we ought not to take adventitious ones instead of those that are innate nor fictitious ones for either but to make a due distinction of each of them one from another 4. Neither is indiscerpibility a proper difference of a spiritual substance from a corporeal one because the visible species of things do in the air intersect one another and suffer not discerpibility and that these are bodies is manifest because they affect the senses and therefore that which is a property of some bodies cannot be the proper difference to distinguish a spirit from a body 5. This is only an arbitrary and feigned supposition and cannot be proved either by the testimony of any of the senses by sound reason or innate notions and what is or cannot be proved by some of these according to his own position ought to be rejected And therefore as indiscerpibility is no proper difference of a spirit from a body no more is penetrability which can no more be in a spiritual substance than either in discreet quantity one can be two or two one or in continuate quantity one inch can be two or two can become one D r Glisson from his much admired Suarius the great Weaver of fruitless Cobwebs hath devised another difference of spirit from body which he thus layeth down as we give it in this English I assign he saith a twofold difference betwixt the substance of matter and that of spirits The first is taken from the substantial à substantiali materiae mole heap or weight of the matter For I he saith besides the actual and accidental extension do attribute to the matter this substantial heap or weight which is denied to spirits But the sign of this heap or weight is that if the matter in the same space be duplicated triplicated or centuplicated that it will be made more dense twofold threefold or an hundred fold And concludeth thus I answer he saith that matter and spirit in this do agree betwixt themselves that they both are finite and from thence that they have this common that neither of them can reduce themselves into a littleness that is infinite or into an infinite magnitude Therefore the difference betwixt them doth not consist in this but in this that a spirit whether it be contracted or dilated is not made more dense or rare but on the contrary matter whether it be contracted or expanded is made more dense or more rare To which we return this responsion 1. It is usual with men when by their wills and fancies they would maintain an opinion that is weak and groundless finding they cannot clearly perform it to bring in some strange obscure or equivocal word thereby to make a flourish though they prove nothing So here this learned person to make a shew to prove the difference of spirit doth assign moles substantialis as peculiar to body but not to spirit but what is to be understood by moles he might know his own meaning but I am sure there are few others that do or can understand it and therefore is but a devised subterfuge to stumble and blind mens intellects and not to prove the thing intended 2. If by the word moles he intend weight or gravity and what else it can signifie is not intelligible then it will not be a difference betwixt body and spirit because gravity and levity are differences of bodies in respect of one another and therefore can be none as he assignes it 3. To assert that a spirit when contracted or dilated is not made more dense or more rare but that matter whether it be contracted or expanded is made more dense or more rare is easily spoken but not so easily proved and rude assertions without sound proof are of no validity and may with as good reason be denied and rejected as affirmed or received 4. We have no density in bodies but in respect of the paucity and parvity of the pores so that less of another body is contained in them and that is accounted rare that hath many or greater and so containeth more of another body in them and are qualities or modifications that only belong unto bodies and not at all unto spirits and is but precariously taken up by the Doctor without any proof or demonstration at all 5. If spirits cannot expand themselves into an infinite space nor contract themselves into an infinite littleness then where are bounds and limits of this contraction and expansion or how is it proved that they can do either seeing they are properties and affections of bodies and matter and never were proved to be peculiar to spirits 4. Those that are much affected to and zealous for experimental Philosophie do often run into that extream as utterly to condemn and throw away all the ancient Scholastick Learning as though there were nothing in it of verity or worth But this is too severe and dissonant from truth as might be made manifest in many of their Maximes but we shall only instance in one as pertinent to our present purpose which is this Imaginatio non transcendit Continuum And this if we perpend it seriously is a most certain and transcendant truth for when we come to cogitate and conceive of a thing we cannot apprehend it otherwise than as continuate and corporeal for what other notions soever we make of things they are but adventitious arbitrary and fictitious for even non entia ad modum entium concipiuntur And therefore those that pretend that Angels are meerly incorporeal must needs err and put force upon their own faculties which cannot conceive a thing that is not continuate and corporeal But if they will trust their own Cogitations and faculties rightly disposed and not vitiated then they must believe that Angels are Corporeal and not meerly and simply spirits for absolutely nothing is so but God only 5. If the Angelical nature were simply and absolutely spiritual and incorporeal then they would be of the same essential Identity with God which is simply impossible For the Angels were not Created forth of any part of Gods Essence for then he should be divisible which he is not nor can be his Essence being simplicity unity and Identity it self and therefore the Angels must of necessity be of an essence of Alterity and different from the essence of God Now God being a simple pure and absolute spirit in the Identity of his essence if the Angels were simply and absolutely spiritual and incorporeal then they must be of the same essence with him which is absurd and impossible and therefore they have Alterity in them and so of necessity must be Corporeal and not simply and meerly spiritual And that as much as we contend for here is granted by Dr Moore in these words For he saith I look upon Angels to be as truly a compound Being consisting of soul and body as that of men and brutes Whereby he plainly asserteth their Composition and so their Alterity and therefore that they must
wounds and their symptoms to wit the Haemorrhage the Sinonia or sinew-water Convulsions and the Epilepsie But as in that age the use of these was frequent and the authority great so by little and little the sophistications of false Philosophers being increased they have come into desuetude and contempt and other childish things have been substituted in their places But these Stones because now the site and influx of the Heavens are plainly otherwise than they were in times past are no more so efficacious as they were then therefore it is convenient that they be prepared anew The Art Magick because it was more secret nor known to vulgar Philosophers both because it did ingenerate wonderful virtues not only to Stones but also to such like words begun to be called the prestigious Art by an odious term For men being unskilful of these things who notwithstanding did usurp the title of the Art unto themselves addicted themselves unto artificious operations crosses and exorcisms From thence the vulgar being unskilful of the Magical Art have begun to attribute this virtue to exorcisms characters short prayers signacles crosses and to other frivolous things But the matter he saith is quite otherwise for the constellation under which the stones and words are prepared doth induce the virtues not exorcisms And being entred upon this particular we shall add some things to this more fully as first this from the great Georgius Phaedro who saith after he had shewed the great virtue of some Roots and Herbs in curing wounds and ulcers But a Characteristical cure is that which exerciseth its natural power by words pronounced written or ingraven by the qualities celestial and various influences of the Stars being friendly to our bodies And to this doth fully agree what is written by Trallianus at large and Augerius Ferrerius in his Chapter de Homerica medicatione whither I referr the Reader and conclude this explication with that sentence of Paracelsus Praeterea syderibus nota sunt omnia quae in natura existunt Unde inquit sapiens dominabitur astris is sapiens qui virtutes illas ad sui obedientiam cogere potest 3. What is here fully explicated as also what we have formerly in this Treatise proved both by reasons authorities and examples doth sufficiently manifest the great power of Celestial Bodies upon inferior matter and that according to the aptitude and agreeableness of the matter prepared and the configuration of the Heavens at the time elected the powerful influence of the Stars and Planets is received into the subject according to the purpose it was intended for So that from hence it will clearly follow that if fit and agreeable words or charactes be framed and joined together when the Heavens are in a convenient site and configuration for the purpose intended those words and characters will receive a most powerful virtue for the purpose intended and will effectually operate to those ends by a just lawful and natural agency without any concurrence of Diabolical power superstition or ceremonies and this is that which was laboured to be proved 4. Thomas Bartholinus that most learned Physician and experienced Anatomist though his credit be laboured to be eclipsed by Dr. Casaubon who is always more ready to ascribe power unto Devils the worst of Gods creatures than either to God or Nature doth touching this point asserts this Notwithstanding he saith that words framed or shut up in a certain Rhythme may without any superstition work some such like thing as the curing of the Epilepsie For first the air is altered by the various prolation of words as well that air which doth enter into the little pores of the vessels ending in the skin by transpiration as that which is carried into the Ears Nostrils and Lungs 2. The state being different of the words uttered doth impress a different force which the unlike constitution of the rough Artery and of the rest of the instruments of speech whether that state be hot or cold it impresseth a virtue which doth either acuate or make grave 3. The breath is heated by the various prolation of words which either alone or bound up in the Rhythme doth califie cold things and discusseth flatulencies And these may have a great diversity in operation according as the air and breath and the several kinds of Atomes in them may be ordered in their site motion and contexture so that thereby the various effects may be produced without Cacodemons or vain superstition 5. And if we consider it seriously there is something more than ordinary in this place of Scripture And it came to pass that when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul that David took an harp and played with his hand so Saul was refreshed and was well and the evil spirit departed from him Upon which learned Tremellius gives us this note That evil spirit that is those phantastical pangs or that furious rage which did proceed from that evil spirit did cease So that it is manifest that it was the natural efficacy of the melodious sound made by Davids playing upon the Harp whereby the Atomes of the air were put into such a motion site and contexture that thereby they became repugnant and antipathetical to those contrary Atomes that were by the means of the evil spirit stirred up in the sensitive Soul of Saul by which he was terrified or tormented and by overcoming them and dissipating of them he came to be refreshed and for a time those effects wrought by that evil spirit ceased So that the argument lies plain thus If the melody of tunes or sounds modulated upon an Harp have power to refresh the mind and to cause the rage of an evil spirit to cease then may words rightly framed in agreeable Rhythmes which are but modulated tunes or sounds ease sick persons and remove diseases But the former is true by the testimony of this Scripture and so also is the later Neither is the objection of Hieronymus Jordanus against this of any force at all where he saith that the reason of sweet Harmony and magical words are very far different But it had been suitable for him to have shewed us wherein that difference doth lye and not to have put it off with such a pittiful shuffle as that it is obvious to Tyronists This is indeed a shift used by many that when they are not able to solve the argument they put it off with some impertinent diversion or passe by it with some ironical Sarcasm But I must tell him that tunes and sounds that are framed by art in the best ways that can be devised thereby by modulating of the air to cause it to have several effects upon the auditory organs differ not at all from right framed charms and characters that by disposing the atomes of the air several ways do produce various effects I say there is no difference except that constellated words may be more efficacious than Musick because they
few Hits of the Oracles but few have noted their Misses which doubtless were far the greater number For so it is here in this North Country with our Figure-flingers and pretended Conjurers Piss-Prophets and Water-Witches that if they hit once it is cryed up and told every where but if they erre an hundred times it is soon buried in silence and oblivion and one fool will not take warning at anothers being cheated and deceived And that their Idols did not nor could declare truly what was to come is manifest by the Prophet who saith Let them bring them forth that is their Idols and shew us what shall happen let them shew the former things what they be that we may consider them and know the latter â—nd of them or declare us things for to come Shew the things that are to come hereafter that we may know that ye are gods yea do good or do â—vil that we may be dismayed and behold it together Yet these miserable cheating dissembling Wretches that would have had the multitude to have believed that their Idols could have foretold truly almost any thing yet neither their Idols nor the Gods or Devils they pretended to be in them nor themselves could foretel or foresee their own destruction as is manifest in the Prophets of Baal in the time of Elijah who went up to Mount Carmel to advance the worship and power of their Idols but did not foresee it should be all their destructions and deaths Doubtless those that in the Book of Daniel are called Wise-men Magicians Astrologers Sorcerers and Chaldeans were endowed with much rare knowledge both in respect of Nature and Art for if their knowledge had been Diabolical without question Daniel would hardly have interceded for them yet could they not reveal what the Kings dream was that was gone from him nor foresee that they run the hazard of their lives but did conclude that none other could shew it except the gods whose dwelling is not with flesh 4. In matters of fact it appeareth that they were active deceivers and deluders as is manifest when Pharaoh had dreamed two dreams that he called and sent for all the Magicians and Wise-men of Egypt but they could not interpret them unto him Junius and Tremelius render it Omnes Magos Aegypti omnes Sapientes ejus The vulgar Latine or that which is improperly called St. Hieromes Translation gives it Misit ad omnes Conjectores Aegypti cunctôsque Sapientes And these doubtless Pharaoh would not have sent for but that either upon his own knowledge he knew that they professed the ability of the interpretation of dreams and perhaps as the sequel shewed greater matters or else upon common repute or relation of others and that must needs arise from their own profession of the knowledge of such abstruse matters and so of necessity must have pretended greater matters than when they came to tryal they were able to perform and so must needs be Impostors And the Woman at Endor falsely called a Witch or a Woman that had a familiar Spirit when in the Hebrew she is only called the Mistress of the Bottle as we shall manifest hereafter must needs be a Deceiver and Impostor because she pretended to bring up whomsoever Saul desired which was a thing absolutely not in her power as I shall undeniably prove afterwards And notwithstanding the stories of Eusebius and the strong endeavours of Doctor Hamond to make it good that Simon Magus was a person that had peculiar and corporeal converse with the Devil and by that league and converse could perform strange and wonderful things yet was he but a notorious Impostor as appeareth by two reasons 1. The Text saith That he gave out that himself was some great one that is that he had great skill and was able to perform wonderful things This sheweth his presumption and pretence the certain badge of a Deceiver and Cheater 2. But could do little except some petty jugling Tricks of Leger-de-main confederacy and the like because he wondred or was amazed beholding the Miracles and signs which were done and those were that unclean Spirits crying with loud voice came out of many that were possessed with them And many taken with palsies and that were lame were healed Now if he had been any great Magician or could have performed any great things he could not have so much wondred at those things that Philip wrought or if he could have flown in the air as Eusebius or those that have foisted such incredible lyes into his Writings pretendeth then he need not have been so amazed at the miracles and signs that the Apostles wrought nor to have offered to have bought the gift of bestowing the Holy Ghost but only because he was a notorious Dissembler and Impostor And if he had been in league with the Devil surely he might have cast forth Devils by the power of Belzebub the Prince of Devils all which do plainly conclude him to be an absolute Cheater and Impostor And the story of Bel and the Dragon though but an Apocryphal piâ—ce yet very ancient and of sufficient credit as to matter of fact doth evidently demonstrate that these sort of people were abominable Cheaters and Impostors and were not endowed with any supernatural power nor had assistance of any visible Demon but only the Devil of deceit and cousenage in their own breasts and so were as Cardan saith Carnales Daemones ipsis Daemonibus callidiores 5. And though by the Laws of our own Nation these kind of people were to be severely punished as appeareth by the Statute 1 Jac. cap. 12. yet had they respect in that Act not only to the punishment in respect of what these persons could or did do but also in regard of their being Impostors and Deceivers of the people for so the Lord Chief Justice Sir Edward Cook the best Expositor of Law that hath written in our Language doth expound it in these words The mischiefs before this part of this Act were That divers Impostors men and women would take upon them to tell or do these fine things here specified in great deceit of the people and cheating and cousening them of their money or other goods therefore was this part of the Act made wherein these words take upon him or them are very remarkable For if they take upon them c. though in truth they do it not yet are they in danger of this first branch 6. And whereas in the objection Mr. Glanvil mentioneth converse with Devils if he mean mental internal and spiritual converse such as Murtherers Adulterers Thieves Robbers and all wicked persons have with Satan we grant it for so had the Jews and the High Priests in conspiring and acting to put our blessed Saviour to death it was their hour and the power of darkness But if he mean a visible and corporeal converse then we plainly affirm that there is not nor can be any such whereby any
melancholy persons to fear things not to be feared and to feign things quae nec picta usquam sunt nec scripta A Plebeian he saith with them abounding with melancholy blood did imagine that his Nose was grown to that greatness that he durst not go abroad for fear it should be hurt or justled upon by those he met And that a famous Poet at Amsterdam did believe that his Buttocks were of glass and feared their breaking if he should sit down Another Old man of prime Dignity did suspect that he had swallowed a nail which being lost he could no where find and thought himself much tortured by its being fixed in him But was restored to his health by having a Vomit given and the Physician conveying a nail into the matter that he cast up And that a certain man in England would not make water for fear that all the blood in his body should have passed forth by that passage and therefore straitly tyed the yard with a thred for some days which swelling he was not far from death but that his Brother by force untyed it The Books of Physicians are very full with such relations and we in our Practice have met with divers as strange as these and cured them Also he tells us this A certain Student of a melancholick Constitution distracted with grief for the death of a Sister and wearied with lucubrations did complain to Bartholinus of the Devil haunting of him and did affirm that he felt the evil Spirit enter by his fundament with wind and so did creep up his body until it possessed the head lest he might attend his Prayers and Meditations with his accustomed devotion and that it did descend and go forth the same way when he bent himself to Prayers and reading of Sacred Books Before these things he used to be filled with unheard of joy from his assiduous Prayers and watching that also he had heard a celestial kind of Musick and therefore despising all mortal things he had distributed all things to the poor but that now piety waxing cold by too much appetite after meat and his brain troubled with that wind that he had heard a voice of one in his brain upbraiding him with Blasphemy and that he felt hands beating and a stink passing before his nose By all which Bartholinus guessed that it was Hypochondriacal Melancholy and by good Counsel proper Physick merry Company and rightly ordering of him he was perfectly cured 4. To these we will only add this that is related by Marcellus Donatus Physician to the Duke of Mantua and Montferrat to this purpose That he knew a Noble Countess of their City that did most earnestly affirm that she was made sick by the Witchery and Incantation of a certain ill-minded Woman which was apprehended by a learned Physician to be notwithstanding her fancy nothing else but Hypochondriacal Melancholy which he cured by giving her proper Medicaments to purge that humour and ordering her Waiting-maid to put into the matter she voided Nails Feathers and Needles which when with a glad countenance she had shewed to her Mistress she presently cryed out that she had not been deceived when she had referred the cause of her disease to Witchcraft and afterwards did daily recover more and more 3. And as ignorance and irreligion meeting with a melancholick Constitution doth frame many persons to strange fancies both of fear and credulity so when to these is added the teachings of those that are themselves under a most strong passive delusion then of all others these become most strongly confident that they can perform admirable things As when a person hath by education suckt in all the grossest fables and lyes of the power of Witches and familiar Devils and therein becometh extremely confident heightned with the fumes of black Choler and so thinks meditates and dreameth of Devils Spirits and all the strange stories that have been related of them and becometh maliciously stirred up against some Neighbour or other And so in that malicious and revengeful mind seeketh unto and inquireth for some famed and notorious Witch of whom they believe they may learn such craft and cunning that thereby they may be able to kill or destroy the persons or goods of those that they suppose have done them injuries Then meeting with some that are strongly deluded and confidently perswaded that they have the company and assistance of a familiar Spirit by whose help they believe they can do almost any thing especially in destroying men or cattel they are presently instructed what vain and abominable Ceremonies Observances Unguents Charms making of Pictures and a thousand such fond odd fopperies they are to use by which they believe they can do strange Feats And from this do proceed their bold and confident confessions of lyes and impossibilities that notwithstanding have abused so many to take them for certain truths so that according to the Proverb Popery and Witchcraft go by Tradition and we shall find none of these deluded Witches if they must be so called but they have been taught by others that thought themselves to be such also And this is a truth if we may trust the confession of Alizon Denice at the Bar at Lancaster who saith thus That about two years agone her Grandmother called Elizabeth Sotheres alias Dembdike did sundry times in going or walking together as they went begging perswade and advise this Examinate to let a Devil or a Familiar appear to her and that she this Examinate would let him suck at some part of her and she might have and do what she would But besides these two sorts of Witches whose Existence we deny not there is an acceptation of the word Witch in another sense the Existence of which I absolutely deny and that is this according to Mr. Perkins A Witch is a Magician who either by open or secret League wittingly and willingly consenteth to use the aid and assistance of the Devil in the working of Wonders But the full Description and Notion that the common Witchmongers give a Witch is this That a Witch is such a person to whom the Devil doth appear in some visible shape with whom the Witch maketh a League or Covenant sometimes by Bond signed with the Witches blood and that thereby he doth after suck upon some part of their bodies and that they have carnal Copulation together and that by virtue of that League the Witch can be changed into an Hare Dog Cat Wolf or such like Creatures that they can flye in the air raise storms and tempests kill men or cattel and such like wonders This notion of a Witch may be gathered from the Writings of these persons Delrio the Jesuit Bodinus Jacobus Springerus Johannes Niderus Bartholomeus Spineus Paulus Grillandus Lambertus Danaeus Hemmingius Erastus Sennertus and many others As also from the Writings of our own Country-men Mr. Perkins Mr. Bernard of Balcombe the Author of the Book called Demonology Mr. Gaâ—le Mr.
them to agree together in a common lye I say we have the light of all these circumstances to confirm us in the belief of things done by persons of despicable power and knowledge beyond the reach of Art and ordinary Nature Standing publick Records have been kept of these well-attested Relations and Epocha's made of those unwonted events Laws in many Nations have been enacted against those vile practices those among the Jews and our own are notorious such Cases have been often determined near us by wise and reverend Judges upon clear convictive Evidence and thousands in our own Nation have suffered death for their vile compacts with Apostate Spirits And a little after he saith And I think those that can believe all Histories are Romances that all the wiser World have agreed together to juggle Mankind into a common belief of ungrounded Fables that the sound senses of multitudes together may deceive them and Laws are built upon Chimera's that the gravest and wisest Judges have been Murderers and the sagest persons Fools or designing Impostors Bishop Hall maketh the like Objection saying Neither can I make question of the authentick Records of the Examinations and Confessions of Witches and Sorcerers in several Regions of the World agreeing in the truth of their horrible pacts with Satan of their set Meetings with evil Spirits their beastly Homages and Conversations I should hate to be guilty of so much incredulity as to charge so many grave Judges and credible Historians with lyes These Objections at the first view seem very plausible and to carry with them a great splendour and weight of truth and reason but if they be looked into and narrowly weighed in the balance of sound reason and unbiassed judgment they will be found too light and will soon vanish into Rhetorical fumes and frothy vapours which that it may be more clearly performed we shall rank them into the number of three in which all their seeming strength lyes and these are they 1. They pretend that these things are sufficiently proved by Historians of unquestionable credit and reputation 2. That the Confessions of Witches themselves in divers Regions at several times and places who have all acknowledged these particulars are sufficient evidence of the truth of these performances 3. That so many wise and grave Judges and honest Juries could not have been deceived to put to death such great numbers of these kind of people called or accounted Witches without sufficient proof of the matters of fact To all which we shall give a full response in respect of the four particulars mentioned in the beginning of this Chapter and shall commix and adjoyn such positive Arguments as will be cogent to all rational persons whose corrupt wills have not perverted their judgments 1. It is much to be admired that Mr. Glanvil but especially Bishop Hall a very Reverend and Learned person should lye any great stress upon such a weak foundation For there is none of these three Objections that will amount to a necessary Proposition but only to a contingent one which will infer no certain and necessary Conclusion nor bring forth any certitude or science but only bare opinion and probability Propositio contingens est quâ— sic vera est ut falsa esse possit and at the best the strength of all these are but testimonia humana which are but weak and no sufficient ground for a rational man to believe them to be true because humanum est errare And the weight of these matters is not a contention de lana caprina vel de umbra asini sed de pelle humana for the lives and estates of many poor Creatures and they professed Christians too and therefore doth require stronger Arguments than contingent Propositions to establish a firm ground for the belief of this opinion 2. It is one thing barely to affirm and another thing to prove sufficiently and fully For though they boldly alledge that these things are sufficiently proved by Authors of unquestionable credit and verity we must return a flat negative and that for these reasons 1. Let them shew us any one Author of credible veracity that ever was ear or eye-witness of the Devils making of a visible and corporeal League or Bargain with the Witches or that he ever suckt upon their bodies or that he had carnal Copulation with them or that by the experience of his senses ever certainly knew a man really transubstantiated and transformed into a Wolf or a Wolf into a man and we will yield the whole Cause But we must assert and truly affirm that this pretence of theirs that these things are sufficiently proved by Historians of good credit is a meer falsity and a lying flourish of vain words There are we confess a multitude of vain and lying stories amassed up together in the Writings of Demonographers and Witchmongers of strange and odd Apparitions Feats Confessions and such like but never any one positive proof of any of these four particulars by any Authors of credit and reputation and this we dare boldly aver to the world 2. Let them produce any two Witnesses that were of honesty and integrity sound understandings and ability that ever were present and ear and eye-witnesses of a visible vocal and corporeal League made betwixt the Devil and the Witch or let them tell us who was by and watched and really and truly saw the Devil suck upon some part of the Witches body or who were the Chamberlains Pimps or Panders when the Devil and the Witch committed carnal Copulation or who were ever present when a Witch was changed into a Cat a Dog an Hare or a Wolf If they can but bring forth any two credible Witnesses to prove these things by then we shall believe them but we must assert that never any such two could be produced yet and therefore cannot but wonder at the shameless impudence of such persons that dare affirm these things that never were nor can be proved and yet have not blushed to vent and trumpet forth such execrable and abominable lyes to the World Mr. Glanvil confidently affirms these things to be matters of fact and affirmanti incumbit probatio let him produce his Witnesses and if they be persons of judgment veracity and impartiality then we shall accept their proof but it is not figments supposals weak presumptions or apparent falsities that will perform it for that which never was acted can never truly be proved and things that appear not are as though they were not therefore he must produce his testimonies or lose both his cause and credit and must be taken for an Assertor of never-proved Fables Lying lips are abomination unto the Lord but they that deal truly are his delight Now we know they use to do in this case as Souldiers use who when they are beaten forth of some Out-work or Trench they then retreat into another that they think more strong and safe And being driven from their weak Hold of
plura quod fieri potest per pauciora And is his sucking now come to infusion and injection surely these will not accord but enough of supposals 2. But we must know of Mr. Glanvil how he comes to know that the Devils sucking of the Witches bodies is a truth or ever was proved to be matter of fact who were by and present that were ear or eye-witnesses of it A thing that never was proved ought never to be believed and if he recur to the Witches confessions that is fully overthrown before and we are sure that in these late years that are past when so many pretended Witch-finders were set abroad in Scotland and Northumberland they never mánifested nor could verifie any such thing but were found and discovered to be notorious Impostors and Knaves pretending to discover Witches by putting sharp Needles or Pins into the Warts and hollow Excrescences of divers persons when the persons so dealt withal did not see nor know and if the persons did not feel nor complain of pain then forsooth they must be taken for Witches and be burnt So of many persons they got money and bribes that they might not be searcht or stript naked and of others for finding Excrescences upon them that were hollow and fistulous and therefore when the Pin was thrust into the fistulous cavity that was skinned within and so indolent they were then accounted guilty and were either forced to compound with these notorious pretended Witch-finders or to be prosecuted for their lives By which wicked means and unchristian practices divers innocent persons both men and women lost their lives and these wicked Rogues wanted not greater persons even of the Ministry too that did authorize and incourage them in these Diabolical courses as though this had been some way prescribed by God or his Word to discover Witches by when it was an Hellish device of the Devil to delude Witchmongers and bring poor innocent people to danger and death Yet it had prevailed further if some more wise Heads and Christian Hearts had not interposed by whom the Villany was detected and the Impostors severely punished and that this is a most certain truth hundreds yet living can witness and testifie And the like in my time and remembrance happened here in Lancashire where divers both men and women were accused for supposed Witchcraft and were so unchristianly unwomenly and inhumanely handled as to be stript stark naked and to be laid upon Tables and Beds to be searched nay even in their most privy parts for these their supposed Witch-marks so barbarous and cruel acts doth diabolical instigation working upon ignorance and superstition produce 3. But as this was never really proved de facto that the Devil did suck upon the body of a supposed Witch so the possibility of it likewise can never be demonstrated For whether a Spirit be taken to be corporeal or to assume a body yet it neither hath nor can have such a body as our Saviour did appear in after his Resurrection which was the same real and numerical body that he suffered in and was by the sense of seeing and feeling distinguished from any bodies that Spirits can have and appear in especially in solidity and tangibility for a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as he was felt and seen to have And where there is no flesh and bones there cannot be any animal sucking and we speak not here of artificial sucking or attraction of which there is a great question whether any such thing be at all or not but however the Spirits have no power to suck because they have not flesh and bones 4. That there are divers Nodes Knots Protuberances Warts and Excrescences that grow upon the bodies of men and women is sufficiently known to learned Physicians and experienced Chirurgions Some have them from their mothers wombs some grow afterwards some proceed from internal causes some from external hurts some are soft some hard some pendulous some not some fistulous and issue matter some hollow and indolent and many other ways And these are more frequent in some persons by reason of their Complexion and Constitution in others by reason of their Age Sex and other accidents and circumstances especially in Women that are old and their accustomed purgations staid or by reason of Child-birth and the like Now if all these were Witch-marks then few would go free especially those that are of the poorer sort that have the worst diet and are but nastily kept And for their being indolent it doth argue nothing but ignorance for many sorts of Tumors and Excrescences are without pain as well as fistulous and hollow Warts And it is a woful errour to make that a sign and mark of a diabolical Contract that hath natural causes for its production And it is a strange kind of Logick to argue or conclude that men or women are Witches and have made a Contract with the Devil because they have such Warts or Excrescences that are indolent when pricked into where is the coherence connexion or just consequence Let all wise men judge As for that vain opinion that Witches are or can be really and essentially transformed into Dogs Cats Hares and the like or men transubstantiated into Wolves it is largely by numerous positive arguments confuted by Casmannus and by the Authors of that learned Treatise of Spirits and Devils written in the Raign of Queen Elizabeth as also by Wierus Mr. Scot and others so that we shall not bring all that others have written about this point but note such things as are most material and have been less handled or regarded by others and that in these Particulars 1. It is taken to be a great matter with some because St. Augustin seemeth to favour this opinion of transformation and tells us this Si enim dixerimus ea non esse credenda non desunt etiam nunc qui ejusmodi quaedam vel certissima and isse vel etiam expertos se esse asseverent And then saith And we when we were in Italy did hear such things of a certain Region of those parts where certain Women that kept Inns being skilled in these Arts they did say were wont to give in Cheese to Travellers that they could get to take it from whence forthwith they were turned into Juments and carried necessary burdens and when they had done did again return unto themselves but that while they had not a bestial but rational and humane understanding And yet concludeth Haec vel falsa sunt vel tam inusitata ut meritò non credantur To which we shall return these short answers 1. Though St. Austin were in many things a very Learned man yet being but a man might and did erre not only in this point but in many others 2. His Reasons to prove it by are weak and groundless 3. He speaketh nothing of his certain and peculiar knowledge but by common fame and hearsay and therefore the matters
that forthwith six thousand Franks should be given to Brabantius that three Masses might be said every day to redeem his Father forth of Purgatory otherwayes that there could be no redemption for him And thereupon the Son obliged both by conscience and religion although unwillingly delivers so many to the trust of Brabantius all lawful evidence of the agreement and performance being utterly neglected The Father freed from the fire and torments afterwards hath rested quiet and by speaking did not trouble the Son any more But the wretched Cornutus after Brabantius was gone being one time more pleasant than wonted which made his Table-companions much to wonder and forthwith opening the cause to them inquiring it he was forthwith so derided of all because that in his judgment he had been so beguiled and cheated of his money besides that within few days after he died for plain grief and so followed his Father to know the truth of that thing of him But to make this more plain and certain we shall add a Story of a notable Impostor or Ventriloquist from the testimony of Mr. Ady which we have had confirmed from the mouth of some Courtiers that both saw and knew him and is this It hath been saith he credibly reported that there was a Man in the Court in King James his days that could act this imposture so lively that he could call the King by name and cause the King to look round about him wondering who it was that called him whereas he that called him stood before him in his presence with his face towards him but after this Imposture was known the King in his merriment would sometimes take occasion by this Impostor to make sport upon some of his Courtiers as for instance There was a Knight belonging to the Court whom the King caused to come before him in his private room where no Man was but the King and this Knight and the Impostor and feigned some occasion of serious discourse with the Knight but when the King began to speak and the Knight bending his attention to the King suddenly there came a voice as out of another room calling the Knight by name Sir John Sir John come away Sir John at which the King began to frown that any Man should be so unmannerly as to molest the King and him And still listning to the Kings discourse the voice came again Sir John Sir John come away and drink off your Sack at that Sir John began to swell with anger and looked into the next rooms to see who it was that dared to call him so importunately and could not find out who it was and having chid with whomsoever he found he returned again to the King The King had no sooner begun to speak as formerly but the voice came again Sir John come away your Sack stayeth for you At that Sir John began to stamp with madness and looked out and returned several times to the King but could not be quiet in his discourse with the King because of the voice that so often troubled him till the King had sported enough I my self also have seen a young man about 16 or 17 years of age who having learned at School and having no great mind to his Book fell into an Ague in the declination of which he seemed to be taken with convulsion-fits and afterwards to fall into Trances and at the last to speak as with another small voice in his Breast or Throat and pretended to declare unto those that were by what sinful and knavish tricks they had formerly acted or what others were doing in remote places and rooms So that presently his Father and the Family with the neighbourhood were perswaded that he was possest and that it was a spirit that spoke in him which was soon heightned by Popish reports all over the Countrey But there being a Gentleman of great note and understanding his Kinsman caused him to be sent over unto me to have mine opinion whether it were a natural distemper or not The Father and the Boy with an old cunning Woman the made creature to cry up the certainty of his possession and the verity of a spirit speaking in him came unto me who all appeared to my judgment and best reason fit persons to act any designed Imposture The Father having been one that had lived profusely and spent the most of his means being sufficiently prophane and irreligious The Boy by his face appearing to be of a melancholy complexion and of a subtile and crafty disposition the Woman cunning who would have forced me to believe whatsoever she related thinking to impose upon me as she had done upon others I presently judged it to be neither natural disease nor supernatural distemper but only knavery and Imposture and so made the Woman silent and told her she was a cheater and deserved due punishment and that what she told were the most of them lies of her own inventing and told the Father and the Son that I could soon cast forth all the Devils that he was possessed with but then I must have him in mine own custody and none of them to come near him nor to speak with him A long time I expected to have seen him in one of his fits but his Devil was too timerous of my sterâ— countenance and rough carriage Well after they three had consulted together the Lad by no means could be gotten to stay with me no not for that night nor be prevailed with again to be brought into my presence but away they went the Lad riding behind his Father and when about a quarter of a mile from the Town the Father turned the Horse to come back again unto me the Lad leapt from off the Horse and run away crying from the Townwards as fast as he could They went that night to a Popish House where were concourse of people sufficient and many tales told of the Divinations of the spirit in the Boy but not one word either of me or against me Soon after the Gentleman that was of kin to the Boy came over and I gave him satisfaction that it was a contrived cheat and after he returned he would have prevailed with them to have sent the Boy to me but by no means could effect it and so he never after gave any regard unto them and soonafter it vanished to nothing I my self also knew a person in the West-riding of Yorkshire who about some forty years or above to have made sport would have put a Coverlet upon him and then would have made any believe that knew not the truth that he had a child with him he would so lively have discoursed with two voices and have imitated crying and the like And also the said person under a Coverlet and coming upon all four would so exceeding aptly even to the life have acted a skirmish betwixt two Mastiffs both by grinning snarling and all other motions and noise that divers understanding persons have been
old Hereticks that held that God had Eyes Ears Head Hands and Feet and the like had an easie notion of it conceiving him to have humane members but I hope the Doctor will not say that this notion of theirs was a notion truly drawn from the nature and being of God because there is no corporeity in him at all And it is and hath been the Tenent of all Orthodox Divines Ancient Middle and Modern that God in his own nature and being is infinite and incomprehensible and therefore there can no true and adequate notion of him as being so be duly and rightly gathered in the understanding of creatures and so the Doctors position or notion must needs be Phantastry and imaginary Enthusiasm For as there are many things in nature that in themselves are finite and comprehensible that as he grants of naked essence or substance are utterly unconceivable to any of our faculties much more must the being of God that is infinite and incomprehensible which are attributes that are incommunicable be utterly unconceivable to any of our faculties And it is but the vain pride of Mans Head and Heart thereby to magnifie his own abilities whereas the Text doth pronounce this of him For vain man would be wise though he be born like a wild ass colt that lifts him up to conceit that he can fathom and comprehend the Infinite and Almighty whom the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain and therefore cannot frame a true notion of him whom perfectly he doth not understand nor comprehend and the attributes of God are matters of Faith and not the weak deductions of humane reason 3. Those that seem to idolize humane abilities and carnal reason have not only applied those so much magnified Engines to the discovery of created things wherein they have effected so little that sufficiently proclaims the invalidity of the instruments or the inauspicious application of them or both all the several sorts of Natural Philosophy hitherto found out or used being examined coming far short of solving the Phaenomena of nature when even the least animal or vegetable affords matter enough to puzle and non-plus the greatest Philosopher so that we may justly complain with Seneca that the greatest part of those things we know are the least part of those things we know not These engines I say though proving ineffectual to find out the true notions and knowledge of natural things have also like the fiction of the Gyants notwithstanding invaded Heaven and taken upon them to discover and determine of Celestials wherein it is in a manner totally blind or sees but with an Owl-like vision For indeed the deciding of this point must be taken from the Divine authority of the Scriptures and the clear deductions that may be drawn from thence for this is that clear light that we ought to follow and not the Dark-lanthorn of Mans blind frail and weak reason for it is a sure word of Prophecie whereunto it is good to take heed and not to vain Philosophy old Wives Fables or opposition of Sciences falsly so called And therefore we shall conclude this point here concerning the corporeity or incorporeity of Angels with that Christian and learned position of Dr. Stillingfleet in these words But although Christianity be a Religion which comes in the highest way of credibility to the minds of Men although we are not bound to believe any thing but what we have sufficient reason to make it appear that it is revealed by God yet that any thing should be questioned whether it be of Divine revelation meerly because our reason is to seek as to the full and adequate conception of it is a most absurd and unreasonable pretence 4. In handling this point of the corporeity or incorporeity of Angels we do here once for all exclude and except forth of our discourse and arguments the humane and rational Soul as not at all to be comprised in these limits and that especially for these reasons 1. Because the humane Soul had a peculiar kind of Creation differing from the Creation of other things as appeareth in the words of the Text. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. Upon which the note of Tremellius and Junius is anima verò hominis spiritale quiddam est divinum 2. Because I find Solomon the wisest of Men making this question who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth 3. Because it is safer to believe the nature of the Soul to be according to the Analogy of Faith and the concurrent opinion of the learned than to sift such a deep question by our weak understanding and reason So having premised these things and left this as a general exception and caution we shall proceed to the matter intended in this order 1. We lay it down for a most certain and granted truth that God simply and absolutely is only a most simple spirit in whom there is no corporeity or composition at all and what other things soever that are called or accounted spirits are but so in a relative and respective consideration and not in a simple and absolute acceptation And this is the unanimous Tenent of the Fathers Schoolmen and all other Orthodox Divines agreeing with the plain and clear words of the Scripture as God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth And again Now the Lord is that spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty Therefore we shall lay down this following proposition 2. That Angels being created substances are not simply and absolutely incorporeal but if they be by any called or accounted spirits it can but be in a relative and respective sense but that really and truly they are corporeal And this we shall labour to make good not only by shewing the absurdities of that opinion of their being simply spiritual but in laying open the unintelligibility of that opinion and by answering the most material objections 1. And first to begin at the lowest step Body is a thing that affecteth the senses most plainly and feelingly for though many bodies are so pure as the air aether steams of the Load-stone and many other steams of bodies that they escape the sight of our eyes yet are they either manifest to our feeling or otherwise made manifest by some sensible effect operation or the like yet for all this the intrinsick nature of body as such is utterly unknown unto us for when we speak of the extension of body as its Characteristical property we do but conceive of its superficial dimensions its internal nature quatenus Corpus being utterly unknown unto us it being a certain truth that Quidditates rerum non sunt cognoscibiles and as Dr Moore granteth the naked essence or substance of a thing
So that the Scriptures do plainly inform us of the truth in this particular as For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him For this is only proper to God to search the heart and to understand the cogitations as saith the Text For thou only knowest the hearts of the children of men he only knoweth them and neither Angels nor men and though the heart be deceitful and desperately wicked yet God doth search the heart and try the reins So that if the good Angels do not know the cogitations desires and affections of Mens hearts except God either reveal them unto them or they be made manifest by signs and effects much less must the bad Angels know or understand them 3. Those things that are meerly contingent and those which depend upon free will cannot be known of the Angels unless they be revealed by God as is manifest by the Text. Produce your cause saith the Lord bring forth your strong Idols or Diviners saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth and shew us what shall happen let them shew the former things what they be that we may consider them and know the later end of them or declare us things for to come Shew the things that are to come hereafter that we may know that ye are Gods yea do good or evil that we may be dismayed and behold it together And as the good Angels know not contingent things or those that depend upon free will much less do the faln Angels understand them as is manifest in these examples The Angel that was sent of God to warn Joseph to take the child Jesus and fly into Aegypt did not of his own innate knowledge either in it self or in its cause as the Schoolmen speak know that Herod would seek the child to destroy him because it was truly a contingent thing and did only depend upon the free act of Herods will and therefore by Divine Goodness and Providence it was revealed to the Angel thereby to preserve the life of the child and to fulfil the Scriptures Neither do the faln Angels know future events that are contingent or depend upon the free will of men as is manifest in Satans tempting and afflicting of Job which he intended to have been his destruction and therefore did falsly divine and foretel that Job would curse God to his face but the event was not according to his lying conjecture but to the manifestation of Jobs Faith and Patience and produced his glorious restoration So the lying spirit in the mouth of Ahabs Prophets did not know that Ahab would go up to Ramoth Gilead or that he should be slain there but that God did reveal it unto him and sent him forth with a powerful commission to prevail So that all the predictions and Divinations of the Devil or his Angels are nothing but lying guesses and uncertain conjectures for what can be expected from him who was a liar from the beginning and the father of lies Neither were his Idol-priests Wizzards Diviners or Prophets any better but meer conjecturers and lyars as was most manifest in all those Oracles that were amongst the Grecians which uttered nothing but cheats lies equivocations and ambiguous responsions And those amongst the Jews were no better who took upon them to foretel and divine for others but could not or did not foresee their own destruction as is manifest in Ahabs Prophets slain by Elijah and the Priests of Baal slain by Jehu and therefore must all those needs be deceived that run to Divining Witches and Wizzards of which sort of couzeners we have too many And if against this it be objected that the Devils did know and confess that Jesus was the Son of God and therefore if they could tell this that was so great a mystery much more easily may they know other inferior things and so may foretel future contingencies to which we give this responsion 1. We only affirm that Devils did not know Christ by their innate or inbred knowledge but they might know him by the revelation of the Father and by the things that were written of him by the Prophets and by the observation of those things that were manifested at his birth and shewed and done in his life time 2. And it is manifest that God did not altogether intend to have him hidden from the knowledge of Devils because he ordered that the spirit should lead him into the wilderness that he might be tempted that his power and victory might be shown over the Prince of darkness And the end that the wisdom of God had in this was that the Devils to their greater terror and horror might know their Conquerour and by whose power they should be tormented and thrown into the Abyss or bottomless pit and this made them cry out saying Art thou come to torment us before the time and also force us not into the Abyss or deep 3. The Devils might know this because the Angels had proclaimed his birth to the Shepherds and told them that unto them was born that day in the City of David a Saviour which was Christ the Lord And they might know it from the appearing of the Holy Ghost in the form of a Dove and resting upon him and by the voice which said from Heaven this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased And they might know it by the conquest that Christ had over the Devil and by their daily being cast out by the power of his word and command as by the finger of God 4. The mysteries of Salvation cannot be known unto the good Angels but by Divine Revelation much less unto the bad ones as witnesseth the Text For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him even so the things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God The mysteries therefore of Salvation as they have been decreed by himself in his eternal counsel are not known unto the Angels but by the revelation of the spirit of God and the complement and fulfilling of his promises So concerning the restauration or precise day and hour of the coming of Christ do not the Angels in Heaven know though their knowledge be vast and great and therefore much less those faln and rebellious Angels that are chained in everlasting darkness untill the judgment of the great day 5. And as that which is not understood of the blessed and elect Angels must needs be unknown unto the faln Angels so likewise there are many things known to the good Angels that are hidden or but conjectured at by the bad ones as may be manifest in these instances 1. The blessed Angels know and see the face of the Father in beatifical vision as saith the Text Take heed that ye offend not one of these little ones for I say unto you that in heaven their Angels do alwayes
of strange qualities have made many to believe that they were Demons nay it seems their Images and Pictures have been taken for Devils and yet are but meer natural Creatures and by learned men accounted a kind of Apes which we shall now prove by an undeniable instance or two and first this from the pen of that learned Physician Nicholaus Tulpius who saith thus In our remembrance he saith there was an Indian Satyre brought from Angola and presented as a gift to Frederick Henry Prince of Aurange This Satyre was four-footed and from the humane shape which it seems to bear it is called of the Indians Orang antang homo silvestris a wild man and of the Africans Quoias morron expressing in longitude a Child of three years old and in crassitude one of six years It was of body neither fat nor lean but square most able and very swift And of its joints so firm and the Muscles so large that it durst undertake and could do any thing on the foreparts altogether smooth and rough behind and covered with black hairs It s face did resemble a man but the nose broad and crooked downwards rugged and a toothless female But the ears were not different from humane shape As neither the breast adorned on both sides with a swelling dug for it was of the feminine Sex the belly had a very deep navil and the joints both those above and those below had such an exact similitude with man that one egg doth not seem more like another Neither was there a-wanting a requisite commissure to the arm nor the order of fingers to the hands nor an humane shape to the thumb or a prop of the legs to the thighs or of the heel to the foot Which fit and decent form of the members was the cause that for most part it did go upright neither did it lift up any kind of weight less heavily than remove it easily When it was about to drink it would hold the handle of the Kan with the one hand and put the other under the bottom of the Cup then would it wipe off the moysture left upon its lips not less neatly than thou shouldest see the most delicate Courtier Which same dexterity it did observe when it went to bed For lying her head upon the Pillow and fitly covering her body with the Cloaths it did hide it self no otherwise than if the most delicate person had laid there Moreover the King of Samback he saith did one time tell our Kinsman Samuel Blomart that these kind of Satyres especially the Males in the Iland of Borneo have so great boldness of mind and such a strong compaction of Muscles that they have often forceably set upon armed men and not only upon the weak sex of Women and Girls with the flagrant desire of which they are so inflamed that catching them often they abuse them For they are highly prone to lust which is common to these with the lustful Satyres of the ancients yea sometimes so keen and salacious that therefore the Indian Women do eschew the Woods and Groves as worse than a Dog or a Snake in which these impudent animals do lie hid And that this lascivious animal is found in the Eastern Mountains of India as also in Africa between Sierra Liona and the Promontory of the Mountain where perhaps were those places where Plinius lib. 5. cap. 5. affirmeth that upon the nights there was seen to shine frequent Fires of the Aegipanes and to abound with the lasciviousness of the Satyres who do love craggy Dens and Caves and shun the society of mankind being a salacious hairy four-footed Creature with human shape and a crooked nose But that the foot of this Creature neither hath hoofs nor the body every where hairs but only the head shoulders and back The rest of the parts are smooth and the Ears are not sharp So that from hence it is undeniably true that there are such Creatures existent in nature and have been either taken for Devils or the Apparitions of Demons in this shape of Satyres as Doctor Brown hath well observed in these words A conceit there is he saith that the Devil commonly appeareth with a cloven foot or hoof wherein although it seem excessively ridiculous there may be somewhat of truth and the ground thereof at first might be his frequent appearing in the shape of a Goat which answers that description This was the opinion of ancient Christians concerning the Apparitions of Pans Fauns and Satyres and in this form we read of one that appeared unto Antony in the Wilderness The same is also confirmed from expositions of holy Scripture for whereas it is said Thou shalt not offer unto Devils the original word is Sehhirim that is rough and hairy Goats because in that shape the Devil most often appeared as is expounded by the Rabbins as Tremellius hath also explained But saving the reputation of learned Saint Hierome and D r Brown it is but a supposition unproved that ever the Devil appeared in the shape of a Goat the rise of the opinion was only because the Devil was worshipped in an Idol made in the shape of a Goat 3. In a few ages past when Popish ignorance did abound there was no discourse more common which yet is continued amongst the vulgar people than of the apparition of certain Creatures which they called Fayries that were of very little stature and being seen would soon vanish and disappear And these were generally believed to be some kind of Spirits or Demons and Paracelsus held them to be a kind of middle Creatures and called them non-Adamicks as not being of the race of Adam but there are Authors of great credit and veracity that affirm there have been Nations of such people called Pygmies And though Doctor Brown hath learnedly and elegantly handled the question Whether there have been or are any such dwarfish race of mankind as but of three spans not considering them singly but nationally or not and hath brought the most probable arguments that well can b◠to prove that there are not nor have been any such race of people called Pygmies yet doth he moderately conclude in these words There being thus he saith no sufficient confirmation of their verity some doubt may arise concerning their possibility wherein since it is not defined in what dimensions the soul may exercise her faculties we shall not conclude impossibility or that there might not be a race of Pygmies as there is sometimes of Giants and so may take in the opinion of Austine and his Commentator Ludovicus Vives And though Kircherus with his wonted impudence do conclude in these words Fabulosa itaque sunt omnia quae de hujusmodi Pygmaeis veteres Geographi à simplici populo sola relatione descripta tradiderunt Yet I say notwithstanding these negative arguments I give the relation of others that are of as great or greater credit in the affirmative And thus much is affirmed
great hater of superstition did cause it to be broken into small pieces and so with the Silk in which it was wrapped threw it into the sink of the House I confess I have heard strange stories of things that have been revealed by these supposed apparitions from persons both of great worth and learning but seeking more narrowly into the matter I found them all to be superstitious delusions fancies mistakes cheats and impostures For the most part the child tells any thing that comes into his fancy or doth frame and invent things upon purpose that he never seeth at all and the inquirers do presently assimilate them to their own thoughts and suspicions Some that pretended to shew and foretel strange things thereby to get money have been discovered to have had confederates that conveied away mens goods into secret places and gave the cunning Man notice where they were hid and then was the child taught a straight framed tale to describe what a like Man took them away and where they were which being found brought credit enough to the couzeners and this I knew was practised by one Brooke and Bolton Some have had artificial glasses whereinto they would convey little pictures as Dr. Lambe had It being manifest by what we have laid down that there are apparitions and some such other strange effects whereby murthers are often made known and discovered and also having mentioned that it may be most rationally probable that they are caused by the Astral or Sydereal Spirit it will be necessary to open and explain that point and to shew what grounds it hath upon which it may be settled which we shall do in this order 1. There are many especially Popish Authors thereby to uphold their Doctrine of Purgatory that maintain that they are the Souls of the persons murthered and deceased and this opinion though unanswerably confuted by the whole company of reformed Divines is notwithstanding revived by Dr. Henry Moore but by no arguments either brought from Scripture or grounded upon any solid reasons but only some weak conjectures seeming absurdities and Platonick whimsies which indeed merit no responsion And we have by positive and unwrested Scriptures in this Treatise afore proved that the Souls of the righteous are in Abrahams bosom with Christ at peace and rest and that the Souls of the wicked are in Hell in torments so that neither of them do wander here or make any apparitions for as S. Augustine taught us Duo sunt habitacula unum in igne aeterno alterum in regno aeterno And in another place Nec est ulli ullus medius locus ut possit esse nisi cum Diabolo qui non est cum Christo. And Tertullian and Justin Martyr two most ancient writers do tell us That Souls being separated from their Bodies do not stay or linger upon the earth And after they be descended into the infernal pit they do neither wander here upon their own accord nor by the power and command of others But that wicked spirits may counterfeit by craft that they are the Souls of the dead Vid. Lavaterum de Spectris secunda parte c. 5. 2. We have also shewed that these apparitions that discover murther and murtherers and brings them to condign punishment cannot be the evil Angels because they are only Ministers of torture sin horror and punishment but are not Authors of any good either Corporeal or Spiritual apparent or real So that it must of necessity be left either to be acted by a Divine Power and that either by the immediate power of the Almighty for which we have no proof but only may acknowledge the possibility of it or mediate by the ministery of good Angels which is hard to prove there being no one instance or the least intimation of any such matter in all the Scriptures and therefore in most rational probability either relations of matters of fact of this nature are utterly false or they are effected by the Astral spirit 3. Concerning the description of this Astral Spirit or Sydereal Body for though it be as a spirit or the image in the looking-glass yet it is truly corporeal we shall give the sum of it as Paracelsus in his magisterial way without proof doth lay down He positively holdeth that there are three essential parts in Man which he calleth the three great substances and that at death every one of these being separated doth return into or unto the Womb from whence it came as The Soul that was breathed in by God doth at death return unto God that gave it And that the Body that is to say that gross part that seems to be composed of the two inferior Elements of Earth and Water doth return unto the Earth and there in time consume away some bodies in a longer time some in a shorter But the third part which he calleth the Astral Spirit or Sydereal Body as being firmamental and consisting of the two superior Elements of Air and Fire it he saith returneth into its Sepulcher of the Air where in time it is also consumed but requireth a longer time than the body in regard it consisteth of more pure Elements than the other and that one of these Astral Spirits or Bodies doth consume sooner than another as they are more impure or pure And that it is this spirit that carrieth along with it the thoughts cogitations desires and imaginations that were impressed upon the mind at the time of death with the sensitive faculties of concupiscibility and irascibility And that it is this spirit or body and not the Soul that resteth in the hands of the Lord that appeareth and is most usually conversant in those places and those negotiations that the mind of the person living whose spirit it was did most earnestly follow and especially those things that at the very point of death were most strongly impressed upon this spirit as in the case of the person murthered whose mind in the very minute of the murther receiveth a most deep impression of detestation and revenge against the murtherer which this spirit bearing with it doth by all means possible seek the accomplishment of that revenge and therefore doth cause dreams of discovery bleedings and strange motions of the body murthered and sometimes plain apparitions of the persons murthered in their usual shape and habit and doth vocally and audibly reveal the murther with all the circumstances as is apparent in the two forementioned Histories of the apparition of Fletcher to Raynard and of the Woman murthered by Mark Sharp to the Miller Grimes 4. And this Astral Spirit is no more than that part in Man that is commonly called the sensitive Soul and by the Schools is commonly defined thus Anima sentiens est vis quae apprehendit percipit ea quae extra ipsam sunt And this is corporeal and as Dr. Willis holdeth mortal and coextended with the Body and that it hath the power of imagination appetite desire and
aversion and the like and in a manner a sensitive way of ratiocination and yet is distinct from the ratinal Soul or Mens that is incorporeal immortal and far more excellent And perspicacious Helmont holding this sensitive Soul to be distinct from the mens or immortal and rational Soul saith thus Est ergo anima sensitiva caduca mortalis mera lux vitalis data à patre luminum nec alio modo verboque explicabilis But of the rational Soul he saith Ipsa autem mens immortalis est substantia lucida incorporea immediate Dei sui imaginem referens quia eandem in creando sive in ipso Empsychosis instanti sibi insculptam suscepit So that both these late and learned Authors hold that in every Man there are two distinct Souls the sensitive that is mortal corporeal and coextended with the Body and the rational that is immortal and absolutely incorporeal so that though in words and terms they seem to differ yet in substance they agree For the Hermetick School the Platonists Paracelsus Jacob Behemen and others do hold three parts in Man which they call Soul Spirit and Body and these two last Authors do hold the body to be one part in Man and two Souls besides the sensitive and rational that are two distinct parts the one corporeal and mortal and the other incorporeal and immortal and so they do but nominally differ And now our task must be to prove that first there are such three parts in Man and that after death they do separately exist which we shall attempt in this order 1. Though arguments taken à notatione nominis do not necessarily prove yet they illustrate and render the case plain and intelligible and we shall find that the Hebrews have three distinct appellations for these three parts As for the Soul either rational or sensitive or vital spirit they use Nephesh which is common to brutes and reptiles as well as to Man as saith the Text And to every beast of the earth and to every sowl of the air and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth in which there is a living soul Nephesh Haiah And therefore to distinguish the rational and immortal Soul from this which is sensitive mortal and common with brutes the Text saith And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. Upon which Tremellius gives us this note Ut clarins appareret discrimen quod est inter animam hominis reliquorum animantium Horum enim animae ex eadem materia provenerunt unde corpora habebant illius verò anima spiritale quiddam est Divinum And upon the words Sic fuit homo Id est ait hac ratione factum est ut terrea illa statua animata viveret Another word they use which is Ruah and this is also generally attributed to Men and Beasts as the words of Solomon do witness Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upwards and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth And in both these touching both Man and Beast the word Ruah is used as common to them both and sometimes it is taken specially for the rational immortal Soul as And the spirit shall return unto God who gave it Also they have the word Niblah and Basar that is corpus caro or cadaver and by these three they set forth or distinguish these three parts And the Grecians have likewise their three several names for these parts as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 anima vita which is taken promiscuously sometimes for the rational and immortal Soul as in this place And fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell And it is taken for the life in that of the Acts And Paul said Trouble not your selves his life is in him Also they have the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spiritus ventus spiritus vitae being variously taken yet sometimes for the rational and immortal Soul as Father into thy hands I commend my spirit So they have the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Corpus the body or gross and fleshly part And to these accord the three Latine terms for these three distinct parts Anima Spiritus and Corpus 2. This opinion of these three parts in Man to wit Body Soul and Spirit is neither new nor wants Authors of sufficient credit and learning to be its Patrons For Hermes Trismegistus an Author almost of the greatest Antiquity saith thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is God is in the mind the mind in the soul and the soul in matter But Marsilius Ficinns gives it thus Beatus Deus Daemon bonus animam esse in corpore mentem in anima in mente verbum pronunciavit And further addeth Deus verò circa omnia simul atque per omnia mens circa animam anima circa aërem aër circa materiam And some give it more fully thus God is in the mind the mind in the Soul the Soul in the Spirit the Spirit in the blood and the blood in the Body But besides this ancient testimony it is apparent that the whole School of the Platonists both the elder and later were of this opinion and also the most of the Cabalists For Ficinus from the Doctrine of of Plato tells us this Humanae cogitationis domicilium anima ipsa est Animae domicilium spiritus Domicilium spiritus hujus est corpus But omitting multitudes of others that are strong Champions for this Tenent we think for authorities to acquiesce in that of our most learned Physician and Anatomist Dr. Willis and in those that he hath quoted which we shall give in the English First he saith Lest I be tedious in rehearsing many it pleaseth me here only to cite two Authors but either of which is a Troop for the confutation of the contrary opinion The one he saith is the most famous Philosopher Petrus Gassendus who Physic. Sect. 3. lib. 9. c. 11. doth divide toto Coelo as is said the mind of man from the other sensitive power as much as is possible to be done by many and most signal notes of discrimination yea disjoining of them as it is said in the Schools by specific differences Because when he had shewed this to be corporeal extended nascible and corruptible he saith the other is an incorporeal substance and therefore immortal which is immediately created and infused into the body by God to which opinion he sheweth Pythagoras Plato Aristotle and for the most part all the ancient Philosophers except Epicurus did much agree excepting notwithstanding that they did hold as not knowing the origin of the Soul which they judged to be immortal that it being cropt off from the soul of the world did slide into the body
soul being purely spiritual should reside as in its Throne in the principal part or faculty of it to wit in the imagination framed of a small portion of the animal spirits being most subtile and seated in the very middle or center of the brain 6. Another chief argument that he useth to prove these two souls in man is the strife and disagreements that are within man Because he saith the intellect and imagination are not wont to agree in so many things but that also the sensitive appetite doth dissent in more things From whose litigations moreover it shall be lawful to argue that the moodes of the aforesaid souls both in respect of subsisting and operating are distinct For as there is in man a double cognitive power to wit the intellect and imagination so there is a double appetite the Will proceeding from the Intellect which is the Page or servant of the rational soul and the sensitive Appetite which cohering to the imagination is said to be the hands or procuratrix of the corporeal soul. 7. To these we shall add that when the understanding is truly enlightened with the spirit of God and led by the true light of the Gospel in the ways of Christ then is man said to be spiritual because the carnal mind and the sensitive appetite are subdued and brought under to the obedience of Christ by his grace So also when the understanding is darkned as saith the Apostle Having the understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God thorow the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their hearts Then man becomes wholly led with the carnal and sensual appetite and is therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the natural animal or soully man And in both these conditions the organical body is led and acted according to the ruling power either of the Spirit of God and so it is yielded up a living sacrifice to God or of the spirit of darkness corruption and the sensitive appetite and so is an instrument of all unrighteousness By all which it is most manifest that there are in man these three parts of Body Soul and Spirit which was the thing undertaken to be proved 8. Lastly as to this point it is a certain truth that two extreams cannot be joined or coupled together but by some middle thing that participateth or cometh near to the nature of both So the Soul which by the unanimous consent of all men is a spiritual and pure immaterial and incorporeal substance cannot be united to the body which is a most gross thick and corporeal substance without the intervention of some middle nature fit to conjoin and unite those extreams together which is this sensitive and corporeal Soul or Astral Spirit which is respect of the one extream is corporeal yet of the most pure sort of bodies that are in nature and that which approacheth most near to a spiritual and immaterial substance and therefore most fit to be the immediate receptacle of the incorporeal Soul And also it being truly body doth easily join with the gross body as indeed being congenerate with it and so becomes vinculum nexus of the immaterial Soul and the more gross body that without it could not be united Now having as we conceive sufficiently proved that there are in man these three distinct parts of Body Soul and Spirit in the next place we are to shew that these three may and do separately exist and that we shall endeavour by these reasons 1. It is manifest by Divine Authority that the spirit that is the rational immortal and incorporeal soul doth return to God that gave it That is not to be annihilated or to vanish into nothing but to abide and remain for ever or eviternally For the Apostle saith For we know that if our earthly tabernacle or house were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens By which it is manifest that the immaterial Soul doth exist eternally ex parte post as the Schools say and also the gross body being separated from the immortal Soul doth by it self exist until it be consumed in the grave or by corruption be changed into earth or some other things or that the Atomes be dispersed and joined unto or figurated into some other bodies So it is most highly rational that this sensitive Soul or Astral Spirit which is corporeal should also exist by it self for some time until it be dissipated and wasted in which time it may and doubtlesly doth make these apparitions motions and bleedings of the murthered bodies 2. Upon the supposition that the rational Soul be not ex traduce but be infused after the bodily organs be fitted and prepared which is the firm Tenent of all Divines Ancient middle and Modern and must upon the granting of it to be simply and absolutely immaterial and incorporeal which is indisputable of necessity be infused because no immaterial substance can be produced or generated by the motion of any agent that is meerly material or forth of any material substance whatsoever And therefore I say that the Soul being infused it must of necessity follow the organized body that could not exist except as a lump of flesh without the corporeal sensitive soul which must of necessity demonstrate that as they did separately exist before the union of the Soul and Body so they also do exist distinctly after their separation by death and so the Astral Spirit may effect the things we have asserted 3. And if the experiment be certainly true that is averred by Borellus Kircher Gaffarel and others who might be ashamed to affirm it as their own trial or as ocular witnesses if not true that the figures and colours of a plant may be perfectly represented and seen in glasses being by a little heat raised forth of the ashes Then if this be true it is not only possible but rational that animals as well as plants have their Ideas or Figures existing after the gross body or parts be destroyed and so these apparitions are but only those Astral shapes and figures But also there are shapes and apparitions of Men that must of necessity prove that these corporeal Souls or Astral Spirits do exist apart and attend upon or are near the blood or bodies of which Borellus Physician to the King of France gives us these two relations 1. N. de Richier a Soap-maker he saith and Beruardus Germanus from the relation of the Lord of Gerzan and others distilling mans blood at Paris which they thought to be the true matter of the Philosophers-stone they saw in the cucurbit or glass body the Phantasm or shape of a Man from whom bloody rayes did seem to proceed and the glass being broken they found the figure as though of a skull in the remaining faeces 2. There were three curious persons also at Paris that taking the Church earth-mould from S. Innocents Church
is written And these are called mental vocal and written The two that is mental and that which is written are referred to the predicament of quality And whereas oration vocal is by some referred to the predicament of quantity as it is the measure of sounds and syllables as it is pronounced whereof some are made long and some short and so while distinct sounds and syllables are uttered in a certain mood they are said to be measured and to belong to quantity But if we will understand aright one thing in different respects may belong both to the predicament of quantity and quality So the prolation of sounds or syllables in respect of their modification and comparing one to another some may be long and some may be short and have a different part of time in their pronunciation and so may Analogically and by way of similitude be said to be measured and consequently referred to the predicament of quantity Yet if we consider speech or oration which consists of sounds and syllables in relation to the efficient cause the material and instrumental which is the breath of Man by his several organs moving modulating and figuring the air which is the subject matter into diversity of sites motions contextures and moods then we must conclude that words charms or rhythms having efficient material and instrumental causes do belong to the predicament of Quality and are of great force and virtue naturally notwithstanding all that is or can be objected to the contrary 5. Lastly we are to consider that the breath of Man being variously modulated by its passage from the lungs by the throat palate tongue and other vocal organs doth make such several impressions and configurations of the moved atomes in the air that thereby so great a diversity of impulses or sounds are made upon the drum of the ear that thereby naturally we are able to distinguish one from another Now humane institution found forth the ways of making these several sounds or tones to be appropriated to such and such things or to signifie the diversity of creatures and things according to the several compacts and agreements of Men amongst themselves so that what one sound doth signifie in one language may signifie another thing in another So that not considering the institution or invention of this or that significancy of several sounds in several languages every sound or articulate prolation doth naturally make a distinct and several impulse upon the ear and thereby the senses and consequently the mind are variously affected by them And therefore the younger Helmont doth give us an apposite passage or two to this purpose Englished thus For as in those of ripe years certain musical modulations being heard do often so efficaciously imprint in the mind the Idea of the voice and tones that diverse do sensibly feel them for so long a time in themselves as it were yet sounding that they cannot when they would be freed from them From whence also he saith the word inchanting seemeth with the Latines and Gauls to have drawn its original So the Idea of our Mothers tongue impressed in infants doth so long adhere there that to them about to speak afterwards it doth as it were place and order the tongue and so is the only one mistress of their speech And again he saith If in times past there were found those who by the benefit of musical instruments could move and mollifie the mind of Man various ways How much more humane voice if it being moderated by prudence do break forth from a living spirit shall not only have power to effect those things but also those that are far greater Having thus far largely handled this point we shall only recapitulate a few things and so conclude this Treatise 1. It being granted that great effects have been produced by words charms rhythmes and tunes we have removed all diabolical concurrence to those effects except what may be mental and internal as in all wicked persons when they use natural means to a wicked and evil end and that as we conceive by sufficient and convincing arguments And especially because where there is no natural agent there the Devil can operate nothing at all and if there be a natural agent his concurrence is not necessary 2. As for the force of imagination upon extraneous bodies we cannot in reason affirm it to be none at all neither dare or will we assert that its power in that respect is so vastly great as many do pretend 3. And for what strange effects soever that are true and real that do follow upon the use of words charms characters rhythms and the like we do confidently affirm that they are effected by lawful and natural means but withal that of this sort in this age few or none are found out that are efficacious But that error credulity ignorance and superstition do put great force and stress upon these things when really they produce no effects at all The Alarm that the Pendle-forest Witches gave to all this Kingdom that they were sent for to London great sums gotten at the Fleet to shew them and publick Plays acted thereupon and the Original Examination coming lately to the Authors hand it is desired the Reader will after these words Page 277. line 4. and had incouragement by the adjoining Magistrates peruse these following Depositions viz. The Examination of Edmund Robinson Son of Edmund Robinson of Pendle-Forest eleven years of age taken at Padham before Richard Shutleworth and John Starkey Esquires two of his Majesties Justices of the Peace within the County of Lancaster the 10 th day of February 1633. WHO upon Oath informeth being examined concerning the great meeting of the Witches of Pendle saith that upon All Saints-day last past he this Informer being with one Henry Parker a near door-neighbour to him in Wheatleylane desired the said Parker to give him leave to gather some Bulloes which he did In gathering whereof he saw two Gray-hounds viz. a black and a brown oâ—e came running over the next field towards him he verily thinking the one of them to be Mr. Nutters and the other to be Mr. Robinsons the said Gentlemen then having such like And saith the said Grayhounds came to him and fawned on him they having about their necks either of them a Collar unto each of which was tied a string which Collars as this Informer affirmeth did shine like Gold And he thinking that some either of Mr. Nutters or Mr. Robinsons Family should have followed them yet seeing no body to follow them he took the same Gray-hounds thinking to course with them And presently a Hare did rise very near before him At the sight whereof he cried Loo Loo Loo but the Doggs would not run Whereupon he being very angry took them and with the strings that were about their Collars tied them to a little bush at the next hedge and with a switch that he had in his hand he beat them And in stead