Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	body_n	motion_n	soul_n	7,616	5	5.6016	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50574	The laws and customes of Scotland, in matters criminal wherein is to be seen how the civil law, and the laws and customs of other nations do agree with, and supply ours / by Sir George Mackenzie ...	Mackenzie, George, Sir, 1636-1691.	1678 (1678)	Wing M166; ESTC R16497	369,303	598

seen in the 9th Article of the Inditement against Ianet Cock Septemb. 7. 1661. In which Article she was accused for having recovered a Child by Charms with the help of another Witch which other Witch had confessed the same when she was confronted with the said Ianet Likeas both of them were found lying above the Child whispering one to another and the blood of a Dog was found standing in a Plate beside them which Article was not sustained relevant per se but was found relevant being joyned with same and delation XIII The relevancy of this Crime being thus discussed the ordinary probation of it is by Confession or Witnesses but the probation here should be very clear and it should be certain that the person who emitted it is not weary of life or opprest with melancholly 2. Albeit non requiritur hic ut constet de corpore delicti this being a Crime which consists oft-times in animo yet it ought to be such as contains nothing in it that is impossible or improbable And thus albeit Isobel Ramsay did upon the 20. of August 1661. confess that the Devil gave her six pence and said that GOD desi●ed him to give it her and at another time a Dollor which turn'd thereafter in a Slait-stone the Justices did not find this confession though judicial relevant And to know what things are of themselves impossible for the Devil to do or at least what is believed to be impossible may be seen very fully treated of in Delrio's second Book where it is condescended that succubi incubi sunt possibiles id est that the Devil may ly in the shape of a man with a woman or in the shape of a woman with a man having first formed to himself a body of condensed Air and upon such a confession as this Margaret Lawder and others were convict It is likewise possible for the Devil to transport Witches to their publick Conventions from one place to another which he may really do by carrying them and sundry Witches were in Anno 1665. burnt in Culross upon such a confession as this XIV It may be I confess argued that Spirits and immaterial substances cannot touch things material and consequently can neither raise nor transport them but if we consider how the Adamant raises and transports the Iron and how the soul of man which is a Spirit can raise or transport the body and that a mans voice or a Musical sound is able to occasion great and extraordinary motions in other men we may easily conclude that Devils who are Spirits of far more Energy may produce effects surpassing very far our understanding And yet I do not deny but that the Devil does sometimes perswade the Witches that they are carried to places where they never were making those impressions upon their spirits and acquainting them what was done there which is done by impressing Images upon their Brain and which Images are carried to the exterior senses by the animal Spirits even as we see the Air carries the species of colours upon it though in a very insensible way and thus we see likewise that the sumes of Wine or Melancholy will represent strange apparitions and make us think them real Nor ought it to be concluded that because those Witches are only transported in Spirit or in Dreams that therefore they ought not to be punish'd since none can be punished for dreaming and that because those Witches desire to have these Dreams and glory in them when they are awake nor have any these Dreams but such as have entered into a preceeding paction I know that the Canon Episcopi in the Council of Anacir or the Aquilean Council as others call it does condemn these transportations as false and meer delusions which are imprest upon the fancy of poor Creatures by the Devil cum solus spiritus haec patitur nec non in animo sed in corpore inveniri opinantur but that Act of that Council does not assert all transportations to be imaginary and Dreams but only declares those who thought they follow'd Diana and Herodias to these publick meetings to be altogether seduced for these indeed were seduced for Herodias being dead long since could not be at their meetings But from that it is unjustly concluded that there are no real transportations there being so many instances of these transportations given both in Sacred and prophane Story and persons having been found wounded and having really committed Murders and other insolencies during these transportations XV. Whether it be possible for a Witch to cause any person be possest by putting Devils into their body may be debated and that it is possible appears from the History of Simon Magus and many others and is testified to be true by St. Ierome in the life of St. Hilarion And since Witches have confest that there are Devils who obey one another and that there are different degrees amongst them why may not those of an inferiour degree be forced by vertue of a paction with those of a superior order to possess men and women at the desire of Witches Witches themselves have confest that this hath been done And I find by a decision of the Parliament of Thelodus that Devils have been heard to complain in those that were possest that they were put there by the inchantment of such and such women But upon the other hand it is not to be imagined that Devils would obey mortal creatures or that GOD would leave so great a power to any of them to torment poor mortals And the Devil who is a liar from the beginning is not to be believed in saying that he is put there by Inchantments and though he make such promises to Witches yet he does in these but cheat them and if the Devil could possess at pleasure we would see many more possest then truly there are XVI The Devil cannot make one solid body to penetrat another Quest. 17. and therefore I think that Article libel'd against Margaret Hutchison of coming to Iohn Clark's house when doors and windows were shut should not have been admitted to probation since it is very probable they would have searched the house after the second or third nights fear and she could not penetrat doors nor walls XVII The Devil cannot transform one species into another as a woman into a cat for else he behoved to annihilat some of the substance of the woman or creat some more substance to the cat the one being much more then the other and the Devil can neither annihilat or creat nor could he make the shapes return nam non datur regressus à privatione ad habitum But if we consider the strange tricks of Juglers and the strange apparitions that Kercher and others relate from natural causes we may believe that the Devil may make a woman appear to be a beast è contra by either abusing the sense of the beholders or altering the Medium by inclosing them in the skin