word which is now in his Hands 17 Mr. T. M. an old Acquaintance of mine hath assured me that about a quarter of a Year after his VVives Death as he lay in Bed awake with his little Grand-child his Wife open'd the Closet Door and came into the Chamber to the Bedside and looked upon him and stooped down and kissed him her Lips were warm he fancied they would have been cold He was about to have embraced her but was afraid it might have done him hurt When she went from him he asked when he should see her again she turn'd about and smiled but said nothing The Closet Door striked as it uses to do both at her coming in and going out 18. Mr. Jo. Lydall or Trinity-College Soc. Oxon. March 11. 1649 50. Attests the ensuing Relation in a Letter to Mr. Aubrey thus Mr. Aubrey Concerning that which happened at Woodstock I was told by Mr. W. Haws who now lives with Sir William Fleetwood in the Park That the Committee which sat in the Mannor-house for Selling the King's Lands were frighted by strange Apparitions and that the Four Surveyors which were sent to measure the Park and Lodged themselves with some other Companions in the Mannor were pelted out of their Chambers by Stones thrown in at the Windows but from what Hands the Stones came they could not see that their Candles were continually put out as fast as they lighted them and that one with his Sword drawn to defend a Candle was with his own Scabbard in the mean time well Cudgell'd so that for the Blow or for fear he fell Sick and the others forced to remove some of them to Sir William Fleetwood's House and the rest to some other places But concerning the cutting of the Oak in particular I have nothing Your Friend To be commanded to my power John Lydall 19. A Minister who liv'd by Sir John Warre in Somersetshire about 1665 walking over the Park to give Sir John a Visit was rencounter'd by a venerable old Man who said to him Prepare your self for such a day which was about three Days after you shall die The Minister told Sir John Warre and my Lady this Story who heeded it not On the Morning fore-warn'd Sir John calls upon the Parson early to ride a Hunting and to Laugh at his Prediction His Maid went up to call him and found him stark dead This from my Lady Katherine Henly who had it from my Lady Warre 20. Dr. Twiss Minister of the New Church at Westminster told me That his Father Dr. Twiss Prolocutor of the Assembly of Divines and Author of Vindiciae when he was a School-Boy at Winchester saw the Phantome of a School-fellow of his deceased a Rakehell who said to him I am damned This was the occasion of Dr. Twiss the Fathers Conversion who had been before
had hearde of such an old Parrot when he came to Brasil and tho' he believed nothing of it and it was a good way off yet he had so much Curiosity as to send for it and that it was a very great and a very old one and when it came first into the Room where the Prince was with a great many Dutchmen about him it said presently What a Company of white Men are here They asktâ— it what he thought that Man was pointing at the Prince It answer'd Some General or other When they brought it close to him he ask'd it Dou venez vous whence came you it answer'd De Mariuuau from Mariuuau The Prince A qui est es vous to whom do you belong The Parrot a una Portuguez to a Portugueze Prince Que fais tula What do you there Parrot Je garde le poulles I look after the Chickens The Prince laughed and said Vous garde le poulles You look after the Chickens The Patrot answer'd Ouy moy Je scay bieu faire Yes I and I know well enough how to do it and then made a Chuck four or five times that People use to make when they call the Chickens I set down the Words of this worthy Dialogue in French just as Prince Maurice said them to me I ask'd him in what Language the Parrot spoke and he said in Brasilian I ask'd whether he understood Brasilian he said No but he had taken Care to have two Interpreters by him the one a Dutchman that spoke Brasilian the other a Brasilian that spoke Dutch that he asked them separately and privately and both of them agreed in telling him just the same thing that the Parrot said I could not saith Sir William but tell this odd Story because it is so much out of the way and from the first Hand and what may pass for a good one For I dare say this Prince at least believed himself all that he told me having ever passsed for an honest and pious Man I leave it to Naturalists to Reason and other Men to believe as they please upon it Thus that excellent Person Dr. Burthogge's Essay upon Reason c. p. 19 20 c. It may be this Story is not very properly asserted in this place but I Quaere whether or no it may not give some Light to the solving of that Aenigmatical Story of the Devil in the Serpent and the speaking Ass mentioned by Moses 6. Memorable is that famous Story in Wierus of Magdalena Crucia first a Nun and then an Abbatess of a Nunnery in Corduba in Spain Those things which were Miraculous in her were these That she could tell almost at any distance how the Affairs of the World went what Consultations or Transactions there were in all the Nations of Christendom from whence she got to her self the Reputation of a very holy Woman and a great Prophetess But other things came to pass by her or for her sake no less strange and miraculous As that at the Celebrating of the Holy Eucharist the Priest should always want one of his round Wafers which was secretly conveyed to Magdalen by the Administration of Angels as was supposed and she receiving of it into her Mouth eat it in the view of the People to their great Astonishment and high Reverence of the Saint At the Elevation of the Host Magdalen being near at hand but yet a Wall betwixt that the Wall was conceived to open and to exhibit Magdalen to the view of them in the Chappel and that thus she partaked of the Consecrated Bread When this Abbatess came into the Chappel her self upon some special Day she would set off the Solemnity of the Day by some notable and conspicuous Miracle for she would sometimes be lifted up above the ground three or four Cubits high other sometimes bearing the Image of Christ in her Arms weeping savourly she would make her Hair to increase to that length and largeness that it would come to her Heels and cover her all over and the Image of Christ in her Arms which anon notwithstanding would shrink up again to its usual size with a many such specious though unprofitable Miracles But you will say That the Narrative of these things is not true but they are Feigned for the Advantage of the Roman Religion and so it was profitable for the Church to Forge them and record them to posterity A man that is unwilling to admit of any thing supernatural would please himself with this general shuffle and put off But when we come to the Catastrophe of the Story he will find it quite othewise For this Saint at last began to be suspected for a Sorceress as it is thought and she being conscious did of her own accord to save her self make confession of her Wickedness to the Visitors of the Order as they are called Viz. That for thirty years she had been Married to the Devil in the shape of an Aethiopian that another Devil Servant to this when his Master was at dalliance with her in her Cell supplied her place amongst the Nuns at their publick Devotions That by virtue of this Contract she made with this Spirit she had done all those Miracles she did Upon this Confession she was Committed and while she was in durance yet she appeared in her devout Postures praying in the Chappel as before at their set Hours of Prayer which being told to the Visitors by the Nuns there was a strict Watch over her that she should not stir out never theless she appeared in the Chappel as before tho she were really in the Prison Now what Credit or Advantage there can be to the Roman Religion by this story let any Man Judge wherefore it is no sigment of the Priests or Religious Persons nor Melancholy nor any such Matter for how could so many Spectators at once be deluded by melancholy but it ought to be deemed a real Truth And this Magdalena Crucia appearing in two several places at once it is manifest that there is such a thing as Apparitions of Spirits More 's Antid against Atheism l. 3. c. 4. 7. It may not be impertinent here to relate a certain Story out of Sozomen concerning Athanasius Patriarch of Alexandria The Patriarch was upon a time walking in the Streets of the City and a Raven flying towards him croaking a Heathen that stood by observing it began to deride and reproach him for it as if he had been a Praestigator or Conjurer and so making towards him ask'd in derision What the Raven said to him He modestly Smiling answered in Latine Cras To Morrow For he Dictates unto you That to Morrow will be a bitter Day For to Morrow you shall receive the Emperor's Edict That you shall Celebrate no more your Heathenish Solemnities And accordingly it came to pass for the next Day the Magistrates received Orders from the Roman Emperor That the Heathen Gods should be no more worshipped but destroyed utterly with all
Tower this Son being at Sea and engaged in the Fight between a Squadron of the Parliament and the Dutch in the Leghorn-Road the Ship wherein he was which I think was the Providence was blown up and it was supposed all the Men lost about a Month or two afterwards the Doctor being at Sir John Robinson's House his Son to the great admiration of his Father and Master came at that instant to them told them that sitting on a Pole upon the Poop by the Flag-staff he was blown up into the Sea and there continued on the Pole till next day when the Dutch found him pitied him and took him aboard with them and so saved him This was related to me by the Worshipful William Garraway of Ford in Sussex Esq 7. The following Relations are to be found in Mr. Mather's Book of Providence Remarkable was that which happened to Jabez MMusgrove of Newbery who being shot by an Indian the Bullet entred in at his Ear and went out at his Eye on the other side of his Head yet the Man was preserved from Death yea and is still in the Land of the Living 8. Remarkable was that Deliverance mentioned by Mr. Janeway wherein that gallant Commander Major Edward Gibbons of Boston in New-England and others were concerned The substance of the Story is this A New-England Vessel going from Boston to some other parts of America was through the Continuance of contrary Winds kept long at Sea so that they were in very great straits for want of Provision and seeing they could not hope for any Relief from Earth or Sea they apply themselves to Heaven in humble and hearty Prayers but no Calm ensuing one of them made this sorrowful motion that they should cast Lots which of them should die first to satisfie the ravenous Hunger of the rest After many a sad Debate they come to a result the Lot is cast and one of the Company is taken but where is the Executioner to be found to act this Office upon a poor Innocent It is Death now to think who shall act this bloody part in the Tragedy But before they fall upon this in-voluntary Execution they once more went unto their Prayers and while they were calling upon God he answer'd them for there leapt a mighty Fish into the Boat which was a double Joy to them not only in relieving their miserable Hunger which no doubt made them quick Cooks but because they looked upon it to be sent from God and to be a token of their Deliverance But alas their Fish is soon eaten and their former Exigencies come upon them which sink their Spirits into Despair for they know not of another Morsel To Lot they go again the second time which falletn upon another Person but still none can be found to sacrifice him they again send their Prayers to Heaven with all manner of fervency when behold a second Answer from above a great Bird lights and fixes it self upon the Mast which one of the Company espies and he goes and there she stands till he took her with his Hand by the Wing This was Life from the Dead the second time and they feasted themselves herewith as hoping that second Providence was a fore-runner of their compleat Deliverance But they have still the same Disappointments they can see no Land they know not where they are Hunger increaseth again upon them and they have no hopes to be sav'd but by a third Miracle They are reduced to the former course or casting Lots when they were going to the heart-breaking work to put him to death whom the Lot fell upun they go to God their former Friend in Adversity by humble and hearty Prayers and now they look and look again but there is nothing Their Prayers are concluded and nothing appears yet still they hoped and stayed till at last one of them espies a Ship which put new Life into all their Spirits Their bear up with their Vessel they Man their Boar and desire and beg like perishing humble Supplicants to Board them which they are admitted The Vessel proves a French Vessel yea a French Pyrate Major Gibbons petitions them for a little Bread and offers Ship and Cargo for it But the Commander knows the Major from whom he had received some signal Kindnesses formerly at Boston and replied readily and chearfully Major Gibbons not a hair of you or your Company shall perish if it lie in my power to preserve you And accordingly he relieveth them and sets them safe on Shoar 9. Mr. James Janeway hath published several other Remarkable Sea-Deliverances of which some belonging to New-England were the Subjects He relates and I am inform'd that it was really so that a small Vessel the Master's Name Philip Hungare coming upon the Coast of New-England suddenly sprang a Leak and so Foundered In the Vessel there were eighteen Souls twelve of which got into the Long-Boat They threw into the Boat some small matters of Provision but were wholly without Fire These twelve Men sailed five hundred Leagues in this small Boat being by almost miraculons Providences preserved therein for five Weeks together God sent Relief to them by causing some flying Fish to fall into the Boat which they eat raw and well pleased therewith They also caught a Shark and opening his Belly sucked his Blood for Drink At the last the Divine Providence brought them to the West-Indies Some of them were so weak as that they soon died but most of them lived to declare the Works of the Lord. 10. Remarkable is the Preservation of which some belonging to Dublin in Ireland had Experience whom a New-England Vessel providentially met in an open Boat in the wide Sea and saved them from perishing Concerning which memorable Providence I have received the following Narrative A Ship of Dublin burdened about seventy Tuns Andrew Bennet Master being bound from Dublin to Virginia this Vessel having been some Weeks at Sea onward of their Voyage and being in the Latitude of 39. about 150 Leagues distant from Cape-Cod in New-England on April 18. 1681. A day of very stormy Weather and a great Sea suddenly there sprang a Plank in the fore part of the Ship about six a Clock in the Morning whereupon the Water increased so fast in the Ship that all their Endeavouts could not keep her from sinking above half an Hour so when the Ship was just sinking some of the Company resolved to lanch out the Boat which was a small one They did accordingly and the Master the Mate the Boatswain the Cook two Fore-mast-men and a Boy kept such hold of it when a Cast of the Sea suddenly helped them off with it that they got into it The heaving of the Sea now suddenly thrust them from the Ship in which there were left nineteen Souls viz. sixteen Men and three Women who all perished in the mighty Waters while they were trying to make Rafters by cutting down the Masts for the preservation of their Lives as
Designs of it which it is capable of being interested in Nor is there any thing else worth speaking of that must be foregone except Health and the Momentaneousness of all Bodily Torments will make them very tolerable My Resolutions be That I will not expect by devoting myself unto the Fear of God to gain any thing as to my Body in this World That through the Grace of Christ I will use the Strength Ease Health of my Body yea my whole Body in subordination to my Soul in the Service of the Lord Jesus With such Meditations as these he kept mellowing of his own Soul and preparing it for the State wherein Faith is turned into Sight But there was yet a more delightful and surprizing way of Thinking after which he did aspire He considered that the whole Creation was full of God and that there was not a Leaf of Grass in the Field which might not make an Observer to be sensible of the Lord. He apprehended that the idle Minutes of our Lives were many more than a short Liver should allow that the very Filings of Gold and of Time were exceeding precious and that there were little Fragments of Hours intervening between our more stated Businesses wherein Thoughts of God might be no less pleasant than frequent with us Thus far Mr. Mather 17. A short Account of Mrs. Elizabeth Moore 's Evidences for Heaven as I find 'em in Mr. Calamy's Godly Mans Ark. I. Her Design in this Collection IN the Examination of myself I find that my Aims and Ends why I desire to gather together and clear up my Evidences for Heaven if my deceitful Heart doth not deceive me are these following 1. That hereby as a means I may be enabled to glorifie God in the great Work of Believing 2. My Aim is to strengthen that longed-for Grace of Assurance a Grace which though it be not of absolute necessity for the Being and Salvation yet is of absolute necessity for the Well-being and Consolation of a Christian without this Grace I can neither live nor die comfortably 3. My Aim is to obey God in his Word who hath commanded me by his Apostle To work out my own salvation with fear and trembling and to give all diligence to make my calling and election sure A brief Collection of her Evidences for Heaven I. Evidence BLessed be God who hath through his free Mercy begotten me to a hope that I am regenerated and born from above and converted unto God Reason Because the Lord hath gone the same usual way with me as with those he pleaseth to convert to himself and this I shall make to appear in five or six particulars 1. The Lord by his Spirit accompanying the Preaching of his Word caused the Scales to fall from my Eyes and opened them and set up a clear Light in my Understanding and made me to see Sin to be exceeding sinful 2. The Lord brought me to see the Misery that I was in by reason of my Sins I thought I was utterly forsaken of God and I thought that God would never accept of such a Wretch as I saw myself to be 3. The Lord brought me to a Spiritual Astonishment that I cried out What shall I do to be saved and said with Paul Lord What wouldst thou have me to do Do but make known to thy poor Creature what thy Will is and I thought I could do any thing or suffer any thing for the Lord. 4. The Lord took me off my own bottom off my own Righteousness and made me to see that that was but a sandy Foundation and would not hold out 5. The Lord brought me to see a Soul-sanctification in the Lord Jesus Christ alone and I think I should be as fully satisfied with Christ alone as my Heart can desire If I know my Heart it panteth after Christ and Christ alone None but Christ none but Christ. II. My Second Scripture-Evidence is taken from Mark 2.17 where Christ saith They that are whole have no need of the Physitian but they that are sick and he came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance Now through God's Mercy I can say I am a Sin-sick-Sinner III. From Mat. 11.28 29. I am weary and heavy laden Now Christ hath promised to give Ease to such IV. I can say with David That my Sins are a heavy Burden to me they are too heavy for me Psal 38.4 And I can say that I mourn because I can mourn no more for my Sins V. From Mat. 5.3 I think if my Heart do not deceive me I am poor in spirit now theirs is the kingdom of heaven saith Christ VI. From Mat. 12.20 I am a bruised reed and smeaking flax And therefore Christ hath promised he will not break such a Reed nor quench the Smoak of Grace if it be true Grace but he will increase it more and more VII From 1 Tim. 1.15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation saith Paul that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners And so say I too it is worthy all acceptation that Christ should come from the Bosom of his Father who was infinitely glorious and happy that he should come into the World to save me me a sinner me the chief of sinners VIII I can say with Paul that I delight in the Law of God after the inward man and I am grieved that I cannot keep it I find that Spiritual War in me between Flesh and Spirit which Paul complains of and I can say that Paul doth confess over my Heart in his Confessions Rom. 7. IX I can say that the Lord hath in some measure put his fear into my Heart and I fear to offend him X. I can say with the Church to Christ Cant. 1.7 O thou whom my soul loveth And if I know any thing at all of mine own Heart Christ is altogether lovely and most desirable to my Soul I think I can truly say with David That I have none in heaven but thee and there is nothing on earth that I desire besides thee in comparison of thee in competition with thee XI I find my Heart much inflamed with Love to all the Children of God because they are God's Children and the more I see or find or hear of God in them the more I find my Heart cleaving to them and I think I can truly say with David That my delight is in the saints and those that excel in grace XII I do not only love God and the Children of God but I labour to keep his Commandments and they are not grievous to me XIII I find I am one that is very thirty after Jesus Christ and the Grace of Christ and I thirst to have his Image more and more stamped upon me and I would fain be assured by God's Spirit that I am transplanted into Christ and therefore I long and endeavour after a true and lively Faith XIV I am willing to confess and with all my Heart to
him so well as that which hath the deepest Tincture of Malice in it and brings most Dishonour to God and most Vnhappiness to Mankind And therefore it is that tho' he plays sometimes at Push-pin and small Games the lessening of Peoples Estates blotting their Reputation and the like yet his principal aim is still to do most Mischief to the best part of Man his Soul as is too gross and evident to need any Descant or Example yet for Method's-sake observe these following Particulars 1. Dr. J. Templar gave this following Discourse in a Letter to a Friend of is concerning one Robert Churchman of Balsham near Cambridge SIR YOur desire to be acquainted with some Passages concerning the Quakers in this town obligeth me to give you the following Account At my first Settlement here I found them very busie in enticing my People to a compliance with their Perswasions in Religion This Design they did attempt to accomplish by dispersing their Papers among them Two of my Parishioners I had a particular Eye upon namely Robert Churchman and his Wife they being Persons of a very good Life and of a plentiful Estate I was under a fear that their Departure from the Church might be a means to induce others to the same Practice The first in many Discourses I had with him did manifest a very strong Inclination to the Principles of the Quakers The second was so far engaged that the Quakers did commonly report that a Principle was wrought in her As I was one Day in Conference with the said Robert Churchman I desired him that when any of their Books came to his Hand he would do me the kindness to bring them to me that we might read them over together assuring him of no unwillingness in me to hearken to 〈◊〉 soever should appear reasonable What I desired he performed not long after When I had received the Paper into my hand before I began to read I suggested to him That it would be convenient that the Person who had been the cause of his Seducement should be sent for and hear what was replied to the Contents which he willingly consented to When the Quaker was come one Branch of our Discourse was Whether the Scripture is to be owned as a Rule which the Quaker denied asserting That the Rule was within them After the Expence of two or three Hours in Discourse about this and other Matters I desired Robert Churchman to take Notice that the Quakers did not own the Scriptures for their Rule which before this Conference I and intimated to him but found him unwilling to believe It pleased God so far to bless what was spoken that the next time he met his Brother Thomas Churchman he told him of what had passed at my House and that now he was assured that the Quakers did not acknowledge the Scripture for their Rule and for his part he would not be of that Religion which doth disown the Scripture in that particular Not long after the Wife of the fore-mentioned Quaker coming to his House to visit his Wife he met her at the Door and told her she should not come in intimating that her Visit would make Division betwixt them After some Parley the Quaker's Wife spake unto him in these Words Thou wilt not believe except thou see a Sign and thou mayest see some such Within a few Nights after Robert Churchman had a violent Storm upon the Room where he lay when it was very calm in all other parts of the Town and a Voice within him as he was in Bed spake to him and bid him Sing Praises sing Praises telling him that he should see the Glory of the New Jerusalem about which time a glimmering Light appeared all about the Room Toward the Morning the Voice commanded him to go out of his Bed naked with his Wife and Children They all standing upon the Floor the Spirit making use of his Tongue bid them to lie down and put their Mouths in the Dust which they did accordingly It likewise commanded him to go and call his Brother and Sister that they might see the New Jerusalem to whom he went naked about half a Mile When he had delivered his Message that which spake within him charged them to denounce Wrath against them and declare that Fire and Brimstone would fall upon them as it did upon Sodom and Gomorrah if they did not obey and so he returned to his own House where upon the Floor of a low Room he stood naked about three or four Hours All that while he was acted in a very unusual manner sometimes the Spirit within him forced him to sing sometimes to bark like a Dog When his Brother and Sister who followed him were very importunate with him to resist it it bid him to kill them making use of these words These my Enemies which would not that I should Reign over them bring them and slay them before my Face It made him to utter with great readiness many places in Scripture which he had no knowledge of before The Drift of what was spoken was to perswade him to comply with the Quakers and it named some which live in the Neighbouring Towns About three or sour Hours being thus spent he came to himself and was able to give a perfect Account of what had befallen him Several Nights after the same Trouble returned upon him His Wife was tortured with extraordinary Pains the Children which lay in the room complained That their Mouths were stopt with Wool as they were in Bed The Disturbance was so great that he had Thoughts of leaving his House for a time and made it his Desire to be with me at mine I prevailed with him not to be so sudden in his Removal but to make some further Trial. It pleased God upon a Continuance with him in Prayer every Day in the House that he was at last perfectly free from all molestation The Quaker hearing of his Condition gave it out that the Power of God would come upon him again and that the Wound was but skinned over by the Priest Which made me the more importunate with him to keep close to the Publick Service of God and to have nothing to do with them or their Writings Which Direction he followed 'till November 1661 and then perusing one of their Books a little after upon the Tenth Day of that Month his Troubles returned A Voice within him began to speak with him after the former manner The First Sentence which it uttered was Cease thou from Man whose Breath is in his Nostrils for wherein is he to be accounted The Design which he discerned that it did aim at was to take him off from coming to the Church where he had been that Day and from hearing the Word of God It suggested several other Scriptures in order to the perswading of him to a compliance with the Quakers and told him That it would strive with him as the Angel did with Jacob until the Breaking of
sometimes one sometimes more fell into a great and dreadful Shaking and Trembling in their whole Bodies and all their Joynts with such Risings and Swellings in their Bellies and Bowels sending forth such Shriekings Yeanlings Howlings and Roatings as not only affrighted the Spectantors but caused the Dogs to bark the Swine to cry and the Cattel to run about to the astonishmen of all that heard them By these Artifices one William Spencer was drawn by them to leave the Church and to follow them whereupon at several times he fell into the same quaking Fits and lying with one of them three several Nights the last being much troubled and not able to sleep upon a sudden he heard something buzzing and humming about the Quakers Head like an Humble-bee which did sore affight him whereupon he sought to rist but the suaker perswaded him to lie still and immediately there arose a great Wind and Storm which shook the House wherein they lay which adding much to his former fear he again attempted to arise but the Quaker still pressed him to lye still perswading him to expect the Power to come which they often promised to their Proselites and thereupon he again heard the former humming Noise which more and more terrified him so that he strove vehemently to rise but the Quaker laid his Head upon Spencer's Shoulder and did blow hard like the hissing of a Goose several times towards his Face or Mouth which made him leap out of his Bed in a great astonishment crying for a Light and Guide to conduct him to a Neighbours House and upon this occasion left them altogether testisying the truth thereof to the Quaker's Face before many Witnesses the Quaker not denying it Attested under several hands Ibid. 5. A. C. 1654. A grave Minister at the earnest desire of some Friends went with John Ward and Anthony Hunter to a Meeting of the Quakers at the House of John Hunter in Benfield-side in the County of Durham where he found about twenty Persons sitting all silent And after we had sate a while saith the Minister that gave this Relation under his Hand all being mute the Lord moved me to arise and call upon his Name by Prayer I was no sooner up but my Legs trembled greatly so that it was some difficulty to me to stand but after I had Prayed a short space the trembling ceased Whilst I prayed to God as a Creator there was but little disturbance but when I cryed in me Name to Jesus Christ my Mediator God in my Nature in the highest Glory appearing and interceding for his Saints then the Devil roared in the deceived Souls in a most strange and dreadful manner some howling some sereeching yealling roaring and some had strange confused kind of humming and singing Noise Such a representation of Hell I never heard of there was nothing but Horror and Confusion After I had done Praying not opening mine Eyes before I was amazed to see about the one half of those miserable Creatures so terribly shaken with such strange violent various Motions that I wondred how it was possible for some of them to live In the midst of this Confusion one of them asked me if I was come to torment them to whom I applyed that Word Mat. 8.29 where the Devils asked Christ the same Question And whilst I spake something of Faith they declared that they were come to the Faith of Devils Jam. 2.19 who believe and tremble but he said that we were not attained to such a Faith After two Hours as we were departing out of House one of them cursed me with these Words All the Plagues of God be upon thee whereupon I return'd and Prayed for such of them as had not committed the unpardonable Sin Ibid. 6. A. C. 1656. There was one John Toldervy lately Servant to Colonel Webb living in Cornhill London who published a Book called The Foot out of the Snare wherein he declares how he was seduced by the Quakers c. Wherein he tells us that the first Principle infused into him was against the Ministers and Scriptures then against all Compliments and Greetings and Ornaments c. A short time saith he after my complyance with the Spirit that entred into me my Master coming from the Wells I reached a Stool took him by the Arm and bade him sit down William Webb not bowing nor pulling off my Hat nor calling him Master but added how doth thy Body do whereupon he answered John what is the matter where is the Servants Obedience where is the Masters Honour To which I answered my Master was the faithful Spirit c. and that all the Ministers particularly Feak his Minister were Ministers of the Devil c. Once when his Master and his company were at Dinner he took a Stool and sate down at the upper end of the Table saying that he was the Servant of the living God and had more right to the Creatures then his Master After this saith he I was resolved to be wholly taught by the Light within me and so never to sin any more and when Customers came into the Shop I durst nor ask what they wanted nor make in the Price of Wares more then one Word nor use any word but thee and thou nor pull of my Hat nor call divers of our Wares by the usual names but gave them other names which made me unfit for my Calling whereby I should live Upon this necessity and by command of the Spirit within him he fared hard feeding upon Stalks and Leaves of Cabbages he took up in the Streets pining away was put upon expectation of Revelations had several Spirits appeared before him with musical Noises and was so haunted with repeated Apparitions and contradictory Motions of the Spirit 'till at last by the occasion thereof he burnt his Leg in the Fire and became so Brain-sick with these Courâ—es and frequent Watchings together that he was near at Death's-door At last it pleased God to give him some Respite for the refreshment of his Body and the quiet of his mind upon which he wrote the Book above-mentioned the whole Narrative is tiresome and sad to relate Mr. Clark hath abridged it and I have abridged his Abridgment Ibid. CHAP. LXXXVII Satan permitted to Disturb the Quiet and Peace of Persons or Families c. THE Devil is the greatest Make-bate and the archest Beautifeu in the World setting Menâ—â— odds with one another at odds with themselves and with God to promoting Variance sometimes in our Families and Societies and sometimes in our own Breasts and this he doth not always in a clandestine way by secret Injections and temptations but sometimes by Actions palpably Diabolical wherein his cloven Foot is conspicuous and evident enough and wherein his Art and Malice is plain enough to be seen by any that have not abdicated their common Sense as well as their Reasonable and Religious Principles 1. In the 1678 on the Sunday after Twefth-day William Medcalfe and his Wife
Essay Provid p. 165. Hist of Dâ—m p. 30. I have said so much of this nature upon other Subjects in this Book that I think it unnecessary to enlarge any further in this Place I am sure enough is said to convince a Reader of an ingenuous and impartial Temper and more will not satisfie a Man that is resolved upon Incredulity CHAP. XCVIII Satan hurting by False Promises or Threatnings THAT the Devil hath been a Lyar and grand Impostor we have had the Experience of all Ages from the Beginning He cheated our first Parents at his first Appearance in the World and hath proceeded successâ—â—ly to the present time to dilude all subsequent Generations and yet which is the Mischief of it Mankind is still so shallow and of so dull Intellectuals that upon the Prospect of a pleasant Bait he 〈…〉 a Surrender of his Heart and Senses and believes and acts as this great Juggler would have him 'T is 〈…〉 observe how miserably Men are deluded with his false Promises or affrighted with his deceitful Menaces and 〈◊〉 still the Tragedy is carried on and will be to the End of the World 1. Bodin tells us of a French Baron that confess'd That he Worshipped the Devil and prayed to him and had sacrificed Nine Children to him and intended to have sacific'd one of his own And he ask'd him for what he did this And he said That he promised to make him Great and yet that he never gave him any thing but had told him more Lyes than Truths This Promise of Knowledge was the old Temptation to Eve And yet Knowledge is the great Gift of our great Comforter the Holy Ghost so that there is a true comforting Knowledge which God giveth and a deceitful Shadow of it and a useless hurtful Knowledge by which Satan comforteth the Deluded It 's true Needful Saving Knowledge that is of God Many Conjurers have by the Desire of knowing what vain Curiosity is pleased with become the Devil's Slaves 2. Dr. d ee of whom we make mention elsewhere was allured by Satan with repeated Promises of the Philosopher's Stone and in comfident Expectation thereof he spent his Time Study and Estate and boasted to the Emperor of Germany of it But instead thereof he had nothing performed but a blind aenigmatical Recipe from his supposed Angels for the finding out of the Stone which was this Take common Audcal i. e. Gold purge and work it by Rlodur of four divers Digestions continuing the last Digestion for Fourteen Days in one swift Propottion until it be Dlased i. e. Sulphur fixed in a most red and luminous Body the Image of Resurrection Take also Lulo the Mother of red Roxtan pure and simple Wine and work him through the four fiery Degrees until thou have his Audcal his Mercury and there gather him Then double every Degree of your Rlodur and by the Law of Coition and Mixture work and continue them diligently together notwithstanding backward through every Degree multiplying the lower and last Rlodur his due Office finished by one degree more than the highest So doth it become Darr the Angelical Name of the Stone forsooth the Thing you seek for a holy most glorious Red and dignified Dlased But watch well and gather him so at the highest for in one Hour he descendeth or ascendeth from the Purpose This was communicated to the deluded Doctor as appears by his own Writings after earnest Prayer and great Importunity used and a serious Complaint of his Poverty at Prague A. D. 1585. And this was all he could obtain See his Actions with Spirits p. 387. 3. A. C. 1530. There was in Norimberg a Popish Priest that studied the Black-Art who coveting Riches the Devil shewed him through a Crystal Treasures hidden in a part of the City Thither therefore did the Priest go with another Companion and having digged an hollow Pit he perceived at the bottom a Coffer with a great black Dog lying by it which whilst he beheld the Earth fell upon him and crushed him to death Clark's Examp. Vol. 1. c. 8. out of Wierus 4. Thomas Sawdie mention'd in the Chapter of Satan restrain'd from Hurting received some and was promised more Money from the Devil in the Shape first of a Man then a Dog but withal was possessed by him 5. It wer not difficult to give more Instances of Diabolical IIIusions in this kind as of Dr. Fanstus of Cundligen in Germany who after he had entertained others with deceitful Banquets and cheated himself with false Hopes at last was found dead in a certain Village near Wirtemberg with his Neck broke and the House beaten down with a terrible Storm 6. Wierus saith Cornelius Agrippa after his great Skill in Necromancy and his great Learning in all the Sciences and Expectations of great things in the World upon the taking off an inchanted Collar from his Dog's Neck died miserably Witness P. Jovius I shall only take notice That almost all Witches and Conjurers live contemptibly Poor or Scandalous and die accordingly 7. But the Devil doth not always use these gross ways to impose upon Man every body will not be taken with such Baits some are of somewhat more fine Intellectuals and these are cajoled by other Methods and decoyed to their own Destruction by more plausible Devices and Temptation The Highway-man and Pyrate are sometimes Agents in the Devils Cause and Successful too and as Deputies and procurators under him propund Golden Mountains Rich Purses an easie and luxurious way of Living for a Reward to them that will be of their Society But what shameful and miserable Ends they come to I appeal to the Golden Farmer and Mr. Every the Pirate lately taken into Custody and a Thousand more who in our own Times and Nations have ascended the Gallows for their last Preferment and look'd the World in the Face with the Inscription of Guilt and Ignominy in their Foreheads 8. Yea the Devil spins sometimes a finer Web than any of these Tell but such a Lye use such an Equivocation turn with the Wind of the Age and observe which way Wealth and Preferments are disposed by the Court-Party and tack about accordingly and you shall rise higher than your Fellows live more bravely plentifully prosperously than other sneaking Vertuoso's And this Bait too often takes with Men of no solid Principle Multitudes are caught in this Net and for the time are mightily pleased with it till some unexpected Occurrence or Old Age and sad Experience convinces them that it was but a Trick of the Devil to catch Fools with and that they had better have stuck close to the Rules of a steady Piety and trusted God tho' he did not pay presently but seem'd to be asleep while he exercised their Faith and Patience They that hast to be Rich fall into Temptations and the Snare of the Devil 9. I have given no Instances of Satan's Hurting by Threatning Signs or Apparitions yet But what doth he drive at or propound
and Compotations But this Error cost him dear for being on a time at a youthful Meeting one of his petulant Convivators poured a Cup of cold Water on his Head Which Affront he took so hainously that he went home and died Mr. Jo. Hales of Eaton 3. A. C. 1470. George Nevil Brother to the Great Earl of Warwick at his Instalment into his Archbishoprick of York made a Feast for the Nobility Gentry and Clergy wherein he spent 300 Quarters of Wheat 330 Tuns of Ale 104 Tuns of Wine one Pipe of spiced Wine 80 fat Oxen 6 wild Bulls 1004 Wethers 300 Hogs 300 Calves 3000 Geese 3000 Capons 300 Pigs 100 Peacocks 200 Cranes 200 Kids 2000 Chickens 4000 Pigeons 4000 Rabbits 204 Bitterns 4000 Ducks 400 Hernsews 200 Pheasants 500 Partridges 4000 Woodcocks 400 Piovers 100 Curlews 100 Quails 1000 Egrets 200 Rees above 400 Bucks Does and Roe-bucks 1506 hot Venison-Pasties 4000 cold Venison-Pasties 1000 Dishes of Gelly parted 4000 cold Custards 2000 hot Custards 300 Pikes 300 Breams 8 Seales 4 Propoises and 400 Tarts At this Feast the Earl of Warwick was Steward the Earl of Bedford Treasurer the Lord Hastings Comptroller with many more noble Officers Servitors 1000 Cooks 62 Kitchiners 515. Fuller's Hist of the Church But Seven Years after the King seized on all the Estate of this Archbishop and sent him over Prisoner to Callis in France where vinctus jacuit in summà inopiâ he was kept bound in extream Poverty Ibid. l. 4. cent 15. p. 193. 4. Cleopatra's Luxury in dissolving a Pearl which she took from her Ear in Vinegar to the Value of Fifty Thousand Pound and drinking it off at one Draught out of Vain-glory is well known and yet she was afterwards notwithstanding all her Bravery taken Prisoner and deprived of her Royal State and the other Pearl cut in twain and hung at both the Ears of the Statue of Venus in the Pantheon in Rome Plin. Nat. Hist l. 9. Fulg. Ex. l. 9 c. 5. Heliogabalus filled his Fish-ponds with Rose-water supplied his Lamps with the precious Balsam that distilled from the Trees in Arabia wore upon his Shooes Pearls and Precious Stones engraven strewed his Dining-room with Saffron and his Portico's with Dust of Gold he never wore the same Garments twice and yet they were of the richest silk or Cloth of Gold near the Sea he would eat no Fish in the Midland no Flesh his whole Meals were made often of the Tongues of Singing-Birds Peacocks or the Brains of costly Creatures he gathered in Rome 10000 weight of Spiders to shew the Greatness of his City his Bed was covered with Gold and Silver his Statue whilst he was living was worshipped for a God he set up a Senate of Women gave great Estates to wicked Bawds Panders Jesters c. But at last being generally despised he was slain by his Soldiers in the Fourth Year of his Reign his own Body and his Mother 's dragged along the Streets and cast into the common Laystall Imp. Hist Sabell Ex. l. 8. c. 7. Time's Store-house l. 10. c. 12. 6. Vitellius another Roman Emperor had 20000 Dishes of Fish and 7000 Fowl at one Supper and yet commended his own Temperance in a set Oration before the Senate and People of Rome In the time that he reigned which had need to be but short he wasted Nine Hundred Millions of Sesterces i. e. saith Budaeus 2500000 Crowns or as another 31250 l. Sterling For after he had reigned but Eight Months and a few Days he was slain in the midst of the City Joseph de Bell. Jud. l. 5. c. 13. Tacit. Hist l. 2. 7. Mahomet the Great Sultan at the taking of C. P. had one Helana a very beautiful Person presented to him with whom he was so taken that he spent all his Time with her and seemed quite to have emasculated his Spirit Upon which his Janisaries and Captains began to murmur and threatened to Depose him and put one of his Sons on the Throne One of his Courtiers with great Submission admonished him of it Whereupon he goes presently to his Paragon spent the whole Night with her appointed a Feast next Day sets his Curtezan at Table dressed in the most Princely Robes After Dinner having charged all his Nobles to appear together he brings her before them in his Left Hand and immediately with his Faulchion at one Blow struck off her Head saying Now judge by this whether your Emperor be not able to bridle his Affections Knowles 's Turk Hist 8. The Romans were so given to Pleasure and Luxury in their Apparel Food Ornaments Attendance and Retinue c. before the Decleâ—â—â—on of their Grandeur that Juvenal spends several Satyrs in exposing them to the Laughter and Reproach of the World So effeminate were they that they had a Distinction in their Rings and had some of massie Gold to wear in the Winter others more light for Summer-wear Lucullus had 5000 Cloaks Incredible Summs were expended upon Entertainments 9. The Monks before the Reformation and the Judgments that followed in Germany were grown to that heighth of Luxury that several Pens were exercised in publick Reflections and Censures upon them Among the rest an Author whom I have now by me and who stiles himself Frater de Viridi Valle in Prussia complains pathetically of the Pride of their Habit their Silk Gowns and Cloaks trailing behind them on the Ground their Pearls and Jewels in their Shooes and for a pleasant Jest I suppose tells a Story of one Monk who through extream Poverty was not able to purchase a Cloak with so long a Tail at last got a Mat upon his Back and went about strutting with that and looking on a time behind him to see how finely it trailed after him espied the Devil sitting upon the hinder end of it who laughed in his Face and cryed out saying Aha! plus velles si plus posses 10. Zaleucus the Law-giver of Locris made a Law That no Woman should be attended with more than one Maid in the Streets but when she was drunk nor walk out in the City by Night but when she was going to commit Adultery nor wear Gold or Embroidered Apparel but when she designed to set up for a common Strumpet nor that Men should wear Rings or Tissues but when they went a Whoring Heyl. Geogr. p. 158. This proved an effectual Restraint upon their Luxury that way CHAP. CXXVI Divine Judgments upon Pride Ambition c. HOW vain an Attempt it is for Men to lift up themselves and aspire above the Limits of their own Orb in despite of Him that rules in the Heavens and hath prescribed for wise Reasons the Rules of Humility to us Men threatning to resist the Proud and give Grace to the Humble may appear evidently from these following Examples 1. Colonel James Turner executed at Lime-street London 1663. being a Man of a high Spirit and not having an Estate answerable thereto wherewith to keep up that State and Grandeur
the Chapel of Lambeth House where he received his Archiepiscopal Consecration His chief Motto painted on the Walls of his House and in his Windows was that of St. John The World passeth away and the lust thereof Ibid. p. 529. 60. Archbishop Abbot preached upon this his last Text John 14.16 I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that may abide with you for ever Upon the first Proposal whereof as many of his Hearers presaged his departure from them so it proved his last Farewel-Sermon For soon after he came out of the Pulpit he fell into grievous Fits of the Stone which first stopped the Passages of Nature and within a few days shut up all the Offices of his Senses To those that came to visit him who were not a few and among others the Judges being then at Sarum in their Circuit he comunicated most Christian and grave Advice insisting very much upon the Benefit of a good Conscience the Comfort whereof he felt now in his Extremity admonishing all that heard him so to carry themselves in their most private and secret Actions as well as publick that they might obtain that at the last which would stand them in more stead than what all the World could afford them besides At last with Hands and Eyes lift up to Heaven he gave up the Ghost with these Words Come Lord Jesus come quickly finish in me the Work that thou hast begun Into thy hands I commend my Spirit for thou hast redeemed me Save me for thy Mercy 's sake for I put my whole trust in thee Let thy mercy be shewed upon me for my sure trust is in thee O let me not be confounded for ever Ibid. p. 550. 61. William Cooper born at Edinburgh used these amongst other Meditations in his last Sickness Now my Soul be glad for of all parts of this Prison the Lord hath set to his Pioneers to loose thee Head Feet Milt and Liver are fast failing yea the middle Strength of the whole Body the Stomach is weaken'd long agoe Arise make ready shake off thy Fetters mount up from the Body and go thy way I saw not my Children when they were in the Womb yet there the Lord fed them without my knowledge I shall not see them when I go out of the Body yet shall they not want a Father Death is somewhat dreary and the Streams of that Jordan between us and our Canaan run furiously but they stand still when the Ark comes Let your Anchor be cast within the Veil and fastened on the Rock Jesus Let the end of the three-fold Cord be buckled to the Heart so shall ye go through He expressed a great Willingness to Exchange this Life for a better which he did Anno 1619. Ibid. p. 563. 62. Andrew Willet in a Journey from London homewards had his Leg broken by a Fall from a Horse and was God's Prisoner for 9 Days together being so long confined to his Bed where his Time he spent in meditating upon the Song of Ezekiel Isa 38. his Contemplations being taken down in Writing by his Son who then attended upon him Two Sabbath-Days which happen'd in that time he spent in Conscionatory Exhortations to those who waited upon him Upon the tenth Day on occasion of a Bell tolling for one near Death he discoursed with his Wife touching the Joys of Heaven and then they both sang an Hymn composed by himself which they usually every Morning praised God with Their Spirits being thus raised they continued their Melody and sang the 146 Psalm sometimes stopping a little and glossing upon the Words by way of Self-application till on a sudden fetching a deep Sigh or Groan he sunk down in his Bed but being raised up a little he said Let me alone I shall do well Lord Jesus And with that Word gave up the Ghost ibid. p. 575. 63. Mr. Bolton falling sick of a Quartan-Ague and finding his Distemper get strength revised his Will and having preached upon Death Judgment and Hell he promised next to preach upon Heaven the only fourth and last Thing that remained but never preached more He often breathed forth these Speeches O when will this good Hour come When shall I be dissolved When shall I be with Christ Tho' Life be a great Blessing yet I infinitely more desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ He thanked God for his wonderful Mercy in pulling him out of Hell in sealing his Ministry by the Conversion of Souls which he wholly ascribed to his Glory He called for his Wife and desired her to bear his Dissolution with a Christian Fortitude and turning to his Children told them they should not now expect from him in his Weakness to say any thing to them he had told them enough formerly and hoped they would remember it and verily believed that none of them durst think to meet him at the great Tribunal in an unregenerate State Some of his Neighbours moved to him that he would tell them what he felt in his Soul Alas said he do ye look for that now from me who want Breath and Power to speak I have told ye enough in my Ministry Yet to satisfie you I am by the wonderful Mercies of God as full of Comfort as my Heart can hold and feel nothing in my Soul but Christ with whom I heartily desire to be And seeing some weeping he said Oh what a deal of Doe there is before one can die The very Pags of Death being upon him after a few gapings for Breath he said I am now drawing on apace to my Dissolution Hold out Faith and Patience your Work will quickly be at an end Then shaking them by the Hand he desired them to make sure of Heaven and remember what he had formerly taught them protesting that it was the Truth of God as he should answer it at the Tribunal of Christ before whom he should shortly appear And a dear Friend taking him by the Hand ask'd him if he did not feel much pain Truly no said he the greatest that I feel is your cold Hand And then being laid down again not long after he yielded up his Spirit unto God Anno 1631. Aged 60. Ibid. p. 591. 64. Mr. Will Whately in his Sickness gave heavenly and wholsome Counsel to his People exhorting them to Redemption of Time Reading Hearing and Meditating on the Word of God to be much in Prayer Brotherly Love and Communion of Saints c. A Minister praying with him That if his time were not expired God would restore him or put an end to his Pains c. he lifting up his Eyes stedfastly towards Heavne and one of his Hands in the close of that Prayer gave up the Ghost shutting his Eyes himself as if he were fallen into a Sleep Anno 1639. Aged 56. a little before the Civil Wars began and before the sad Desolations that befel the Town of Banbury in particular Ibid. p. 599. 65. Dr. Robert Harris when
to call for it and I desire to offer up my All to him it being but my reasonable Service and also the first Terms that Jesus Christ offers That he that will be his Disciple must forsake all and follow him and therefore let none think hard or be discouraged at what hath happened unto me for he doth nothing without cause in all he hath done to us he being Holy in all his ways and Righteous in all his works and 't is but my Lot in common with poor desolate Sion at this day Neither do I find in my heart the least regret for what I have done in the Service of my Lord and Master Jesus Christ in succouring and securing any of his poor Sufferers that have shewed favour to his Righteous Causeâ— which Cause though now it be fall'n and trampled upon as if it had not been anointed yet it shall revive and God will plead it at another rate than ever he hath done yet and reckon with all its Opposers and malicious Haters And therefore let all that love and fear him not omit the least Duty that comes to hand or lies before them knowing that now it hath need of them and expects they shall serve him And I desire to bless his Holy Name that he hath made me useful in my Generation to the Comfort and Relief of many desolate Ones and the Blessing of those that are ready to perish has come upon me and help'd to make the Heart of the Widow to sing And I bless his Holy Name that in all this together with what I was charged with I can approve my Heart to him that I have done his Will tho' it does cross Man's Will and the Scriptures that satisfie me are Isaiah 16.4 Hide the Outcasts bewray not him that wandereth And Obad. 13.14 Thou shouldst not have given up those of his that did escape in the day of his distress But Man says You shall give them up or you shall die for it Now who to obey Judge ye So that I have cause to rejoyce and be exceeding glad in that I suffer for Righteousness sake and that I am accounted worthy to suffer for Well-doing and that God has accepted any Service from me which has been done in Sincerity tho' mixed with manifold Infirmities which he hath been pleased for Christ's sake to cover and forgive And now as concerning my Fact as it is called alas it was but a little one and might well become a Prince to forgive but he that shews no Mercy shall find none And I may say of it in the Language of Jonathan I did but tast a little Honey and lo I must die for it I did but relieve an unworthy poor distressed Family and so I must die for it Well I desire in the Lamb-like Gospel Spirit to forgive all that are concerned and to say Lord lay it not to their Charge but I fear he will not Nay I believe when he comes to make Inquisition for Blood it will be found at the Door of the furious Judge who because I could not remember things through my dauntedness at Burton's Wife and Daughter's Vileness and my Ignorance took advantage thereat and would not hear me when I had called to mind that which I am sure would have invalidated their Evidence though he granted something of the same nature to another yet denied it to me My Blood will also be found at the door of the unrighteous Jury who found me Guilty upon the single Oath of an Out-law'd Man for there was none but his Oath about the Money who is no legal Witness though he be pardoned his Outlawry not being recall'd and also the Law requires two Witnesses in point of Life And then about my going with him to the Place mentioned 't was by his own Words before he was Out-law'd for 't was two Months after his absconding and though in a Proclamation yet not High-Treason as I have heard so that I am clearly murder'd by you And also Bloody Mr. A. who has so insatiably hunted after my Life and though it is no Profit to him through the ill-will he bore me left no stone unturn'd as I have ground to believe till he brought it to this and shewed favour to Burton who ought to have died for his own Fault and not bought his Life with mine and Capt. R. who is cruel and severe to all under my Circumstances and did at that time without all Mercy or Pity hasten my Sentence and held up my Hand that it might be given all which together with the Great One of all by whose Power all these and a multitude more of Cruelties are done I do heartily and freely forgive as against me but as it is done in an implacable Mind against the Lord Christ and his Righteous Cause and Followers I leave it to him who is the Avenger of all such Wrongs who will tread upon Princes as upon Mortar and be terrible to the Kings of the Earth And know this also that though ye are seemingly fix'd and because of the Power in your Hand are writing out your Violence and dealing with a despiteful hand because of the old and new Hatred by impoverishing and every way distressing of those you have got under you yet unless you can secure Jesus Christ and all his Holy Angels you shall never do your Business nor your Hands accomplish your Enterprizes for he will be upon you e're you are aware and therefore O that you would be wise instructed and learn is the Desire of her that finds no Mercy from you ELIZABETH GAVNT POSTSCRIPT SUch as it is you have it from her who hath done as she could and is sorry she can do no better hopes you will pity and cover weakness shortness and any thing that is wanting and begs that none may be weakned or humbled at the lowness of my Spirit for God's Design is to humble and abase us that he alone may be exalted in this Day and I hope he will appear in the needful time and it may be reserves the best Wine till last as he hath done for some before me None goeth to Warfare at his own Charge and the Spirit bloweth not only where but when it listeth and it becomes me who have so often grieved quenched and resisted it to wait for and upon the Motions of the Spirit and not to murmure but I may mourn because through want of it I honour not my God nor his blessed Cause which I have so long â—â—ed and delighted to love and repent of nothing about it but that I served him and it no Latter 7. The Earl of ARGYLE â—â—E must now take a step over into Scotland that poor Country which has been harrass'd and tired for these many Years to render them perfect Slaves that they might help to enslave 〈…〉 prevent which and secure the Protestant Religion which 't was grown impossible 〈…〉 but by Arms this good Lord embark'd from Holland about the same time with the
if those Princes were truly such as the Historians represented them they had well deserved that Treatment And others who tread their Steps might look for the same For Truth would be told at last and that with the more Acrimony of Style for being so long restrained It was a gentle suffering to be exposed to the World in their true Colours much below what others had suffered at their Hands She thought that all Sovereigns ought to read such Histories as Procopius for how much soever he may have aggravated Matters and how unbecomingly soever he may have writ yet by such Books they might see what would be probably said of themselves when all Terrors and Restraints should fall off with their Lives Ibid. 20. She did hearken carefully after every thing that seemed to give some hope that the next Generation should be better than the present with a particular Attention She heard of a Spirit of Devotion and Piety that was spreading itself among the Youth of this great City with a true Satisfaction She enquired often and much about it and was glad to hear it went on and prevailed She lamented that whereas the Devotions of the Church of Rome were all Shew and made up of Pomp and Pageantry that we were too bare and naked And practised not enough to entertain a serious Temper or a warm and an affectionate Heart We might have Light enough to direct but we wanted Flame to raise an exalted Devotion Ibid. 21. She was â—o part of the Cause of the War yet she would willingly have sacrificed her own Life to have preserved either of Those that seemed to be in Danger at the Boyne She spake of that Matter two Days after the News came with so tender a Sense of the Goodness of God to her in it that it drew Tears from her and then she freely confessed That her Heart had trembled not so much from the Apprehension of the Danger that she herself was in as from the Scene that was then in Action at the Boyne God had heard her Prayers and she blessed him for it with as sensible a Joy as for any thing that had ever happened to her Ibid. 22. The Reflections that she made on the Reduction of Ireland looked the same way that all her Thoughts did Our Forces elsewhere both at Sea and Land were thought to be considerable and so promising that we were in great Hopes of somewhat that might be decisive Only Ireland was apprehended to be too weakly furnished for a concluding Campaign Yet so different are the Methods of Providence from Humane Expectations that nothing memorable happened any where but only in Ireland where little or nothing was expected Ibid. 23. When sad Accidents came from the immediate Hand of Heaven particularly on the occasion of a great Loss at Sea she said Tho' there was no occasion for Complaint or Anger upon these yet there was a juster Cause of Grief since God's Hand was to be seen so particularly in them Sometimes she feared there might be some secret Sins that might lie at the Root and blast all But she went soon off from that and said Where so much was visible there was no need of Divination concerning that which might be hidden Ibid. 24. She was sorry that the State of War made it necessary to restrain another Prince from Barbarities by making himself feel the Effects of them and therefore she said She hoped that such Practices should become so odious in all that should begin them and by their doing so force others to retaliate that for the future they should be for ever laid aside Ibid. 25. She apprehended she felt once or twice such Indispositions upon her that she concluded Nature was working towards some great Sickness so she set herself to take full and broad Views of Death that from thence she might judge how she should be able to encounter it But she felt so quiet an Indifference upon that Prospect leaning rather towards the desire of a Dissolution that she said Tho' she did not pray for Death yet she could neither wish nor pray against it She left that before God and referred herself entirely to the disposal of Providence If she did not wish for Death yet she did not fear it Ibid. 26. We prayed for our selves more than for her when we cried to God for her Life and Recovery both Priest and People Rich and Poor all Ranks and Sorts joyned in this Litany A universal Groan was Ecchoed to those Prayers through our Churches and Streets Ibid. 27. But how severely soever God intended to visit us she was gently handled she felt no inward depression nor sinking of Nature She then declared That she felt in her Mind the Joys of a good Conscience and the Powers of Religion giving her Supports which even the last Agonies could not shake Thus far Bishop Burnet 28. In the Publick Worship of God she was a bright Example of solemn and unaffected Devotion She prayed with humble Reverence heard the Word with respectful Silence and with serious Application of Spirit as duly considering the infinite Interval between the Supremacy of Heaven and Princes on Earth That their Greatness in its Lustre is but a faint and vanishing Reflection of the Divine Majesty One Instance I shall specifie in this kind When her Residence was at the Hague a Lady of Noble Quality coming to the Court to wait on her on a Saturday in the Afternoon was told she was retired from all Company and kept a Fast in Preparation for the receiving the Sacrament the next Day The Lady staying 'till Five a Clock the Princess came out and contented herself with a very slender Supper it being incongruous to conclude a Fast with a Feast Thus solemnly she prepared herself for Spiritual Communion with her Saviour Dr. Bates 's Sermon upon the Death of the Queen 29. She had a sincere Zeal for the healing our unhappy Divisions in Religious Things and declared her Resolution upon the first Address of some Ministers that she would use all Means for that Blessed End She was so wise as to understand the Difference between Matters Doctrinals and Rituals and so good as to allow a just Liberty for Dissenters in things of small moment She was not fetter'd with superstitious Scruples but her clear and free Spirit was for the Union of Christians in Things essential to Christianity Ibid. 30. In her Relation to the King she was the best Pattern of Conjugal Love and Obsequiousness How happy was her Society redoubling his Comforts and dividing his Cares Her Deportment was becoming the Dignity and Dearness of the Relation Of this we have the most convincing Proof from the Testimony and Tears of the King since her Death Solomon adds to many Commendations of a vertuous Woman as a Coronis That her Husband praises her The King 's declaring that in all her Conversation he discovered no Fault and his unfeigned and deep Sorrow for his Loss are the Queen 's
extraordinary Carps Trouts Tenches Pikes c. There is that substantial large Fish called Scheiden or Silurus Gesneri larger than Pike Salmon or any of our River Fishes but the great Fishes called Hausons or Husons in Jonston for largeness exceeds all others some being 20 foot long Some think this to be the Fish which Aelian names Antacetus and speaks largely of the Fishing for them in Ister I was saith he at the Fishing places for Hausons in Schiit Island between Presburg and Comora for they come not usually higher especially in Shoals and it is much that they come so high for they are perceived to come up the Stream out of the Euxine Sea They Eat them both fresh and salted they taste most like Sturgeon It is a Cartilaginous Fish consisting of Gristles and they have a hollow nervous chord the down the Back which being dried serves for a Whip When they Fish for them they blow a Horn or Trumpet and know where they go by the moving of the Water Dr. Browns Trav. p. 154. 19. Chatagne de Mer or Sea Chest-Nuts found in Canada of New France are the most delicious Fish that possibly can be Nova Francia p. 265. CHAP. XL. Strange Serpents THere is no kind of living Creature that we have a greater Antipathy against then this of Serpents and the Reason will easily appear to the Reader upon perusal of this Chapter so that they seem to me very fit Emblems of Satans Malice and Cunning and fit Engines for that Evil Spirit to make use of in the Delusion and Destruction of Human Nature insomuch that a due consideration of the Resemblance will serve pretty well to solve the difficulty of the History of our Fall 1. The Asp Their Poison is so great that they are not used in Medecines That of Chalidonia is the most Poisonous Death straight-way following The Cure of their Poison is by Incision Cauteries Cuppings and Cocks Rumps applied c. It is like to a Land-Snake but broader on the Back their Teeth are long and full of holes which are covered with a Skin that slides up when they Bite letting out their Poison Salmons Dispensatory p. 247. 2. The Ammodite its Poison is not inferiour to that of the Asp some dying within 3 hours after the Wound received none living above 7 days The Biting of the Female is most Venemous It is a kind of Viper of a Cubit long having black spots on the Skin small lines on the Back and hard Wart like a Horn on the upper Chap and very fierce Ibid. 3. Amphisbaena It is a venemous Serpent making a Wound so small that it can scarce be discerned causing Inflammation and a lingring Death It s Body is of an equal thickness the Eyes commonly shut the Skin rough hard spotted and of an Earthly colour They go both ways Ibid. 4. The Boa It is a Serpent which goes upon its Belly and grows to be above an hundred foot long It kills not Cattle till their Milk is dried up and then it Eats them destroying Herbs It s Poison causes Tumours Swellings and Iastly Death Ibid. 248. 5 Caecilia The Slow-Worm is a Creature which has a very strong Poison If their Wound swell prick and apply a Cataplasm of Fullers Earth and Vinegar It is called the Blind-Worm but it hurts not unless provoked Ibid. 6. Cenchrus the Millet It is a Serpent about two Cubits long of a dark colour spotted like the Millet-Seed They go strait and are avoided by an oblique Motion It is a dangerous and strong Beast when it seizes its Prey it sucks the Blood whilst it beats the Body with its Tail Ibid. 7. Cerastes the Horned Serpent 'T is a yard long of a sandy colour with two Horns and Teeth like a Viper its Poison is deadly It make the patient made Eyes dim Nerves immoveable causes a pricking like Needles Ibid. 8. Chelidrus Druina Hicinus Querculus Cheresidial the Druin it s among the first Ranks of Serpents for Poison 'T is about a yard long full of Scales under which breed a sort of Flies which destroy it The Back is blackish Head broad and flat Their Captain hath a white Crown or Comb on his Head It s very smell stupifies and almost strangles Ibid. 9. Coluber the Adder is a hotter Serpent than a Snake of a dark blacker colour of about a Cubit long Their Biting causes Swelling Paleness and Swounding The Cure is Venice-Treacle or Mithredate with Wine or Juice of Rice c. Ibid. 10. Dipsas Ammoatis Situla Melanurus Causon It is a burning fiery Serpent insomuch that they that are bit thirst most intolerably and drink so much till they burst It is less than a Viper but kills sooner about a Cubit long the Head and Tail are very little small and black the other parts whitish with black and yellow sports Ibid. p. 249. 11. Draco the Dragon It hurts more by its Biting and Tail than by its Poison 12. The Haemorrhe Affodius Sabrine is about a Foot long of a sandy colour spotted all over with black flaming Eyes small Head with the appearance of Horns having Scales rough and sharp making a noise as he goes Its biting causes a continual bleeding sweat violent torture Pain in the Stomach difficulty of Breathing Convulsions c. The Cure is by Scarification c. Ibid. 13. Lacerta the Lizard is of a changeable colour and an Enemy to the Spider and Toad The Eggs kill speedily except a sudden remedy be exhibited made of Falcons Dung and Wine If they Bite they leave their Teeth behind them which cause continual aking till taken out The Green Lizard living in Meadows are not Venomous Ibid. 14. Lacerta Aquatica the Neute is Venemous and hardly dies by blows but Salt kills them presently Their Eggs are about the bigness of Pease If provoked they shut the Mouth and stand upon their hinder Legs till their Body be all white or pale by which is shown their ill Nature Ibid. 15. Pelias by Biting causes Putrification but such as is easily Cured by drinking Poisan with Oil and anointing with Balm of Perue Ibid. 16. Prester That which Junius and Tremelius think to be the fiery Serpent in the Wilderness is a hot and fiery Beast and goes panting with open Mouth of a very malignant Poison The Cure is by the Juice of Pursley and Castorcum Drunk with Opoponax and Juice of Rue in Canary Ibid. 17. Plyas the most Poisonous Asp kills by Spitting Touch or Smell wounding almost invisibly They Prick not much bigger that the stinging of a Bee without swelling it causes heaviness of the Eyes pain of the Body with some kind of Pleasure Stupidity Deafness Convulsion Vomiting and Death 'T is about a yard long ash-colour flaming and greenish 18. Regulus Sibulus Basiliscus the Cockatrice is the King of al Serpents infecting the Air round about so that no Creature can live near it It is said that he kills both by touching and sight casting forth a burning