which he found out the universal Medicine by a certain Aurum potabile by which he prolonged his life to the 145. year of his age in which year he suffered Martyrdom This I have produced to shew how inconsiderately and ignorantly the best learned of an Age may be and often are wrongfully and falsely traduced and slandered which may be a warning to all persons to take heed how they pass their censures until they understand perfectly all that is necessary to be known about the Subject they are to give judgment of before they utter or declare their sentence 5. Roger Bacon our Country-man who was a Franciscan Fryar and Doctor of Divinity the greatest Chymist Astrologer and Mathematician of his time yet could not escape the injurious and unchristian censure of being a Conjurer and so hard put to it that as Pitts saith he was twice cited to Rome by Clement the Fourth to purge himself of that accusation and was forced to send his Optical and Mathematical Instruments to Rome to satisfie the Pope and the Conclave which he amply performed and came off with honor and applause To vindicate whom I need say little because it is already performed by the Pens of those learned persons Pitts Leland Selden and Nandaeus only I shall add one Sentence forth of that most learned Treatise De mirabili potestate artis naturae de nullitate magiae Where he saith thus Quicquid autem est praeter operationem naturae vel artis aut non est humanum aut est fictum sraudibus occupatum Another of our Country-men Dr. John Dee the greatest and ablest Philosopher Mathematician and Chymist that his Age or it may be ever since produced could not evade the censure of the Monster-headed multitude but even in his life time was accounted a Conjurer of which he most sadly and not without cause complaineth in his most learned Preface to Euclid Englished by Mr. Billingsley and there strongly apologizeth for himself with that zeal and fervency that may satisfie any rational Christian that he was no such wicked person as to have visible and familiar converse if any such thing can be now adays with the Devil the known Enemy of Mankind of which take this short passage where he saith O my unkind Country-men O unnatural Country-men O unthankful Country-men O brain-sick rash spiteful and disdainful Country-men why oppress you me thus violently with your slandering of me contrary to verity and contrary to your own consciences Yet notwithstanding this and his known abilities in the most parts of abstruse Learning the great respect that he had from divers Princes Nobles and the most Learned in all Europe could not protect him from this harsh and unjust censure For Dr. Casaubon near fifty years after Dr. Dees death hath in the year 1659. published a large Book in Folio of Dees conversing for many years with Spirits wicked ones he meaneth But how Christian-like this was done to wound the mans reputation so many years after his death and with that horrid and wicked slander of having familiarity with Devils for many years in his life time which tends to the loss both of body and soul and to register him amongst the damned how Christian-like this is I leave all Christians to judge Besides let all the World judge in this case that Dr. Casaubon being a sworn Witchmonger even to the credulity of the filthiest and most impossible of their actions cannot but allow of the Law that doth punish them for digging up the bones of the dead to use them to Superstition or Sorcery what may he then think the World may judge him guilty of for uncovering the Dormitories of the deceased not to abuse their bones but to throw their Souls into the deepest pit of Hell A wickedness certainly beyond the greatest wickedness that he can believe is committed by Witches It is manifest that he hath not published this meerly as a true relation of the matter of fact and so to leave it to others to judge of but that designedly he hath laboured to represent Dee as a most infamous and wicked person as may be plainly seen in the whole drift of his tedious Preface But his design to make Dee a Converser with evil Spirits was not all he had another that concerned himself more nearly He had before run in a manner by labouring to make all that which he called Enthusiasm to be nothing else but imposture or melancholy and depraved phantasie arising from natural causes into the censure of being a Sadducee or Atheist To wash off which he thought nothing was so prevalent as to leap into the other end of the balance the mean is hard to be kept to weigh the other down by publishing some notorious Piece that might as he thought in an high degree manifest the existence of Spirits good and bad and this he thought would effect it sufficiently or at least wipe off the former imputation that he had contracted But that I may not be too tedious I shall sum up briefly some others by which it may be made clear that those dauntless Spirits that have adventured to cross the current of common opinion and those that have handled abstruse Subjects have never wanted opposition and scandal how true or profitable soever the things were that they treated or writ of Trithemius that Honour and Ornament of Germany for all sorts of Literature wanted not a Bouillus to calumniate and condemn him of unlawful Magick from which all the Learned in Europe know he is absolved by the able and elegant Pen of him that styles himself Gustavus Silenus and others Cornelius Agrippa run the same Fate by the scribling of that ignorant and envious Monk Paulus Jovius from whose malicious slander he is totally acquitted by the irrefragable evidence of Wierus Melchior Adams Nandaeus and others Who almost have not read or heard of the horrid and abominable false scandals laid upon that totius Germaniae decus Paracelsus by the malevolent Pen of Erastus and after swallowed up with greediness by Libanius Conringius Sennertus and many others for not only labouring to bring in a new Theory and Practice into the Art of Medicine but also for striving to purge and purifie the ancient natural laudable and lawful Magick from the filth and dregs of Imposture Deceit Ceremonies and Superstitions yet hath not wanted most strong and invincible Champions to defend him as Dorne Petrus Severinus Smetius Crollius Bitiscius and many others Our Country-man Dr. Fudd a man acquainted with all kinds of Learning and one of the most Christian Philosophers that ever writ yet wanted not those snarling Animals such as Marsennus Lanovius Foster and Gassendus as also our Casaubon as mad as any to accuse him vainly and falsely of Diabolical Magick from which the strength of his own Pen and Arguments did discharge him without possibility of replies We shall now come to those that have treated of Witchcraft and strongly
such strange things as Witchmongers fondly and falsely believe can be performed or effected Therefore by way of conclusion in this particular we grant that there are many sorts of such kind of Witches as for gain and vain-glory do take upon them to declare hidden and occult things to divine of things that are to come and to do many wonderful matters but that they are but Cheaters Deceivers and Couseners 2. And as there are a numerous crew of active Witches whose existence we freely acknowledge so there are another sort that are under a passive delusion and know not or at least do not observe or understand that they are deluded or imposed upon These are those that confidently believe that they see do and suffer many strange odd and wonderful things which have indeed no existence at all in them but only in their depraved fancies and are meerly melancholiae figmenta And yet the confessions of these though absurd idle foolish false and impossible are without all ground and reason by the common Witchmongers taken to be truths and falsely ascribed unto Demons and that they are sufficient grounds to proceed upon to condemn the Confessors to death when all is but passive delusion intrinsecally wrought in the depraved imaginative faculty by these three ways or means 1. One of the Causes that produceth this depraved and passive delusion is evil education they being bred up in ignorance either of God the Scriptures or the true grounds of Christian Religion nay not being taught the common Rules of Morality or of other humane Literature but only imbibing and sucking in with their mothers and nurses milk the common gross and erroneous opinions that the blockish vulgar people do hold who are all generally inchanted and bewitched with the belief of the strange things related of Devils Apparitions Fayries Hobgoblins Ghosts Spirits and the like so that thereby a most deep impression of the verity of the most gross and impossible things is instamped in their fancies hardly ever after in their whole life time to be obliterated or washt out so prevalent a thing is Custom and Institution from young years though the things thus received and pertinaciously believed and adhered unto are most abominable falsities and impossibilities having no other existence but in the brains and phantasies of old ignorant and doting persons and are meerly muliercularum nutricum terriculamenta figmenta and therefore did Seneca say Gravissimum est consuetudinis imperium And that this is one main cause of this delusion is manifest from all the best Historians that where the light of the Gospel hath least appeared and where there is the greatest brutish ignorance and heathenish Barbarism there the greatest store of these deluded Witches or Melancholists are to be found as in the North of Scotland Norway Lapland and the like as may be seen at large in Saxo Grammaticus Olaus Magnus Hector Boetius and the like 2. But when an atrabilarious Temperament or a melancholick Complexion and Constitution doth happen to those people bred in such ignorance and that have suckt in all the fond opinions that Custom and Tradition could teach them then what thing can be imagined that is strange wonderful or incredible but these people do pertinaciously believe it and as confidently relate it to others nay even things that are absolutely impossible as that they are really changed into Wolves Hares Dogs Cats Squirrels and the like and that they flye in the Air are present at great Feasts and Meetings and do strange and incredible things when all these are but the meer effects of the imaginative function depraved by the fumes of the melancholick humor as we might shew from the Writings of the most grave and learned Physicians but we shall content our selves with some few select ones 1. That distemper which Physicians call Lycanthropia is according to the judgment of Aetius and Paulus but a certain species of Melancholy and yet they really think and believe themselves to be Wolves and imitate their actions of which Johannes Fincelius in his second Book de Mirac giveth us a relation to this purpose That at Padua in the year 1541. a certain Husband-man did seem to himself a Wolf and did leap upon many in the fields and did kill them And that at last he was taken not without much difficulty and did confidently affirm that he was a true Wolf only that the difference was in the skin turned in with the hairs And therefore that certain having put off all humanity and being truly truculent and voracious did smite and cut off his legs and arms thereby to try the truth of the matter but the innocency of the man being known they commit him to the Chirurgions to be cured but that he dyed not many days after Which instance is sufficient to overthrow the vain opinion of those men that believe that a man or woman may be really transformed or transubstantiated into a Wolf Dog Cat Squirrel or the like without the operation of an omnipotent power as in Lots Wife becoming a Pillar of Salt though St. Augustine was so weak as to seem to believe the reality of these transformations of which we shall have occasion to speak more largely hereafter 2. Another story we shall give from the Authority of that learned Physician Nicolaus Tulpius of Amsterdam to this effect A certain famous Painter was for a long time infected with black Choler and did falsely imagine that all the bones of his body were as soft and flexible that they might be drawn and bended like soft wax Which opinion being deeply imprinted in his mind he kept himself in bed the whole Winter fearing that if he should rise they would not bear his weight but would shrink together by reason of their softness That Tulpius did not contradict him in that fancy but said that it was a distemper that Physicians were not ignorant of but had been long before noted by Fernelius that the bones like wax might be softned and indurated and that it might be easily cured if he would be obedient and that within three days he would make the bones firm and stable and that within six days he would restore him to the power of walking By which promises it was hard to declare how much hope of recovering health it had raised up in him and how obedient it made him So that with Medicines proper to purge the atrabilarious humour within the time appointed he was at the three days end suffered to stand upon his feet and upon the sixth day had leave given to walk abroad and so found himself perfectly sound afterwards but did not perceive the deceit in his phantasie that had made him lye a whole Winter in bed though he was no stupid but an ingenious person in his Art and scarce second to any 3. Thomas Bartholinus the famous Anatomist and Physician to Frederick the Third King of Denmark tells us these things That it is the property of
he had commanded Agrippa unheard to make a Recantation But he writing a strong polite and pithy Apology gave them such a responsion that afterwards they did never reply by which and the mediation of divers learned Friends who gave Caesar a right information of the end and drift of that Book and of the things therein contained He was pacified and brought to a better understanding of the matter Yet this could not protect Agrippa from the virulent malice of the Popish Witchmongers but that they forged most abominable lyes and scandals against him especially that wretched and ignorant Monk Paulus Jovius that was not ashamed to record in his Book intituled De Elogiis doctorum Virorum that Agrippa carried a Cacodemon about with him in the likeness of a black Dog and that he died at Lyons when it is certain he died at Gratianople From all which horrid aspersions and lying scandals he is sufficiently acquitted by the famous Physician Johannes Wierus one that was educated under him and lived familiarly with him and therefore was best able to testifie the whole truth of these particulars But any that are so perversly and wilfully blinded as to have a sinister opinion of this person who ab ineunte aetate in literis educatus esset quâ fuit ingenii foelicitate in omni artium ac disciplinarum genere ita versatus est ut excelluerit may have most ample satisfaction from the modest and impartial Pen of Melchior Adams who hath written his Life as also from something that our Country-man who called himself Eugenius Philalethes hath clearly delivered so that none can be ignorant of this particular but such as wilfully refuse to be informed of the truth Nay where interest hath a share truth can hardly be expected though it be but in more trivial things as even but for aery fame and vain-glory as may be manifest in Hierome Cardan who was a man of prodigious pride and vain-glory which led him as the learned Dr. Brown hath noted into no small errours being a great Amasser of strange and incredible stories led to relate them by his meer ambition of hunting after fame and the reputation of an universal Scholar And of no less pride and vain-glorious ambition was his Antagonist Julius Caesar Scaliger guilty of whom it may truly be said that he was of the nature of those of the Ottoman Family that do not think they can ever raign safely unless they strangle all their Brethren so he did not think that he could aspire to the Throne of being the Monarch of general Learning without stifling the fame and reputation of Cardan and others against whom he hath been most fell and impetuously bitter But when men fall out about professional interest then the stories that through malice they invent and forge one against another are incredible as is manifest in many Examples but we shall but give one for all which is this When Paracelsus returning from his Peregrination of ten years and above was called to be Physical Lecturer at Basil where he continued three years and more having by his strange and wonderful Cures drawn the most part of Germany and the adjacent Countries into admiration so that he was and might notwithstanding the envy and ignorance of all his enemies justly be styled Totius Germaniae decus gloria yet this was not sufficient to quiet the violent and virulent mind of Thomas Erastus who coming to be setled at Basil and finding that he could not outgo nor equal Paracelsus in point of Medicinal Practice and being strongly grounded in the Aristotelian Philosophy and the Galenical Physick did with all poyson and bitterness labour to confute the Principles of Chymical Physick that Paracelsus had introduced and lest his arguments might be too weak he backt them with most horrible lyes and scandals thinking that many and strong accusations though never so false would not be easily answered nor totally washt off which after were greedily swallowed down by Libanius Conringius Sennertus and many others so apt are men to invent and suck in scandals against others never considering how false and groundless they are or may be for that he wrongfully and falsely accused him in many things will be manifest to any unbiassed person that will but take pains to read his Life written by that equitable Judge Melchior Adams and that large Preface the learned Physician Fredericus Bitiskius hath prefixed to his Works printed at Geneva 1648. 4. But if the Authors that report matters of fact in reference to these four particulars that we have named were ear and eye witnesses and not single but a greater number and were not swayed by any corrupt or self-interest whatsoever yet all this is not sufficient to give evidence in these matters except they be rightly qualified in other things that are necessarily requisite to capacitate a person rightly to judge of these nice and difficult matters some of the chief of which we shall here enumerate 1. The persons that are fit to give a perfect judgment of these matters ought to be perfect in the organs of their senses otherwise they may easily be deceived and think the things otherwise than indeed they are so some defects or distempers in the ears eyes or the rest of the sensories may hinder the true perception of things acted or done 2. They ought to be of a sound judgment and not of a vitiated or distempered Phantasie nor of a melancholick Temper or Constitution for such will be full of fears and strange imaginations taking things as acted and wrought without when they are but only represented within These will take a bush to be a Boggard and a black sheep to be a Demon the noise of the wild Swans flying high upon the nights to be Spirits or as they call them here in the North Gabriel-Ratchets the calling of a Daker-hen in the Meadow to be the Whistlers the howling of the female Fox in a Gill or a Clough for the male when they are for copulation to be the cry of young Children or such Creatures as the common people call Fayries and many such like fancies and mistakes 3. They ought to be clear and free from those imbibed notions of Spirits Hobgoblins and Witches which have been instamped upon their Phantasies from their very young years through ignorant and superstitious education wherewith generally all mankind is infected and but very few that get themselves extricated from those delusive Labyrinths that parents and ignorance have instilled into them From hence it is that not only the stolid and stupid Vulgar but even persons otherwise rational enough do commonly attribute those sleights and tricks that our common Jugglers play unto the Devil when they are only performed by Leger-de-main or sleight of hand Boxes and Instruments aptly fitted and will not stick to believe and strongly to affirm to others that they have seen the Jugglers Familiar or Devil when it was but a poor
shining into his understanding and so is become wilfully blind To such as these we shall only propose the example and practice of the Apostle who saith When I was a child I spake as a child I understood as a child I thought as a child But when I became a man I put away childish things And I advise them not to refuse the counsel of S. Augustine who saith Ad discendum quod opus est nulla aetas sera videri potest quia etsi senes magis decet docere quà m discere magis tamen decet discere quam ignorare And they need not be ashamed to imitate Socrates who did wax old every day learning something 5. As we have not intended this Treatise and Introduction for such conditioned persons as we have enumerated before so there are others to whom we freely offer and present it and shall shew the grounds and causes that moved us to undertake such a mysterious and dangerous subject And those are such as have an humble lowly and equal mind that they commonly read Books to be informed and to learn those truths of which they are ignorant or to be confirmed in those things they partly knew before It is to such as these only that we offer our labours and therefore shall candidly declare unto them the causes and reasons of our undertaking which are these 1. Though there be a numerous company of Authors that have written of Magick Witchcraft Sorcery Inchantment Spirits and Apparitions in sundry ages of divers Countrys and in various languages yet have they for the most but borrowed one from another or have transcribed what others had written before them So that thereby there hath been no right progress made truly to discover the theory or ground of these dark and abstruse matters nor no precise care taken to instance in matters of fact that have been warrantably and sufficiently attested But only rhapsodies and confused heaps of stories and relations shuffled together when not one of an hundred of them bore the face either of verity or truth-likeliness whereby the understandings of Readers have remained uninlightned their memories confounded and their brains stuffed with Whimsies and Chimera's And though there be nothing more common than disputes of Witches and Witchcraft both in words and writing yet not one of great multitudes that hath plainly told us in what notion or under what acceptation they take the words nor what description is agreed upon of either of these that their existence or not being their power and operations might be known and determined But all the disputes as yet concerning them have been loose wild and in vagum And therefore to remedie this as far as such a subject would allow and our abilities stretch we were moved and have attempted to clear those difficulties And if we do not which is epidemical to mankind flatter and deceive ourselves we have in some measure reasonably attained as having plainly laid down the notion and acceptation of the words Witches and Witchcraft in which we grant them an existence and in what sense and respect we grant them none which is more as we conceive than yet hath been performed by any And though our instances of matters of fact be neither so punctual nor full as might be wished for things of this nature are deep and hid yet are they the best we could select or chuse and this is one chief reason why I undertook to treat of this subject 2. Though the gross absurd impious and Popish opinions of the too much magnified powers of Demons and Witches in this Nation were pretty well quashed and silenced by the writings of Wierus Tandler Mr. Scot Mr. Ady Mr. Wagstaff and others and by the grave proceedings of many learned Judges and other judicious Magistrates yet finding that of late two persons of great learning and note who are both as I am informed beneficed Ministers in the Church to wit Dr. Casaubon and Mr. Glanvil have afresh espoused so bad a cause and taken the quarrel upon them And to that purpose have newly furbished up the old Weapons and raked up the old arguments forth of the Popish Sink and Dunghills and put them into a new dress that they might appear with the greater luster and so do with Tooth and Nail labour to maintain the old rotten assertions the one in his Book called A Treatise proving Spirits and Witches c. the other in a Treatise called A blow at modern Sadducism c. Finding these I say as two new Champions giving defiance to all that are of a contrary judgment I was stirred up to answer their supposed strong arguments and invincible instances which I have done I confess without fear or any great regard to their Titles Places or Worldly Dignities but only considering the strength or weakness of their arguments proofs and reason For in this particular that I have to deal it is not with the men but their opinions and the grounds they would lay their foundations upon And if I be censured for dealing too sharply and harshly with them they must excuse me for I profess I have no evil will at all against their persons no more than against a non-Entity but was justly zealous for the truth and bitter against such opinions as they have vented which to me seem dangerous and in some respect impious as I suppose I have fully proved And this was another reason of my writing about this subject 3. Another reason that made me undertake this subject was the horrid absurdities the tenent of the common Witchmongers brings along with it as not only tending to advance superstition and Popery but also to be much derogatory to the Wisdom Justice and Providence of the Almighty and to cry up the power of the Kingdom of darkness to question the verity of the principal Article of the Christian Faith concerning the Resurrection of Christ in his true numerical Body and generally to tend to the obstruction of the practice of Godliness and Piety These after I had seriously weighed and considered them did move me to labour as far as the light of Gods word the grounds of true Theology and the clear strength of reason would guide and direct me to undertake the confutation of them as far as I was able and if I have failed I humbly desire those that are more able to handle the matter more fully if possible If any be moved that I seem to maintain some things that are Paradoxes I hope I may crave leave as well to discede from the opinions of others as others have done from those that went before them And I desire them not so much to consider either the novelty or strangeness of the opinions as the weight and strength of the reasons that are laid down to support and statuminate them for if the arguments be sound and valid the Tenents built thereupon cannot be weak and tottering And however I acknowledge my self to have humane frailties and so
Giffard and divers others who have from one to another lickt up the Vomit of the first Broacher of this vain and false opinion and without due consideration have laboured to obtrude it upon others Yet was it in a manner rejected by the most of the Learned who had duly weighed the matter and read the strong and convincing arguments of Wierus Tandlerus Nymannus Biermannus Gutierrius Mr. Scot and the like until of late years Dr. Casaubon and Mr. Glanvil have taken up Weapons to defend these false absurd impossible impious and bloody opinions withal against whose arguments we now principally direct our Pen and after the answering of their groundless and unjust scandals we shall labour to overthrow their chief Bulwarks and Fortifications CHAP. III. The denying of such a Witch as is last described in the foregoing Chapter doth not infer the denying of Angels or Spirits Apparitions no warrantable ground for a Christian to believe the Existence of Angels or Devils by but the Word of God HAving declared in what sense and acceptation we allow of Witches and in what notion we deny them lest we be misunderstood we shall add thus much That we do not as the Schools speak deny the existence of Witches absolutè simpliciter sed secundùm quid and that they do not exist tali modo that is they do not make a visible Contract with the Devil he doth not suck upon their bodies they have not carnal Copulation with him and the like recited before and in these respects and not otherwise did Wierus Gutierrius and Mr. Scot deny Witches that is that neither they nor their supposed Familiars could perform such things as are ascribed unto them And that Dr. Casaubon and Mr. Glanvil should charge those that hold this opinion with Atheisth or Sadducism is to me very strange having no ground connexion or rational consequence so to do yet doth Dr. Casaubon affirm it in these words Now one prime foundation saith he of Atheism as by many ancient and late is observed being the not believing the existence of spiritual Essences whether good or bad separate or united subordinate to God as to the supreme and original Cause of all and by consequent the denying of supernatural operations I have I confess applied my self by my examples which in this case do more than any reasoning and the Authority of the holy Scriptures laid aside are almost the only convincing proof And Mr. Glanvil is so confident I might justly say impudent that he styled his Book A Blow at modern Sadducism which I confess is so weak a blow and so blindly levell'd and so improperly directed that I am sure it will kill or hurt no body and tells us this boldly and roundly And those that dare not bluntly sâ—y There is no God content themselves for a fair step and introduction to deny there are Spirits or Witches Which sort of Iâ—fidels though they are not ordinary among the meer Vulgar yet are they numerous in a little higher rank of understandings And those that know any thing of the World know that most of the looser Gentry and the small Pretenders to Philosophy and Wit are generally deâ—iders of the belief of Witches and Apparitions And the whole design of his Book is to prove those men to be guilty of Sadducism that deny the existence of Witches understood in his sense and this we oppose and the state of the question we lye down thus That the denying the existence of Angels or Spirits or the Resurrection doth not infer the denying of the Being of God nor the denying of the existence of Witches in the sense before laid down infer the denying of Angels or Spirits and that they do unjustly charge the Authors of this opinion with Sadducism we shall prove with irrefragable Arguments 1. There can be no right deduction made nor no right consequence drawn where there is no dependency in causality nor no connexion of dependency For as in the Relative and Correlative the denying of the one necessarily destroys the other yet fundamentum Relationis non destruitur so a father without a child as a father doth neither exist nor is known and yet the foundation of those two terms of Paternity and Childship which is Man doth remain So he that denieth Creation doth destroy the Relative which is Creator yet the foundation which is God doth remain and the denying of the Creation doth not infer the necessary conclusion of denying the Being of a God because there might be a God though there were no Creation because God is supposed to be both in respect of causality and duration before Creation So what relation can Mr. Glanvil feign betwixt the Being of God and the Being of Angels or Spirits For they both belong to the Predicament of Substance and not that of Relation and there is less relation betwixt the Being of a Witch and the Being of Spirits so that the denying of the one doth not infer the denying of the other And though there were relation which Mr. Glanvil cannot shew the foundation of that Relation which is so necessary that Relatives cannot subsist without it might remain though the Relatives were taken away and therefore the denying of the existence of Angels or Spirts doth not infer the denying of the Being of God and therefore the Authors of this opinion are wrongfully and falsely charged with Atheism and the denying of the existence of a Witch in the sense specified doth not infer the denying of the Being of Spirits and therefore Scot Osburne and the like are falsely and wrongfully charged with Sadducism 2. Though it be a true Maxime that de posse ad esse non valet argumentum yet on the contrary the possibility of that can never be rationally denied that hath once been in esse But it is apparent that the Sadducees denied the Resurrection and that there were either Angels or Spirits that is they denied that Angels or Spirits whether good or bad did separately exist and that they were nothing but the good or bad motions in mens minds yet these men were no Atheists for though they denied the Resurrection and held that there were no Angels or Spirits yet they held and believed there was a God and did allow of and believed the five Books of Moses else would not our Saviour have used an argument whose only strength was drawn from a sentence in the third Chapter of Exodus the sixth verse So that even the denying of the Existence of Angels and Spirits doth not infer the denying of a God much less doth the denying the Existence of a Witch infer the denial of the Being of Angels and Spirits and therefore the charge of Atheism and Sadducism is false injurious and scandalous 3. Those things that in their Beings have no dependence one upon another the denying of the one doth not take away or deny the being of the other but where the being doth meerly exist in
it was at Durham they were arraigned found guilty condemned and executed but I could never hear that they confessed the fact There were some that reported that the apparition did appear to the Judge or the Foreman of the Jury who was alive in Chester in the street about ten years aâ—go as I have been credibly informed but of that I know no certainty There are many persons yet alive that can remember this strange murder and the discovery of it for it was and sometimes yet is as much discoursed of in the North Countrey as any thing that almost hath ever been heard of and the relation printed though now not to be gotten I relate this with the greater confidence though I may fail in some of the circumstances because I saw and read the Letter that was sent to Serjeant Hutton who then lived at Goldsbrugh in Yorkshire from the Judge before whom Walker and Mark Sharp were tried and by whom they were condemned and had a Copy of it until about the year 1658. when I had it and many other books and papers taken from me And this I confess to be one of the most convincing stories being of undoubted verity that ever I read heard or knew of and carrieth with it the most evident force to make the most incredulous spirit to be satisfied that there are really sometimes such things as apparitions And though it be not easy to assign the true and proper cause of such a strange effect yet must we not measure all things to be or not to be to be true or false according to the extent of our understandings for if there be many of the magnalia naturae that yet lie hidden from the wisest of men then much more may the magnalia Dei be unknown unto us whose judgments are unsearchable and his wayes past finding out And as in the rest we cannot ascribe this strange apparition to any diabolical operation nor to the Soul of the Woman murthered so we must conclude that either it was meerly wrought by the Divine Power or by the Astral spirit of the murthered Woman which last doth seem most rational as we shall shew hereafter 5. To these though it be not altogether of the same nature we shall add one both for the oddness and strangeness of it as also because it happened in my time and I was both an eye and ear-witness of the trial of the person accused And first take a hint of it from the pen of Durant Hotham in his learned Epistle to the Mysterium magnum of Jacob Behemen upon Genesis in these words There was he saith as I have heard the story credibly reported in this Country a Man apprehended for suspicion of Witchcraft he was of that sort we call white Witches which are such as do cures beyond the ordinary reasons and deductions of our usual practitioners and are supposed and most part of them truly to do the same by the ministration of spirits from whence under their noble favours most Sciences at first grew and therefore are by good reason provided against by our Civil Laws as being ways full of danger and deceit and scarce ever otherwise obtained than by a devillish compact of the exchange of ones Soul to that assistant spirit for the honour of its Mountebankery What this man did was with a white powder which he said he received from the Fairies and that going to a Hill he knocked three times and the Hill opened and he had access to and converse with a visible people and offered that if any Gentleman present would either go himself in person or send his servant he would conduct them thither and shew them the place and persons from whom he had his skill To this I shall only add thus much that the man was accused for invoking and calling upon evil spirits and was a very simple and illiterate person to any mans judgment and had been formerly very poor but had gotten some pretty little meanes to maintain himself his Wife and diverse small children by his cures done with this white powder of which there were sufficient proofs and the Judge asking him how he came by the powder he told a story to this effect That one night before day was gone as he was going home from his labour being very sad and full of heavy thoughts not knowing how to get meat and drink for his Wife and Children he met a fair Woman in fine cloaths who asked him why he was so sad and he told her that it was by reason of his poverty to which she said that if he would follow her counsel she would help him to that which would serve to get him a good living to which he said he would consent with all his heart so it were not by unlawful ways she told him that it should not be by any such ways but by doing of good and curing of sick people and so warning him strictly to meet her there the next night at the same time she departed from him and he went home And the next night at the time appointed he duly waited and she according to promise came and told him that it was well that he came so duly otherwise he had missed of that benefit that she intended to do unto him and so bade him follow her and not be afraid Thereupon she led him to a little Hill and she knocked three times and the Hill opened and they went in and came to a fair hall wherein was a Queen sitting in great state and many people about her and the Gentlewoman that brought him presented him to the Queen and she said he was welcom and bid the Gentlewoman give him some of the white powder and teach him how to use it which she did and gave him a little wood box full of the white powder and bad him give 2 or 3 grains of it to any that were sick and it would heal them and so she brought him forth of the Hill and so they parted And being asked by the Judge whether the place within the Hill which he called a Hall were light or dark he said indifferent as it is with us in the twilight and being asked how he got more powder he said when he wanted he went to that Hill and knocked three times and said every time I am coming I am coming whereupon it opened and he going in was conducted by the aforesaid Woman to the Queen and so had more powder given him This was the plain and simple story however it may be judged of that he told before the Judge the whole Court and the Jury and there being no proof but what cures he had done to very many the Jury did acquit him and I remember the Judge said when all the evidence was heard that if he were to assign his punishment he should be whipped from thence to Fairyhall and did seem to judge it to be a delusion or an Imposture From whence we may take
it were immoveable until not by any deceit or ambushes but only stretching their hands they had taken them and strangled them This is from his own sight and he a Man of undoubted veracity 5. Another take from the credit of Dr. Casaubon who fathers it upon Remigius but confesseth that at the time of his writing the story he could not find it in Remigius his Book and is this I have seen a Man saith he who from all the neighbourhood or confines would draw Serpents into the fire which was inclosed within a magical circle and when one of them bigger than the rest would not be brought in upon repetition of the charms before used he was forced and so into the fire he did yield himself with the rest and with it was compassed 6. To these we shall adjoin another story written from Wierus by Dr. Moore thus And he saith Wierus tells us this story of a Charmer at Saltzburg that when in the sight of the people he had charmed all the Serpents into a ditch and killed them at last there came one huge one far bigger than the rest that leap◠upon him and winded about his waste like a girdle and pulled him into the ditch and so killed the Charmer himself in the conclusion And this great Serpent the Doctor taketh in his Appendix to be a Devil or a Serpent actuated and guided by him but upon what grounds of reason I can no way understand These are the most material passages that in our reading we can find in credible and learned Authors to prove thereby the effects of charms de facto and we confess they are all short and not sufficiently evidential as such a case may justly require and therefore we shall here add some testimonies of good Authors that do strongly affirm and aver the same As not to stand upon the authorities of the Cabalists Platonists or Arabians we find the truth of the charming of Serpents avouched by Paracelsus whose credit in this point may be equivalent to any others who saith thus But he saith answer me from whence is this that a Serpent in Helvetia Algovia or Suevia doth understand the Greek Idions Osy Osya Osy c. When notwithstanding the Greek tongue is not so common in this age with the Helvetians Algovians or Suevians that the venenous worms should be able to learn it Tell me he saith how where and from what causes Serpents do understand these words or in what Academics have they learned them that they should forthwith at the first hearing of those words stop their ears with their tail turned back lest they should be compelled to hear the words again reiterated For assoon as they hear them they contrary to their nature and cunning do forthwith lie immoveable and do pursue or hurt no man with their venemous biting when notwithstanding otherwise they on the sudden fly from the noise of a mans going as soon as they hear it and turn into their holes From whence it is manifest that Paracelsus knew of his own experience that the charm which it seems he knew would make Serpents lie immoveable and so that there was power and efficacy in words naturally without superstition to work and operate Also the learned person Tobias Tandlerus Doctor of Physick and publick Professor at Witteberge in his smart and pithy Oration de fascino incantatione tells us this That Tucci◠a Woman belonging to the Temple of Vesta being accused of Incest did by the help of prayer carry water in a sieve as Pliny witnesseth lib. 28. c. 2. natur Histor. Who there with many examples doth extol the efficacy of words And further saith They are found that stay wild beasts with words that they efcape not the throwing of the dart And those that render Rats being seen in any place stupid with secret murmuring that they may be taken with the hand and strangled Augerius Ferrerius whom Thuanus calls Medicus Doctissimus in his treating of Homerical medication after he hath quoted Galen's recantation from Trallianus and divers arguments and examples to prove the efficacy of words charms and characters from him from Aetius and others he concludeth thus Quorum experientiam cum ob oculos positam tot illustrium virorum authoritate confirmata videris quid facies Nam iis quae sensibus exposita sunt contravenire sani hominis non est Doctorum vero experimenta infirmare temerarium Lastly for authorities sake we shall add the opinion of sagacious Helmont who writ a Book by him styled In verbis herbis lapidibus est magna virtus and of the efficacy of words saith only thus much De magna virtute verborum quaedam ingenuè dixi quae magis admiror quam applico By which it is manifest that though Helmont did not make use of words or charms yet knowing the efficacy of them he could not but admire them These authorities joyned with the examples may suffice to convince any rational man that at some times and places and by some persons the using of charms have produced strange effects and therefore taking the matter of fact to be a truth we should come to examine the cause of these effects but first it will be necessary to premise some cautions and necessary considerations which we shall pursue in this order 1. We are to consider the intricacy and difficulty of this point which hath exercised the wits of the learned in all ages and forced Pliny to say Maximae quaestionis semper incertae est valeantne aliquid verba incantamenta carminum And again more particularly Varia circa haec opinio ex ingenio cujusque vel casu mulceri alloquio foras quippe ubi etiam Serpentes extrahi cantu cogique in poenas verum falsumne sit vita non decreverit It seems by Pliny that learned men of old have been very much divided in their opinions about this matter insomuch that he dares not take upon him to decide it but leaves it free to every man to believe as they shall see cause And therefore we ought not to be condemned if we do not absolutely decide it neither it is enough if we bring so much light to the matter that it may be better understood though not absolutely determined In magnis voluisse sat est 2. Again we are to note that some Authors of great credit and learning do hold these things to be but meer Aniles fabulae of which opinion it seems Aristotle and Galen were though Trallianus doth affirm though some say falsly that he made a retractation of that opinion and this was the judgment of the learned Spaniard Valesius who in his book De sacra Philosophia hath taken great pains to perswade men though he deny not supernatural operations by Devils and Spirits that inchanting by magical words are impossible and whatsoever is alledged by any ancient or late writer to that purpose he doth reject as meerly fabulous But