Automaton that is any kind of Machine that moves of it self wound up having of it self the corporeal principle of those Motions for which it was instituted with all things requisite for its action and the same Watch or other Engine when it is broken and the principle of its Motion ceases to act From hence it will appear that there is no impossibility in the thing nor any such inextricable difficulty in conceiving how the Soul may actually separate from the Body for some time without ensuing Death For the further clearing of which there are these two things required 1. To shew how the necessary Functions of life may be conserved and kept up while the Soul is separate from the Body 2. To consider what those things are which may cause a Temporaneous disunion and disjunction of the Soul from the Body First then it will not seem at all strange that the principal Functions of life should be performed for some time without the presence of the Soul to them who will admit of the principles of the Cartesian Philosophy which supposes that the Soul contributes nothing to any of those Motions in the Body which depond not upon actual Will and Cogitation And if withal we suppose Brutes to be but Machines or Automata it will be very clear that all those Motions which we call Vital in the Body may be performed without the actual presence of the Soul But if this seem harsh and irrational to them who imagine bare Mechanism to be an incompetent cause for the production of such effects and that the Systole and Diastole of the Heart which later Anatomists have found to be a Muscular Constriction and Relaxation and the Circulation of the Bloud through all parts of the Body must proceed not from a Mechanical but Vital principle They may be pleased to consider that in Nature there is a certain Vis Plastica or rather Nature it self is it a Plastick Power or Inconscious Incorporeal life which passing through the Universe governs all the Motions of Matter every where according to such laws fatally imprest upon it and reconciles the enmities and contrarieties of particular things bringing them into one general Harmony in the whole and strikes the first and Rudimental lineaments in the formation of the Bodies of Animals and lastly may be particular Souls or Spirits be so far rapt and drawn into consent as to work strange effects not only upon their own but upon separate and distant Bodies Now by this Hylarchical principle or Plastick nature so many of the vital motions of the Body may be kept in play as shall render it as fit and convenient for the Inhabitation of the Soul at its return as it was when she dislodged and separated from it In answer to the second particular it may be said that it is possible the Soul may be rapt from this Terrestrial Body and carried to remote and distant places from whence she may make a Postliminiar return by either of these two ways 1. From a vehement affection or deep imagination piercing into the very lowest of her Powers 2. By the assistance and activity of a more potent Spirit While a House is standing whole and entire the occupier of it may go out and in and still keep the possession but when it is either thrown down and broken by an external violence or falls to pieces through the rottenness and consumption of its parts he must lye in the streets if he cannot get another dwelling Such is the condition of the Soul in respect of the Body whose principal parts in which consist the safety of the whole being corrupted she hastes away never to return till it be rebuilt But while they remain firm and safe she may be carried out by strong and powerful affections and re-enter and dwell there as before Nor is any Desire or Velleity whereby many will say they would fain go out of their Bodies to some distant place though without any more potent affection than to try the experiment enough to cause a separation but it must be so strong and vehement and so far imprint it self upon the imagination as to reach that Plastick Faculty by which the Soul is connected to the Body and these cords being loosened and untied she may without any difficulty pass into the open Air. And he that considers the strange and wonderful effects of Imagination even upon these our Earthly Tenements will have no reason to doubt but the same Power may extend to a Temporary disjunction of the Soul from the Body Common experience shows how the Pica or longing of a pregnant Woman will by a keen Fancy stamp and impress the character of the thing so passionately desired upon the Child in her womb I will not take upon me to maintain the truth of all those strange effects attributed to the strength of Imagination by Fienus Cornelius Agrippa and others though I must confess so much is said by them as to matter of Fact as may satisfie a free and unprejudicated mind that the power of Imagination even upon these gross and unwieldy Bodies is much greater and more notable than is by many supposed But if any one shall so far distrust the truth of such stories as to rank them among Legendary Fables let him consider what other could be Iacobs intent in that device of his in placing pilled and straked Rods before the flocks at the watring-places but only to heighten and invigorate the Imaginative Faculty of the Ews at the time of Conception Now that this hath actually hapned namely that the Soul hath been carried from the Body and after some time returned again the relations of disinterested persons would induce us to believe And it is very probable that upon a due search into the Causes and Natures of things it may not seem incredible what Cardan relates of himself that he could when he pleased fall into this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Disjunction or Abreption of his Soul from his Body A thing which is credibly reported of the Lappians who lying as it were in a Trance for some hours will give a perfect account of affairs at three hundred miles distance and by some evident token give assurance of their being in such places To which if we should add the story of Phaereus Pamphylius recorded by Plato of Hermotimus Clazomenius by Pliny and of Soleus by Plutarch it will at least assure us that grave and wise Persons did not think such an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as is here contended for to be altogether a thing so monstrous and incredible The other way whereby a Soul may be withdrawn from the Body and brought back again is by the efficiency and activity of a more powerful Spirit And hitherto some learned men refer that of Ezek. 37.1 The hand of the Lord was upon me and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley And though S. Paul deliver it doubtfully as
not knowing whether he was in the body or out of the body when he was rapt into the third Heaven yet so much at least may be gathered from the Apostles words that in his judgment such an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Disjunction of the Soul from the Body without ensuing Death was possible To this head may likewise be referred the detestable and nefarious Conventions of Witches with wicked Spirits those officious Daemons loosening the Continuity or Vinculum between Soul and Body by which means they pass freely and securely to the general Rendezvous But here I would not so be understood as if I thought that Witches did never bodily assist at the performance of their Hellish Rites but only that sometimes they may be present at them when their Bodies are at home perhaps among other reasons that they may act with more safety and security and the better preserve their necks from the halter And though these discoveries are in a great measure owing to the confessions of Witches yet when these confessions are voluntary and unconstrained by any Racks or Torments and proceed from persons of perfect health of Body and no way disturbed in their Rational Faculties it is too open and pitiful a sham to ascribe them to the effects of Dotage and Melancholy since upon the same grounds it may be affirmed that the soberest actions of our lives are but dreams and all Histories past and present relations of matters of Fact especially if they refer never so little to the Being of Spirits may be concluded by an Atheistical Foppe to be no other than melancholick delusions OBJECTION II. That these Airy Spirits are too remote and of a Nature too sublime to have any Communication with Mortals TO this it is replied 1. That those who are at the furthest distance from us never exceed or go beyond the Regions of the Air being fetter'd and chained within the Atmosphere of the Earth by that Divine Nemesis that casts them thither and here the grand Prince of Darkness hath seated his Throne and from hence casting his envious eyes upon Earth like a Vultur descends whereever he spies his prey Nor will the sublimity of their Nature be a sufficient security to frail Mortals from their revenge and malice since lust and ambition balk no employments but will undertake the most fordid offices to compass their desired Ends. And that stately Apostate who once disdained not to insinuate and couch himself in the winding Spires of a hateful Serpent the better to allure and deceive the innocent credulity of Eve we have no reason to think that to gratifie his revenge and lust he will abhor the society of a Witch 2. It is affirmed that there have been persons bodily acted and possessed by evil Spirits which is not only attested by the many relations of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Daemoniacks that is men possessed with Devils or infested by them recorded in the holy Scriptures in our Saviours time but confirmed by later Writers of unexceptionable credit and veracity that it were a perfect piece of impudence to go about to deny and out-face them And I do not doubt but a curious Observator may find some fresh instances even in our own Times But this hankering after the bare Mechanical causes of things and not acknowledging any higher principle than Matter and Motion in the Universe the very dregs of Atheism hath cast so much dust into some mens eyes that those effects which really proceed from the Activity and Energy of Incorporeal Beings are by them ascribed to Frenzy and madness or some other Bodily disease Though it be true which is asserted by a very learned Author of our own that the Iews in our Saviour's time as they did not suppose all Mad-men to be Daemoniacks so neither all Daemoniacks Mad-men we reading of Devils cast out from others besides Mad-men and of a Woman which had a Spirit of infirmity only and was bowed together and could not lift up her self which is said by our Saviour Christ to have been bound by Satan To which purpose this learned person gives a notable instance of a Demoniacal possession out of Fernelius a very experienced Physician who was an eye-witness thereof A young man of a Noble Family who was strangely convulsed in his Body having sometimes one member and sometimes another violently agitated insomuch that four several persons were scarcely able to hold him and this at first without any distemper in his head or crazedness in his brain To whom Fernelius with other skilful Physicians being called applied all manner of remedies Blisters Purgations Cupping-glasses Fomentations Unctions Plaisters and strengthning Medicines but all in vain The reason whereof is thus given by the same Fernelius Quoniam omnes longe aberamus c. i.e. Because we were all far from the knowledge of the Truth For in the third Month it was first plainly discovered to us that it was a certain Daemon who was the Author of all this mischief He manifesting himself by his speech and by unusual words both in Greek and Latin though the Patient were altogether ignorant of the Greek Tongue and by his revealing many of the secrets of those who stood by especially of the Physicians whom also he derided for tormenting the Patient in that manner with their frustraneous Remedies By which it is apparent that neither the fancied remoteness and distance nor yet the sublimity of their natures is any bar to these wicked Spirits from having Communication with us Mortals and that this Objection is vainly urged against the Being of Witches 3. But to give it all the strength that may be it is further answered that it is not necessary to suppose the Grandees of the Airy Principality to trade with Witches but that the Souls of extremely wicked persons after their release from the Body may do those feats For whether we suppose that such as in this life have incorporated themselves into the Dark Society by all manner of villanous and flagitious actions are when loosened by Death from their Terrestrial Bodies the Vassals and Slaves of those crafty Daemons whose cursed inspirations and counsels they so eagerly followed and so by them are employed in these abominable offices Or whether the proclivity of their own Natures to all enormous wickedness may not induce them to attempt Familiarity and Society with Sorcerers and Witches especially since those radicated and confirmed habits of Vice contracted in this life are rather heightned and increased than any way diminished or abated by the releasement from the flesh and consequently it may be accounted by them a pleasant sport and pastime to tempt and inveigle such desolate and forlorn Mortals Either of these ways are sufficient to beget a probability that those Familiars of Witches to whom they have linked themselves may be no other than humane Souls deeply sunk and drowned in wickedness OBJECTION III. That it supposes Witches by the help of evil Spirits may do real Miracles
MELAMPRONOEA OR A DISCOURSE OF THE POLITY AND Kingdom of Darkness TOGETHER With a Solution of the chiefest Objections brought against the Being of WITCHES By Henry Hallywell Master of Arts and sometime Fellow of Christs Colledge in Cambridge Ephes. VI. 12. For we wrestle not against flesh and bloud but against Principalities against Powers against the Rulers of the Darkness of this World against Spiritual wickedness in high places LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops Head in S. Paul's Church-yard 1681. TO THE Right Worshipful Sir Iames Morton OF SLAVGHAM IN THE County of Sussex Knight SIR TO prefix your Name to the present Treatise I could give many Reasons that induced me did I not know that you are more delighted in doing Worthy Things than to have the Praise of your Actions re-echoed and repeated from others And since my choice and affection hath thus far led me I am the less solicitous of the various Censures that a Discourse of this nature may probably meet withal For even the clearest Reason does often lose its force when it meets with strong and inveterate Prejudices However I have done my endeavour to make things appear plain and easie and the better to comply with an Inquisitive and Philosophical Age have made use of such Principles as the best and choicest Philosophy could afford me which as it is not in the least derogatory to my Profession so was highly necessary to make good one great end of the Christian Religion in delivering us from the Power of the Dark Kingdom whose very Existence some smatterers in Philosophy have the Confidence to deny Whether I please others or not I am not much concerned having the satisfaction of pleasing my self in taking the opportunity of a grateful Acknowledgment of your many favours towards me who am SIR Your most Faithful and Affectionate Servant Henry Hallywell THE EPISTLE TO THE READER Reader THE ensuing Treatise being a Discourse of the Dark side of Providence or of that Rebellious Polity that proudly opposes it self against the Kingdom of Light I am obliged to give some Account as well of the Work it self as Design in writing it As for the Design of it it is no other than what is good and laudable namely to shew our Sceptical and staggering Religionists that there is a very Potent and Adverse party of Incorporeal Agents that entring into a Rebellious Confederacy against God and being cast out of the Mansions of Light have formed themselves a Kingdom in the Aereal Regions and not content with this Power and Dominion among themselves have studiously endeavoured ever since the Creation to deprave and corrupt Mankind and to enlarge their own Empire by the Accession of frail man whose weakness they abuse and triumph over and strive by all means to keep him fast within their clutches that if at least they must be miserable they may make others so and have companions in their Torments Now concerning the Work it self I must confess I have framed it in a lax and diffuse manner not endeavouring to prove the Existence of Spirits either good or bad but supposing them both in Being already and likewise taking many other things for granted which are already either made good by divers Learned Authors or may evidently be deduced from the principles of true and sound Philosophy As likewise purposely omitting many otherwise material proofs of some heads in this Discourse being willing to bring the Hypothesis into as small a compass as may be Nor have I been wanting to confirm my Discourse in the most material parts of it by the Testimony of the Sacred Scriptures and sometimes added the Suffrage of some of the Ancient Fathers in such speculations as otherwise perhaps would have seemed over nice and curious And lastly which in a Discourse of this nature could not well be pretermitted I have briefly resolved the Question of Witchcraft and shewed the possibility of such detestable Confederacies with wicked Spirits and answered the strongest and most considerable Objections I could meet withal against it That which at the present seems to me to be most liable to Exception is the Introduction of the Spirit of Nature which by Corporealists is looked upon at the same rate with an Occult Quality and brought in rather as an Asylum of Ignorance than a Philosophical Truth To which I have this to reply That the ground and reason of using that Hypothesis arose partly because I saw it maintainable by rational and solid Arguments and partly through a natural propensity of my own whereby I am prone to think that whatever boasts may be made by the followers of Democritus and Epicurus who have dismembred and disjoyned the Ancient Atomologie from the Doctrine of Spirits or the Metaphysical part of it there is not one considerable Phaenomenon in the Cartesian Philosophy that can be solved by the mere and solitary principles of Matter and Motion For a conclusion of the whole I have drawn such Inferences as may most effectually perswade men from Sin and Vice by which they infallibly entertain Communion and Society with the Dark Kingdom and to assert themselves under a higher and more propitious Providence by the sincere practice of true and unfeigned Piety and Religion Farewel H. H. THE CONTENTS THE Introduction Page 1. CHAP. I. That the Lapse and Revolt of the Angels from the Blessed life of God consists mainly in debasing their higher and nobler Faculties by enslaving and subjugating them to their Inferior and more Material Powers pag. 5. CHAP. II. That these Lapsed Angels have formed themselves into a Polity or Kingdom of Darkness pag. 14. CHAP. III. That these wicked Spirits being supposed Rational Creatures must needs be studious in diffusing their own sinful Nature upon all capable subjects and thereby of enlarging the bounds of their usurped Dominions pag. 26. CHAP. IV. That the great end of our Saviours coming into the World was to rescue men from the Tyranny Slavery and Oppression of the Dark Kingdom pag. 33. CHAP. V. That though men by the Gospel are freed from that Slavery under the Prince of Darkness that yet he strives to countermine the Kingdom of Light and when men will so far reject and despise the Admonitions and Assistances that God affords them he may justly suffer them to be acted and guided by evil Spirits pag. 40. CHAP. VI. That nothing hinders but having full Possession of the Minds of men these evil Spirits may likewise enslave their Bodies pag. 46. CHAP. VII Of Witchcraft pag. 49. OBJECTION I. That these Witches are supposed to be present at their Nocturnal Conventicles and Diabolical meetings when their Bodies are at home which is Impossible pag. 66. OBJECTION II. That these Airy Spirits are too remote and of a Nature too sublime to have any Communication with Mortals pag. 76. OBJECTION III. That it supposes Witches by the help of evil Spirits may do real Miracles pag. 81. OBJECTION IV. That it gives evil Spirits and Witches
too great and exorbitant a power over mankind in that it supposes that these wicked Daemons may afflict the Bodies of others with divers diseases and torments that they may raise Thunders Storms and Tempests killing Cattel and spoiling the Fruits of the Earth and many such like pernicious and destructive things and all this at the desire and request of a Magician or Witch pag. 88. OBJECTION V. That it is very Ridiculous to imagine that Devils though never so foul and unclean should delight in sucking the Bloud of these Accursed Hags pag. 99. CHAP. VIII Inferences drawn from the foregoing Discourse pag. 103. The Introduction IT was observed long ago by Epictetus that there were some Persons that would deny the plainest and most evident Truths and this state and condition he terms an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Petrification or Mortification of the Mind which when it happens to men of a blameless and sober conversation is nothing but the confusion of their Intellectuals which are so miserably distracted that they are not able to apprehend the force and strength of the plainest demonstration But there are others that are bedeaded and stupified as to their Morals and then they lose that natural shame that belongs to a man affirming or denying with the greatest confidence that which an Innate shame and reverence of the inscriptions of our own Minds will not suffer others to assert or contradict and this is really no better than an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher calls it a mere Brutishness or Bestiality Under one of these heads I must needs comprehend all those who boggle and startle so much at the Notion of an Incorporeal Being For my own part I cannot but think that great Wit Des-Cartes delivered a most certain Truth when he said that the Notion or Conception of the Soul is much more plain and evident than that of the Body But when men are either so monstrously confounded in their Intellects so as not to be wrought upon or convinced by the force and strength of Argument and Reason or wholly given over to the gratification of their Lusts and Passions I do not much wonder that they should have such dull Hallucinations about the clearest things or that they should entertain such cross and untoward Opinions and so disagreeing with all those that ever had a sober and right use of their Reasons and Understandings This Age hath produced too many over-confident Exploders of Immaterial Substances and he that shall talk of the Existence of Devils and evil Spirits their Possessions of the Bodies of men of Ghosts and Apparitions and the feats and practices of Witches shall be confuted with a loud laughter or a supercilious look as if these things were only the delusions of a distempered Imagination and owed all their Being and Reality to the dreams and fancies of melancholick persons Or if the matters of fact be too notorious to be gainsaid then these Corporealists will not stick to affirm with a late Author that they believe there are many thousands of Spirits made of an Incorporeal matter too fine to be perceived by the Senses of men and that these Spirits may play mad pranks amongst us A thing much more worthy of laughter and the character of folly and all one as if a man should go about to perswade that the little Motes or Atoms that fridge and play in the Beams of the Sun shining through a Crany should by a common consent unite themselves into a living heap and speak and act either ludicrously or mischievously with the standers by This is really nothing else but a disease of the Mind and I have endeavoured in this small Treatise so far to discourse of the Existence of the Dark Kingdom and the mysteries thereof and have laid down such Arguments as being well weighed and considered may be subservient to the releasing and setting free such heavy and dull Constitutions from the distemper they labour under A DISCOURSE OF THE POLITY AND Kingdom of Darkness CHAP. 1. That the Lapse and Revolt of the Angels from the Blessed life of God consists mainly in debasing their higher and nobler Faculties by enslaving and subjugating them to their Inferior and more material Powers HE that will speak of the Angels like a Philosopher looks upon their Souls like those of men to be of an Heterogeneous nature including within the latitude and comprehension of their Essences an Intellectual and Plastical life The Perceptive part is indeed the flower of the Soul discriminating all Impressions made in the common Sensorium by the various objects of Sense and being Life and Activity in a very high degree contains in it the principles and seeds of all manner of Wisdom and Knowledge But the Plastick part or Formative Power is wholly employed in the modification of matter conserving the vital motions and faithfully transmitting the Impressions of External Objects upon the Instruments of Sense to the seat of Perception And that this holds good in Angels their vital union with matter sufficiently demonstrates For although we should fancy the Vehicles or Bodies of Angels to lie in a lax and diffuse manner without any particular Organization or Characteristical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet it is most probable that the seat of Perception is restrained to some particular place in that heap of living Air. Wherefore God creating no Power or Faculty in vain but that at some time or other it should be called forth into Act did graciously allow to these embodied Spirits their Perige's or Conversion to the Placid Motions of their Congenit Bodies in due measures and proportions as well as their Apoge's or Recessions from matter Which innocent delight was in a sort necessary to their condition and the circumstances of their Natures For the most Intellectual and resined operations of their Minds depending somewhat upon the motions of the Matter of their Vehicles it is impossible they should always attend with an equal Intensenefs and Vigour upon those high and remote speculations without any the least lassitude or dulness partly because profound Contemplations do very much exhaust and debilitate the Spirits or Ethereal matter which is the most immediate Instrument of Sense and Cogitation both in the Souls of men and Angels and partly from the necessary imperfection of their Natures which are made with respect and regard to the Plastick as well as Perceptive powers of life which require an abatement and relaxation of the superior Faculties as well for the supply and recruit of their Vehicles as to be a pleasant repast after which the Intellectual life becomes more ardent sublime and vigorous in the exercise of all its most perfect operations Wherefore this being the state of things the Defection and Eclipse of those once bright and glorious morning Stars must be attributed to the luxuriant growth of the Plastick life which taking deeper root by a fond carelesness and indulgency diffuses every way such
freedom from tyrannical and cruel Taskmasters to the obedience of a mild and gentle Prince and from the lowest dregs of misery to the height of happiness and felicity This only true Religion saith S. Austin is of power to discover that the Gods of the Gentiles are most unclean Spirits desiring upon the occasion of some departed Souls or under the shapes of some earthly Creatures to be accounted Gods and in their proud impurity taking pleasure in Obscenities as in Divine Honours maligning the conversion of mens Souls unto the true God From whose beastly and abominable Tyranny a man then gets free when he lays his belief upon Him who by his rare example of humility declared from what height and for what pride those wicked Fiends had their fall Perhaps it may not be unpleasant now to the Reader to refresh his mind with part of a Hymn written by Synesius in honour of Iesus and thus Paraphrased upon by a learned person O lovely Child with Glory great array'd Sweet off-spring of the Solymeian maid Thee would I sing and thy renowned Acts For thou didst rid the boundless flowry Tracts Of thy dear Fathers Garden from the spoils Of the false Serpent and his treacherous toils When thou hadst once descended to this Earth A stranger wight 'mongst us of humane Birth After some stay new voyage thou didst take Crossing cold Lethe and the Stygian Lake Arriv'st at the low fields of Tartara There where innumerable flocks do stray Of captive Souls whom pale-fac'd Death doth feed Forc'd under his stiff Rod and churlish Reed Streight at thy sight how did that surly sire Old Orcus quake and greedy Dog retire From 's usual watch whilst thou from slavish chain Whole swarms of Souls to freedom dost regain Then ' ginst thou with thy Immortal Quire to praise Thy Father and his strength to Heaven to raise Ascending thus with joy as thou dost fare Through the thin skie the Legions of the Air Accursed Fiends do tremble at thy sight And Starry troops wax pale at thy pure Light CHAP. V. That though men by the Gospel are freed from that slavery under the Prince of Darkness that yet he strives to countermine the Kingdom of Light and when men will so far reject and despise the admonitions and assistances that God affords them he may justly suffer them to be acted and guided by evil Spirits THough this mighty Antagonist of Heaven be in a great measure dispossest and cast out of his Usurped Dominions by that Illustrious Heros sitting upon the white Horse as the Son of God is represented Revel 19. and his victorious Armies yet is his proud and haughty stomach no whit quelled but rather exasperated with a setled and confirmed revenge and therefore reassembling his dispersed Troops and reuniting his broken and shatter'd Forces he resolves to regain that by policy which he could no longer maintain and keep by open strength Wherefore casting and revolving in his mind many deep and direful Machinations he finds nothing offering greater plausibilities of success than to turn those Engines that so sorely batter'd his strongest holds against the possessors of them and to make the Gospel which was intended for the utter ruine and extirpation of his Kingdom to be subservient to the erecting and raising him a new Empire over mankind And now the great Prince of Darkness walks in Masquerade and puts on the beautiful Robes of an Angel of Light and appears amongst the Sons of God and raises up the depths of the accursed policies of Hell to make fruitless and of none effect the grand intent and purpose of our Lord and Saviour in the propagation of the Gospel And this he endeavours by instigating and stirring up men of bad principles and worse lives to disseminate Heresies and raise Schisms and divisions among Christians labouring to extinguish that mutual love and charity which our Lord made the badge and character of his Disciples and by degrees to bring on a general depravation and corruption in manners These are some of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the subtle machinations the thoughts and counsels of the heart of Satan And with what successfulness he hath managed these artisices let the Histories of the Christian Church in all Ages even to this very day bear witness For no sooner were the storms of persecution a little allay'd and the Sun of peace and tranquillity shone with gentle beams upon the professors of the Gospel but this Arch-enemy and deceiver was busie in sowing Tares which too soon became fruitful and grew up to a plentiful crop of Iniquity and licentious disorder It is a sad face of things that Eusebius describes speaking of the times immediately preceeding Dioclesian the last persecutor When the lives of Christians degenerated through too much liberty into softness and sloth and Christians hated and reproached one another and with those weapons of the tongue invaded and fought with one another when Bishops set upon Bishops and people raised seditions against people when hypocrisie and shews of piety filled all places then by little and little the judgments of God as they are wont began to visit us and when we used no means to appease God but multiplied sin upon sin as if God did not respect or consider our sins and so there was nothing left among Christians but contentions emulations hatred enmity ambition tyranny then c. And the succeeding times were no whit better till at length the Man of sin arose by whom the Infernal King wrought an effectual depravation of the Christian Church and revived the lively Image of Pagan Superstition and Idolatry And though Reformed Christendom have cast off that yoke of Superstition and Idolatry yet they labour under Intestine Dissentions and crumble into to Schisms and Factions and which is to be lamented even with tears of bloud provoke and exasperate nay and frequently persecute one another through a bitter and intemperate zeal for those things which all parties agree are no way essential to the Salvation of a Christian. Here one crying out zealously for Paul there another for Apollos and yonder a third for Cephas and in the mean time condemning all others that will not follow their cry as Reprobates persons only sit like unprofitable burdens to be sent out of this World to try their fortunes in the next as if there were no other way to Heaven but by joyning with this or that particular Sect and Society of men Now what are all these evils but various devices and stratagems of the Dark Kingdom to undermine the Gospel and to defeat our Lord if it were possible of the success of all the pains he took in the Redemption of the World How prosperously does the Cause of Darkness thrive when men shall damn one another for opinions and bite and devour one another for trifles When they shall profess Christianity and yet live like Heathens Now when God looks down from Heaven and beholds all those Sacred methods
calls man to Life he on the contrary should hale and lead them unto Death He it is that allures or deceives them that endeavour after the Truth or if he cannot effect it by deceitful stratagems he assumes greater courage and attempts to weaken the vigour and activity of the highest proficients and thus by execrable and nefarious means he torments and kills and yet as he overthrows many so is he by many overthrown and when he is foiled departs and goes away 4. That it is possible for the Soul to arise to such a height and become so Divine that no Witchcraft or evil Daemons can have any power upon the Body When the Bodily life is too far invigorated and awakened and draws the Intellect the flower and summity of the Soul into a Conspiration with it then are we subject and obnoxious to Magical assaults For Magick or Sorcery being founded only in this lower or Mundane Spirit he that makes it his business to be freed and released from all its Blandishments and flattering Devocations and endeavours wholly to withdraw himself from the love of Corporeity and too near a Sympathy with the frail flesh he by it enkindles such a Divine principle as lifts him up above the fate of this Inferior world and adorns his mind with such an awful Majesty that beats back all Inchantments and makes the Infernal Fiends tremble at his presence hating those vigorous beams of light which are so contrary and repugnant to their dark Natures And in this is clearly fulfilled what the Aramitick Sorcerer spake that there is no Inchantment or Divination against Israel that is such who are established in a Principle above the world and in whose Souls the All-powerful life of God is firmly radicated and fixed who are indeed the true and perfect Israel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. for neither Astral Spirit nor Angelcan prevail against one Ray of the Deity as Aesculapius writes to King Ammon And how far successful in this very case this holy Contention of conquering the Bodily life and setting free the mind from the bondage and toils of the flesh may be is evident in Plotinus whose Soul as Porphyry relates was come to that high and noble Temper that he did not only keep off Magical assaults from himself but retorted them upon his Enemy Olympius which Olympius himself who practised against him did confess to be from the exalted power of his Soul So true is that which Lactantius cites from Hermes that those who have the true knowledge of God are not only safe from the assaults of the Devil but from Fate it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The only safe custody is Godliness for neither evil Daemon nor Fate can take hold of a pious man for God extricates and delivers the holy Person from all evil OBJECTION V. That it is very ridiculous to imagine that Devils though never so foul and unclean should delight in sucking the Bloud of these accursed Hags Answ. HOW ridiculous soever this may seem to an Objector that perhaps would willingly turn all things related of Spirits whether good or bad into Ridicule yet as the frequent and constant Confessions of these despicable Creatures have made it unquestionable matter of Fact so those who have searched more narrowly into the nature and extraordinary degeneracy of these course and foul Spirits suppose they have reason to believe that a Daemon's sucking the Bloud of a Witch is no such strange and unaccountable Phaenomenon And perhaps if the sacred Scriptures had not so fully assured us that the Devils whom our Saviour cast out entred immediately into the herd of Swine it would have been deemed a thing alike monstrous and incredible which Marcus the Monk in answer to this very instance tells his Thrax that these Daemons enter into Brute Animals not out of any spleen or hatred they bear to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but because they are wonderfully desirous of Animal warmth For the confederate Spirit whether of a Nature Humane or Diabolical must necessarily have a Body proportionable to the grossness and courseness of its Powers and Faculties which being so mightily debauched through the excessive prevalency and exorbitancy of the sensual life cannot act in any other Vehicle but what is drawn from the clammy and caliginous parts of the Air which Bodies in this agree with ours in that they have their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Effluvia and exhale and wear away by a continual deflux of Particles and therefore require some Nutriment to supply the place of the fugacious Atoms which is done by sucking the Bloud and Spirits of these forlorn wretches And that this was the Opinion of the wisest and best Philosophers among the Greeks that evil Daemons were extremely delighted with the Bloud and Nidours of Sacrifices as being a refreshment and nourishment to their Vaporous Bodies appears from what Celsus writes Xp 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We ought to give credit to wise men who affirm that most of these lower and circumterraneous Daemons are delighted with Geniture Bloud and Nidour and such like things and much gratified therewith And Origen agrees with him fully in this point and tells us that the Devils were not only delighted with the Idolatry of the Pagans in their Sacrifices but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that their very Bodies were nourished by the Vapours and Fumes arising from them and that these evil Daemons therefore did as it were deliciate and Epicurize in them To this purpose the same Father makes mention of a certain Pythagorean who wrote of the Mysterious and Recondite sense of Homer That Chryses words to Apollo and his Immission of a Pestilence upon the Grecians teach us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that Homer did believe there were certain evil Daemons who took pleasure in Fumes and Nidours of Sacrifices and that they were ready as a reward to gratifie the Sacrificants with the destruction of any person if they so desired it Which by the way may give some satisfaction to those importunate Inquirers why the Possessions and Vexations of men by evil Daemons should be wrought upon the desire of a Witch viz. to gratifie her revenge as a reward for the pleasure the wicked Fiend reaped from such vile and damnable Commerce with her Body Nor was this a singular Fancy of Origen for Athenagoras a Christian Philosopher writes the very same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. i. e. The Daemons assist at the Sacrifices being allured and brought down by the bloud which they greedily take in And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the material Daemons do strangely gluttonize upon the Nidours and Bloud of Sacrifices Which they suck in not with their mouths but as Marcus in Psellus who had formerly been initiated in the Diabolical Mysteries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as spunges and testaceous Fishes And no doubt but those impure Devils may take as much pleasure
in sucking the warm Bloud of Men or Beasts as a chearful and healthy constitution in drawing in the refreshing gales of pure and sincere Air. CHAP. VIII Inferences drawn from the foregoing Treatise HAving now dispatched the most material Objections against the opinion of Witchcraft I now come to the last part of my design which is to draw some Practical Conclusions from this whole Discourse in reference to the conduct of mens lives and manners And First since we have so clear a discovery of the Powers of Darkness whose united and combined Forces are so potent and terrible in opposing the growth of sincere Piety and Religion we should be strong in God and couragiously resist them being stedfast in the Faith Divine Providence having placed us in this lower World where we are surrounded with Enemies designs not by this our ruine and undoing but that our contest should end in Victory and our warfare crowned at last with Immortal Glory and Felicity Wherefore though our Enemies are tall and mighty Gyants and from the reason of their Natures have many advantages over frail Flesh and Bloud yet such is the Constitution of things and such the Arms we are furnished withal for the Combate that as David through a great Faith and Confidence in the Divine Assistance prevailed over the mighty Champion of the Philistines with a Sling and a Stone so by a firm Trust reposed in the same Aid we may overthrow and become Victorious over all the Infernal Powers that desie the Armies of the God of Israel Here therefore lies the Field of Gallantry and Honour here are the Olympia of the Soul wherein she strives and wrestles not with Flesh and Bloud but with the strong and subtle Forces of Hell and Darkness not for a Garland of Flowers but for Wreaths of Immarcessible Glory Take heart then O Man and like an invincible Champion of the Holy Iesus fight the good fight of Faith Be true and sincere to thy best Hopes and Interests by a perfect Eradication of all thy Exorbitant lusts and corruptions and by a strong Faith and profound Humility form the living Image of God within thee Then shall thy Soul with joy and triumph be lifted up above the perplexed Fate of this Inferior World and be able to repress and extinguish the Incantations and Allurements of the Mundane Spirit through the might and power of a Divine Principle Nor shall the subtle Plots and Machinations of the Powers of Darkness and the Conspiracies of Hell be able to defeat those watchful Armies of Light with which thou art guarded Act generously and becoming not only the nature of a man but a faithful Disciple of the Son of God and behold those numerous Troops of Angels which though invisible to our weak and bodily eyes perpetually surround and encompass the servants of the living God The Blessed Iesus who in the days of his flesh by his Soveraign Command ejected Legions of Infernal Spirits out of their usurped Holds in the Bodies of men and by his glorious Resurrection cast down the Prince of Darkness from his unjust Empire and Dominion in the World maintains the same Righteous Cause still and carries on a successful War against those Apostate Spirits in which whosoever will persevere with courage and resolution shall at the last reap the joyous Fruits of his Victory and Patience and receive from the hands of the glorious King of Righteousness a Beautiful and Immortal Crown of life and blessedness Secondly We learn not to speak evil of Angels For he who is now the Head and Prince of the Dark Kingdom is supposed by most Divines to have been once the highest in Dignity and Power of the whole Angelick Order and though reflecting upon his State and Grandeur and finding himself the chiefest of the works of Gods hands in the haughty pride of his heart he aspired to an equality with God and was thereby cast down into these Aereal Regions yet is he still a very formidable and tremendous Power not to be blasphemed or spoke evil of but to be resisted by all those ways and means which God in his holy Word hath propounded to us It is S. Austin his opinion that what is spoken of the King of Babylon by the Prophet Esay may prefigure or allude to this mighty Prince of the Dark Legions How art thou fallen from Heaven O Lucifer son of the morning For thou hast said in thineheart I will ascend into Heaven I will exalt my Throne above the Stars of God I will sit also upon the Mount of the Congregation in the sides of the North I will ascend above the heights of the Clouds I will be like the most High And hitherto he refers the description of the Prince of Tyrus by Ezekiel Thou hast been in Eden the Garden of God every precious stone was thy covering the Sardius Topaz and the Diamond the Beryl the Onyx and the Iasper the Saphire the Emerald and the Carbuncle and Gold the workmanship of thy Tabrets and of thy Pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created Thou art the anointed Cherub that covereth and I have set thee so thou wast upon the Holy Mountain of God thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created till Iniquity was found in thee And if this so high and majestick a description in its first and primary sence belong to that mighty Angel of Darkness he is not foolishly and idly to be scoffed at or blasphemed but according to the sober advice of the Author of the Golden Verses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. to be feared as a very powerful and implacable Enemy of mankind by doing good and justifiable actions and by persevering in a course of Virtue which only through the assistance of Divine Goodness can deliver us from his Rage and Malice There is a place of Scripture which though not much taken notice of by later Divines yet is very full to this purpose 2 Pet. 2.10 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tremble not when they rail at Glories or as our Translation renders it they are not afraid to speak evil of Dignities whereas Angels which are greater in power and might bring not a railing Accusation or a contumelious Indictment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against them before the Lord. Parallel to which is that of S. Iude ver 8 9. speak evil of Dignities or rail at Glories yet Michael the Archangel when contending with the Devil he disputed about the Body of Moses durst not bring against him a railing Accusation but said The Lord rebuke thee That by dignities here are understood Angels is clear 1. From the manner of expression calling them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Glories a word frequently used in the Old Testament to express the appearance of Angels The only difficulty will be why evil Angels should be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Glories To which it may be said that the Devil may properly be looked upon as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Dignity though his Glory be pale and wan and those once bright and orient colours faded and darkned in his Robes and the Scriptures represent him as a Prince though it be of Devils 2. Of other Dominions their Contempt was set down before both in S. Peter and S. Iude by the phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 setting at nought making nothing of and despising scornfully behaving themselves towards their Superiors and so need not be repeated again in these words 3. That it is to be understood of a contumelious or contemptuous behaviour towards Angels is evident from the instance the Apostle brings of the contention between Michael and the Devil who though now his Superior yet durst not carry himself insolently contemptuously or reproachfully against him All this is sufficient to let us understand that these mighty Principalities are not to be reproached or railed at but to be left to the just and righteous rebukes of Heaven in our contests and conflicts with them Thirdly We are fully assured that he who hath God propitious to him need not fear the malice of evil Spirits When the servant of the Prophet Elisha was in a great fear and consternation of mind by reason of the Armies of the Syrians that had surrounded his Masters dwelling he no sooner saw those invisible Chariots and Horses of fire but his fear abated and his Spirits returned And if we had but a firm Faith in the Divine Goodness and made it our business to propitiate God and assert our selves under a benigne and favourable Providence by the holiness of our lives we need not fear the numerous Armies and Troops of Syrians those evil Daemons that assemble and unite themselves for our Ruine and Destruction For he that loves God has presently the Invisible Guards of Heaven to pitch their Tents about him For as Arnobius excellently discourses against the Pagans the first and only God is a sufficient Object of Divine veneration that God I say who is the Father and Lord the Maker and Governour of all things and in worshipping him we worship all that is to be worshipped and adore all that is fit to be adored and pay our obsequious Venerations to all that require them of us For since we hold us fast to the Head of Divinity it self from whom all the Divinity of the most exalted Beings is derived it were a vain thing to disperse our worship upon many and single persons especially when we are in great measure ignorant both of their natures and names and can have no clear knowledge of their numbers But as in Earthly Kingdoms when we pay our worship and service to the King himself there is no need of offering the same by name to all who are attendants in the Royal Family for asmuch as whatever Honour belongs to them is tacitly acknowledged to be comprehended in that done to the King after the same manner the holy Angels being a Royal Progeny and deriving their Beings from the first and principal Head of all things although they receive no worship from us by name yet know well enough that they are honoured likewise in common with their King So that when by a strong Faith and the Holiness of our lives we have made God our Friend the Heavenly Hosts are at the same time reconciled to us and we are acknowledged by them as members of their society and they lend us their kind and friendly assistance in countermining the designs of the Dark Kingdom against us Neither is there any Christian that is ever left to his own naked and solitary Effort in this War with the powers of Hell but is attended and succoured with a mighty strength even the Bright Armies and Legions of Heavens Almighty King This this is the Power that will at last prevail and subdue all things to it self and the whole Kingdom of Darkness with all its rebellious Associates shall be plunged into an Everlasting pit of Horror and Confusion Fourthly It concerns us carefully to avoid and mortifie those more refined and Intellectual Vices such as Pride Malice Faction c. which link and conjoyn men fast to the Dark Kingdom For though these sublimated Iniquities and spiritual Wickednesses are not so much nor frequently taken notice of as the grosser pollutions of the Body yet are they no less dangerous than the other as being near a kin to the Diabolical nature Hell it self is as well a state of Life and Being as a Place and when the Soul is overrun with hatred and envy with deep anxiety and cruel despight she is then really drawn into a living Hell and the Devils nature perfectly formed in her There is a certain Magical Sympathy running through this Inferior World which powerfully attracts every thing like it self and strives to assimilate and convert it into its own nature thus every pitiful Vice seeks the enlargement of it self by a contagious Affriction of all capable Subjects and the Dark or Worldly Spirit is diffused far and wide and pulls and draws by hidden strings all those Beings that are predisposed to a Cognation and Afsinity with it and thus are mens Souls often suck'd in by this Infernal and Powerful Nature before ever they think they are in any danger Awake then O man from this drowzy and deadly state and prepare and purge thy heart from all such poisonous and hellish Passions Let that universal Goodness which hath distilled its fruitful nature upon all the capacities of things enlarge and widen thy Soul for a due reception of a Sacred Influence from above that the holy life of God may revive within thee which being of a Heavenly Birth and Extraction will infallibly carry up the Mind and Spirit to its own Fountain and Original Fifthly A true survey of the Dark Kingdom and the Powerfulness thereof cannot but beget in the hearts of all sincere Christians a great chearfulness and firm trust in God's Providence There are some that think God is best served with a demure look and melancholick countenance as if the heart and life of Devotion lay in being dull and mopish and as it were ever despairing of good whereas this is only an artificial and mechanical thing or at best a Religion that men have framed and patched together out of their own distempered Constitutions The Iews say that the Spirit of Prophecy will not rest upon a Melancholick man and the Sacred Writings inform us that David's Harp did sometimes dispossess Saul of his dull and Melancholick Devil intimating surely to us that God takes the greatest pleasure in a composed and serene Mind that goes on in a chearful dependence upon that Almighty Providence that encircles all things both in Heaven and Earth There are some Tempers and Constitutions of Bodies more adapted and disposed to the Temptations and Assaults of the Devil than others and consequently have more need of a due care and inspection over them Thus though the most lucid Discoveries in Arts and Sciences owe a great deal to a moderate Tincture of Melancholy whence Aristotle observes that such Persons have in some measure been Divinely affected in the Prediction of Future Events yet when this Humour shall become ungovernable and exceed the bounds of Reason clouding all the Intellectual powers of the Soul in this Dark and horrid Confusion there is no doubt but evil and degenerate Spirits may insinuate themselves and taking the advantage of this Distemper may produce such effects as no natural account can be given for But I would not be mistaken for it is not for a light and fantastick Spirit that I plead since the devoutest Christian in the highest and most enravishing chearfulness and joy of his Mind is then most composed grave and serious I would only promote the Exhortation of S. Paul that men should rejoyce in the Lord always notwithstanding all the discouragements thrown in their way by the Powers of Darkness For this Divine joy and serenity of Mind is the state of Angels and an Emblem of Heaven whose bright and clear Mansions are never overspread by any black and dismal Clouds but a perpetual and youthful Spring an inexhausted source of pure Joy and Pleasure abides there for ever FINIS Arrian l. 1. c. 5. Enchir. Ethic. c. 2. In Epiclet c 10. Lib. 8. contr Celsum See Revel 1.4 See Ezra 7.14 In lib. de Mundo Varen Descript Regni Iapon Lib. 2. de Abst. Psal. 106.37 C.D.l. 2. c. 5. De Verit. Rel. l. 4. Sect. 3. Rev. 2.10 1 Pet. 5.8 Phil. 2.10 1 Iob. 3.8 Luk. 10.18 Rev. 12.8 9. Lib. 2. de Verit. Relig C.D. l. 7. c. 33. Eccles. Hist. l. 8. c. 1. 2 Thes. 2 11. C.Dl. 10. c. 9. See Doctor Hammond upon Acts 16.16 Cited by Mountague Diatr against Selden 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 C. D. l. 8. c. 24. De Passion Par. 1. Ar. 6. Cornel. Agrip de Occult Phil. l. 1. c. 64. Del-Rio Disquisit Magick Gader Doctr. Ari. Plat. Aeneid 4. Metam 1.7 C.D. l. 8. c. 18. Apolog. Nat. Quaest. l. 4. L. 18. L. 2. L. 3. In Vit. Camilli Contr. Celsum l. 8. p. 398. Annot. in 1 Cor. 5.5 L. 2. c. 15. Contr. Cels. l. 8. p. 398. De Opisic Dei c 20. De Vit. Plot. L. 2. c. 16. Psell. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orig. l 8. L. 7. P. 334 Ibid. C.D. l. 11. c. 15. Chap. 14. Chap. 28 Lib. 3.