which are not seen nor can be seen It is a poor conclusion in reason that because one hath not seen a thing therefore it is not extant in nature every one hath a reasonable Soul in himself which is an immortal living Spirit and yet none could yet see it forsaking its habitation and the parting from the body The Angels pitch their Tents about the Godly yet who ever saw them none can ever see God and live afterwards in this mortal body is there therefore no Soul Angel nor God existing As long as we are in this mortal body we can naturally see none but corporeal creatures and yet our eyes are so weak that they cannot discern many things but by the help of an instrument invented for that purpose Nevertheless there are men that have seen such spirits as is shewed by the aforementioned Examples and other Histories but then those spirits had taken upon them some visible shape The Specters above-said are as well spirits as the Angels all being invisible to our eyes nevertheless we read in the Holy Scripture that many have seen them specially the good Angels in such an external figure as the business about which they were sent did require for the Ass of Balaam saw the Angel of the Lord with a drawn sword in his hand which Balaam could not see till the Lord opened his eye Saul saw a figure in the likeness of Samuel Elisha saw a whole Army about him upon the mountain in the likeness of flaming waggons and Horses which his servant Gehazi could neither see until his eyes were opened King Belfhazar saw a hand before him writing apon the wall to pass by the examples of the Maccabees That tempter the Divel went openly to Christ in an outward shape and may be in that of a man since he spoke as one By which Examples this matter is clearly proved by having been seen and therefore he that will not believe the aforesaid Examples happened in Feroe because he hath not seen such Apparititions though the said Examples be as certain as if they had been sworn before a Court of Justice and therefore will be irrefragable as long as the world lasts no body being though bound to believe more thereof than pleaseth him yet he must believe those examples that are in the holy Scriptures except he will of his own accord precipitate himself into errour Saâ—an hath also endeavoured by special visions and learning to seduce the Inhabitants of these Islands from the true word of God For it happened in this Country in the year 1667 that a person called Jacob Oluffson being then at Giow in Osteroe in the 24 year of his age the 17 of Jan. fell into a sickness lying a bed during a fortnight and on the 14 day of his disease namely the 20 of Jan. on Sunday night as he lay asleep there came one in to him with shining cloaths on whereat he wakened and perceived him in that figure in the bed by him the room appearing full of splendour and he gave the young man a serious salutation and respect Secondly he asked him where his pain was whereunto the young man answered nothing afterwards he stroaked him with his hand along his breast and round about whereby the said young man was presently healed and he enjoyn'd him then that he should say a prayer thrice every day pronouncing the prayer 3 times unto him whereby the young man learned it instantly it being as followeth O Thou worthy Holy Ghost comforter of all sorrowful and afflicted thou knowest best what cur flesh and blood can suffer in the cross where it goeth but sadly with us except we receive help from another place then from our selves be thou therefore my comforter and my Shield strengthen me by thy power help me in my great infirmity and assist me chear up my heart and mind that I may call and cry unto thee for help in my necessity strengthen my faith that I with a firm expectation and assurance may expect help and counsel from above give me grace that I may suffer with patience thy fatherly rod and do not with murmuring and impatience offend thee Since we know not in our â—â—ess what we should pray for and desire do thou the best and pray in us Thou who with the Father and the Son art an Almighty God to all eternity Amen Afterwards he told the young man that he should say this Prayer the first time he should come to Church first on the threshold of the Church door kneeling down with his face turned from the Church commanding also that the people of the Country should pray unto God saying this Prayer with joyned hands and bowed knees to the Lord thrice every day so the Lord would turn away the punishment which threatned the Land and commanded that he should admonâ—sh the people to convert themselves leave off their cursing and swearing and desist from all other sins and that so God would appease his anger Having said that to the Lad as he would go away he added Rise sound and sin no more Departing so from him and going away through the Roof-hole Five days afterwards he appeared the second time to the young man before it was clear day as the Lad was sitting in his bed and sung the Psalm My Shepherd is the living Lord c. it came in his mind as if one had desired him to go out though he saw nothing whereupon he arose and put on his clothes and went out before the house where he saw in the South South-west the Heavens open and one coming down from thence who stood by him in the yard with a Priests habit on that reached down to his feet the habit being red and white with a red Cross on the back and he said to him that he should not at all doubt but he came from God and therewith left him hastily ascending to the place from whence he came The next Sunday night which was the seven and twentieth of January he came to him the third time as he lay awake in the same form as the first time through the Roof hole into the bed and asked him if he had spread abroad what he had commanded him whereunto the youngman answered yes Whereunto the other replied not so earnestly as it ought to have been done asking him withal whether he had not seen some signes in the Heavens the Lad answered that he had seen no signes but that other folks said they had seen two Suns in the Heavens Samuel Powelson Eclendar Anderson Sineve Jonas daughter and some more of Eldevyg witnessed in the Court they had seen these Suns then he said that they did look as if they had been Suns though they were not but a signe that they should begin to keep Holy-day from the time they saw the true Sun arise which was on Saturday at half an hour past 12 in the afternoon and that Sermon which they preached ou Sunday should be preached on Saturday
the most part contemn the opinion there should be any We call such Apparitions Specters because they present themselves to the eyes of men appearing as if they were real bodies whereas they are spirits that take upon them an external figure and in respect to a right created body are to be considered but as shadows Wherefore Christ says to his Apostles that took him to be such a spirit Why are you so afraid and why come such thoughts into your hearts look upon my hands and feet it is my self feel and see for a spirit hath neither flesh nor bones as you see I have that is though a spirit appears with the outward figure of a body By which words Christ doth not refute the Apostles opinion of spirits as vain and erroneous but agrees with them that there are Phantasms that they are spirits and that the figure they take hath not the propriety of a natural body Secondly Christ grants that they had cause to have been afraid if he had been a Phantasm Whereby we are taught that our own nature proveth their existencie since we are afraid when they appear by reason of the innate emnity which is between men and such spirits Wherefore when Eliphas of Theman saw a spirit going before him and there stood an image before his eyes whereof he did not know the figure but heard a voice the hair of his body stood upon end In Latin they call them Spectra that is such spirits as are seen so that the invisible good Angels when they appear in visible forms for as much as they are seen may also be called Spectra but we according to the Holy Scriptures and the explication of all Learned men understanding only by Specters spirits who in several visible Figures and likenesses appear unto men either to hurt or frighten them of which sort was the figure that appeared to King Saul in the likeness of Samuel 1 Sam. 28. as also the Divels outward shape that spoke with Christ and tempted him in the wilderness Mat. 4. The Heathens in their writings call some of those Specters Eaunes Satyrs and Panes which we call in Danish Skow and Bierge-Trold that is Wood and Mountain spirits those of Feroe call them under-ground people hollow men and Foddenskemand The Holy Scripture calls them Gods of the Woods Esaiah 13 th and also field Gods Deut. 32. which really are none but unclean spirits I have read in the writings of a godly man who pretended that besides the good and bad Angels there were also external spirits of the world which were not eternal and took their natural origine of the worlds visible spirit and finished also naturally which if it were they should then be some other Creatures then the eternal spirits or the visible shap'd Creatures Though there be much whereof our eyes cannot see the essence our reason comprehending no further then what is discovered in the outward corporal nature which yet it harldly comprehends as the wise man complaineth nevertheless one ought not to affirm such things as have no ground in the word of God though it were so in nature and therefore we will only contemplate these Apparitions by the clear light of Gods word and thereby together with understanding Learned mens writings see what one may conclude and judge of them One would think it might be worth a particular Speculation that the Holy Scripture speaks of Phantasms together with Zijm Jim and Ochim Esa 13. 21. cap. 34. 14. Jer. 50. 39. for the Lord threatning Babylon with its last destruction saith by the Prophet Esaias Babylon shall be changed as Sodom and Gomorrha and no man shall inhabit there any more neither live there for ever but Zijm shall there pitch their Tents and their houses shall be full of Ochim Ostridges shall live there and wood divels leap thereabouts Owls shall sing in their Palaces and Dragons dwell in their pleasure-houses The Prophets calling them Zihim and Ohim is not expounded by Luther in his Bible by any other word but he writes in the Margin that he taketh them to be all sorts of wild Beasts understanding without doubt such wilde Beasts as the wise man describes in this manner Wis 11. ver 19 c. The Lord saith he sent over them because of their sins new shaped cruel unkown Beasts that either breathed out flame or blew out cruel smoke or darted sparks terribly from their eyes which not only could bruise them to pieces with terror but murther them with the terribleness of their sights The wise man reckoneth also up these unknown Beasts Chap. 17. ver 3. 9. among spirits wherewith the Egyptians were terrified Maldonatus in his Scholia upon Esaiah esteems this kind of cruel unknown wild Beasts to be a sort of Divels That excellent Philosopher and Divine Johannes Henricus Vrsinus in the sixth Book Chap. 27. of his Analâ—ecta sacra writes that these names can signifie both cruel wild Beasts and men but more properly Devils for Zijm from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 driness are properly those that inhabit dry and desart places Jijm from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Island those that live in Islands Ochim from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a funeral Bird those that cry out with a terrible voice but in the Prophet he understands Divels to be so called first because seirim or Wooddivel is also mentioned there secondly because Saint John doth so expound it in the Book of the Revelations Chap. 18. ver 2. when he saith she is fallen she is fallen Babylon the great and is become the habitation of Divels and the domicil of all unclean spirits and the repair of all unclean birds Thirdly because it is plain both by holy and profane writings and experience teacheth actually that Divels have their habitations in desart places My poor conclusion is this that the examples and clear words of the Holy Scripture do agree both with other Histories as also with the above-mentioned of the apparition of spirits that they were not fancies but were real and indeed and those Images not being substantial bodies they must be spirits in external figure and appearing to hurt men that they are not good but bad spirits that is very Divels And such as are mentioned in the abovesaid true Histories whether they appeared in the Figure of man or of any Beast are doubtless that sort of Divels which the Holy Scripture particularly calls Field-gods in the fifth Book of Moses Chap. 32. ver 17. 2 Chron. Chap. 9. ver 15. For Divels can far easier turn themselves in several such forms than in that of Angels of light it being all one what name one gives such Apparitions if one but knows their Chief who as the deadly enemy of all mankind that walketh in every Element to hurt man Sinesius teaching that there are six sorts of spirits that are all bad appearing to men specially to hurt them namely those that are in the air in the fire in the water upon the earth under
the earth and in darkness all sorts of men both good and bad being obnoxious to be troubled by these spirits the good to seperate them from God as the examples of Job and Christ do witness which God doth permit that their faith may be tri'd and that they may learn to walk warily The bad over which though Satan hath a great power yet he appears to these following Murtherers oppressors of the poor disobedient to their Parents despisers of God's word unbelievers and superstitious people and those that have made a contract with him whom he so long deludes till at last he takes them away both body and soul As long as these Islands of Feroe have been uninhabited during so many hundred years it seems they have been nothing but an habitation of Devils a Domicill for unclean spirits and a Den of Goblings it being sufficiently known in History what power the Devil had antiently in the Countreys of the North Island Finland Varmeland and Lapland and many know how powerful they are there to this very day Besides the solitariness of Feroe there are not only found great Chinks and long dark holes above in the Mountains but also below underneath some places quite through the Land Whereof one hears sometimes tell strange Stories enough amongst which there may also be some truth besides here are also those terrible Caverns mentioned above which they call Latters and when men took in the Country to possess it those spirits could not be driven out by Fighting force or Weapons as the abovesaid Fable of Myggenesse would perswade for iron is like straw and brass as a rotten wood as the Lord saith Job Chap. 41. ver 17. against the strength of Leviathan or the Divel Besides the people here have chosen their habitation near the Sea-side but the mountains with their holes and chinks are uninhabited to this day and though the whole Country were inhabited in all places it would not therefore be free from these unclean spirits for what Country is so populous but the Divel may be there where is there ever a Church built but the Divel builds himself a Chappel where is there any wheat sowed but the enemy soweth tares amongst Matth. 13. ver 25. he runneth about amongst men to see whom he can devour 1 Pet. Chap. 5. ver 8. The evil spirits that are cast down from Heaven from their first origine are wide spread abroad not only in the air but also over all the earth they take no room neither are naturally contained in any place for they are bound together with obscure chains live in outward darkness nevertheless they are in greater number about men than one can believe neither can a little space hinder their presence for if a whole Legion of Divels can have room enough in one only man how many then could be contained in a little Chamber with one only man Oh! that some mens eyes were but opened they would then with greater fear and trembling work out their salvation yet though they be manifold in every place they have not an equal power every where when the inhabitauts of Feroe were heathens and strangers to the knowledge of Jesus Christ these spirits had power enough amongst them by reason of their unbelief Ephes 2. yet in this time he hath been for the most part quiet but when the Lord had sent them his word the Ministers thereof alas mix'd that pure word with humane Superstition and figments and fill'd their Hearers hearts more with errors and superstitions than with true and justifying faith But as darkness is never so thick but the light doth break through so the light of God's Word did shine in those dark days for them that did seek invisible things and they received a true faith shining in their good works but others that gaped after outward splendor which was though but darkness and remained in obscurity being blinded in their errors and superstition whereby Satan made at that time more proofs of his Mastership than at any other aswel here as in other places by many false sights and miracles that he might the better extinguish their spark of faith and wholly darken their understanding Finally God having out of his Grace driven away such darkness of errors by the great new kindled light of his Gospel the great Prince of darkness was forced to retire and hide himself but it seems he hath not been in quiet and therefore by the permission of God breaks out and sometimes openly deludes these poor Inhabitants seducing them sometimes to their eternal ruine and sometimes to an errour and delusion for a time Christ teacheth us how this cometh to pass in the Gospel according to St. Matthew Chap. 12. ver 43. That the unclean spirit finding no rest in his dry mansion returneth then back with seven other spirits worse than himself that is to say with many gross sins and vices to precipitate a man into Truly the deeds and effects shew the words of Christ to be true for it cannot be exprest how stedfastly some keep their old Traditions and superstitious customs which they do secretly and diligently observe thinking themselves very subtile if one cannot with sharp admonitions and warnings from the word of God root them out Besides many gross sins and vices as in other places here in use amongst many the true Children of God being in no ways meant hereby here grow up young people that are disobedient to their Parents stiffnecked and contradictory wherefore the Devil as is said before easily appeareth Tell me Christian Reader what is this but that the old Spirit of superstition is come again into his house hath found lodging with those many errours and superstitions and with other unclean spirits work out many abominations God grant this were but in Feroe so that it is no wonder if he thus far deludeth man but it is to be wondred that the Devil doth not oftner appear taking and carrying more men away than he hath done already We must thank God therefore that hath put a ring in his nose that his goodness and long-suffering might incite men to better themselves and repent yea it is the cunning of Satan not to appear so often in a visible figure to many impious people that continually call upon him and curse by him that at last he may lead them captives at his pleasure into perdition There may possibly yet be found some that will not believe all this because they never saw any such Apparitions or Divels whereunto I answer that I never saw them neither and pray God I may never see them and which I also wish all my Readers and if ever I should see them God being pleased to tempt me thereby I will beseech him to give me his Grace and a good Spirit that I may overcome them by faith this Opinion being otherwise an humane weakness not unlike the infirmity of Thomas that would not believe-except he saw whereas faith doth consist in believing things
nor add thereunto except we will draw upon us all the curses mentioned in the Holy Scripture Revel 22. v. 18. wherefore we will conclude with Saint Paul Gal. 1. ver 8. That if an Angel of Heaven would preach another Gospel than Christ and his Apostles have preached let him be an Anathem Upon the Premises I cannot judge but that this apparition hath been a Phantasm or illusion and all the admonition that simple young man had had a Phantasie There is enough written of Phantasms in several Treatises and they are of many sorts 1. Phantasms or Illusions that happen in the Air and are called by Naturalists Phoenomena's being several Visions that are seen in the Air namely strange Suns Armies Ships and such other things 2. Phantasms that seems to be and are not as when the Apostles believed Christ to be an apparition or spirit when he in a strange manner did walk upon the Sea and after his Resurrection came in to them the doors being shut 3. Phantasms that by natural causes namely the temperature and sickness of a man or what they think much upon do appear in dreams In this manner the Emperor Nero did no sooner fall asleep but he had strange dreams having killed his own Mother his Tutor and many other Citizens innocently Thus cholerick and melancholy folks are troubled with Visions according to the predominant humour whereof Physitians and Naturalists write at large St. Austin de Civit Dei l. 18. writes that one had related him that before he went to bed in his house he saw a certain Philosopher come to him expounding him the Books of Plato which he had desired of him before but he would not do 〈◊〉 and having afterwarks ask'd the same Philosopher wherefore he came and expounded in his house whereas he was before unwilling to do it in his own he said I did it not but I dream'd I did so In this Example the one saw in a dream what the other saw waking 4. Phantasms in themselves as they are and appear to men when they are awake that have properly no bodies but assume one for a time to delude mankind such commonly announce men punishment and universal calamities or bring them a despairing horror for their sins It was such a one that appeared to Saul in the likeness of Samuel and announced him his death Plutarch relates that there appeared a spirit to Marcus Brutus as he was awake and Brutus asking him who he was he told him he was an evil spirit and that he should soon see him in the Philippian Fields It is written of a Duke of the Athenians called Polyzelus that he in the fields of Marathon saw a spirit bigger than a man whereupon he grew blind and yet having lost his sight won a great Battle upon the Enemy such spirits do vex men and either hereby strengthen them in their old errors or will bring them into new ones as the adoration of strange gods and superstitious works which happened but too much in the times of Popery All Learned Divines tell us what we must believe of such apparitions namely that they are evil spirits In the relation of this simple man there is made mention of two sorts of apparitions the one seen in the air namely an u usual Sun that was nothing but an illusion of Satan whereby he endeavoured to introduce a strange adorat on of God and superstitious acts which God does not require from us that so he might by these Visions seduce them from the true word of God to believe deceitful errors Satan that brought down fire from Heaven upon the Cattle of Job Job 1. ver 16. could easily cause to shine a bright fire in the sky evil spirits reigning in the air Ephes 6. ver 12. The other was properly a Phantasm or spirit I am in doubt whether one may refer apparitions in dreams to Specters it being first come to him in his sleep when he was sick which might indeed cause such a fancie but since it hath oftner appeared to him afterwards when he was in perfect health and awake and I often diligently asked the party whether this was really seen by him which he ever constantly affirm'd we must conclude that it was a spirit and apparition and though it had not such terrible aspect as the former Examples yet we know that Satan can transform himself into an Angel of light that evil spirit knowing very well that he could have promoted his Kingdom but little if he had appeared in his terrible figure and put the black-side outward wherefore he cloathed himself in a white shining Garment and a Priests Habit which is not his first Master piece for Sulpitius Severus in the life of Martin the Bishop writeth that Satan appeared once unto him when he was in bed and prayed having a golden Crown on his head and a white shining Garment on with gilt shooes who spoke to him saying I am Jesus who being come down on the earth would first appear unto thee Martin having look'd upon him and bethought himself said Jesus did not go in this manner on earth depart from me Satan Whereupon he presently vanished with a great stink Plinius Secundus Novocamensis Hist 7. Epist relates that there lay a Boy and slept amongst other Children in the Chamber when two spirits in white Clothes were seen to come therein that cut the Boys hair as he lay asleep going so away and in the morning the Boy was found with his hair cut and spread about in the bed There are Examples enough of Ghosts that have appeared in Priests clothes during the time of Popery which we will omit because of their prolixity Thus the white cloathes and holy Garments of this evil spirit cannot avail him for he discovers himself not only by his erroneous Service of God but also by pretending to be the Person of St. John that lay in Christs bosome at the Lords Supper For having not been constant in truth neither can he always speak truth And we know that God sends his Angels for their sake that are to inherit Salvation and not the Souls of the dead for they are in the hand of God where they rest from all their labours And if any of them appeared unto us they should either do it of their own Authority which they cannot in the condition they are now or by the command of God which happeneth not for men have Moses and the Prophets unto whom they should hearken during this life Luke 16. ver 26. and it were in vain for them to appear since none must believe them under great punishment of God Deut. 18 ver 11. yea the Soul of dead Saints have left all thoughts and care of earthly things for Abraham knoweth nothing of us and Israel remembreth us not Esa 64. v. 16. Finally we read no where either in the Old or New Testament that God hath any time converst with the living by means of the dead God spoke indeed many