that which is related of Kings and Princes of Generals Tribunes and Centurions in the Book of Numbers and of the Kings he knew was an Image or Embleme of other Kings and Princes namely that in the Heavenly Hosts there are Principalities Powers Dominions and Thrones and other names of Offices which we can neither name nor I suppose Paul himself while in this earthly Body would enumerate Now if there be Thrones and Dominions Principalities and Powers they must of necessity have Subjects and those that fear and serve them and such as may be protected by their strength Which distributions of Offices are not only at present but shall be in the world to come that through several advancements and Honours and Ascensions and Descensions Beings may proportionably arise or decline and may be under sometimes one Dominion Principality or Power and sometimes another We mortals that are quickly to be dissolved into dust and ashes if by the consent of men we should be made Kings we have presently as many diversities and multitudes of attendants as may more easily be conceived than spoken and shall we think that God the Lord of Lords and King of Kings is contented only with one single kind of Ministry Thus far the Father in a Platonical strain Mr. Mede somewhere speaks of an ancient Tradition among the Iews that there are seven principal Angels which minister before the Throne of God and are therefore called Archangels some of them we read of Michael Gabriel Raphael and 2 Esdr. 4.36 Ieremiel Which seven principal Spirits are mentioned in Zech. 4.10 where they are described to be the eyes of the Lord which run to and fro through the whole Earth And perhaps Daniel instituted the seven chief Princes of Persia that the Persian Court might resemble that of Heaven for 't is very probable says that learned Author that Daniel had a great influence in moulding the Persian Government A notable place to this purpose and which may indeed serve as a Commentary upon the forementioned Text in the Prophecy of Zechary is that which Apuleius relates of the Persian Court Sed inter eos Aures Regiae Imperatoris Oculi quidam homines vocabantur Per quae officiorum genera Rex ille ab hominibus Deus esse credebatur cùm omnia quaecunque ibi gererentur ille Otacustarum relatione dicebat i.e. But among them there were certain men which were called the eyes and ears of the Prince By which distribution of offices that King was thought by his subjects to be a God for as much as all things that were done within his Empire he had knowledge of from the relation of the Otacustae The same Tradition of the Government of the World by seven chief Spirits under God the great Monarch is yet retained by the Persians inhabiting the borders of India The summ of all amounts to this That since there is a subordinacy among the good Angels and that they are not all of the same Power and Authority it follows that even among the bad there was the like difference in their Order and Quality before their lapse and that there can be no reason given why this distinction should not hold good amongst them now as well as before 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 THE grand Prince of the Infernal Kingdom having so far successfully advanced his rebellious design in the seduction of infinite numbers of Spirits of whom in the Ethereal Regions under God he might probably be the great Hierarchal head and finding himself cast down from those happy Mansions together with all his wicked Associates must needs cast an envious eye upon the Kingdom of Light and those bright Legions who yet stood firm in their native innocence And it cannot be thought but that those principles of Pride and Malice and an immoderate thirst after Rule and Revenge being so fully awakened in him would likewise edge him with a keen desire of making further attempts upon the Kingdom of Light and waging 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an eternal war with all those powers he saw adverse and cross to his designs No sooner was Man created and as the beloved off-spring of God placed in Paradise but that crooked Serpent winds in himself and by his subtle wiles and gilded flatteries despoils him of his beautiful Robe of Innocence and throws his Honour to the ground Of which Sacred story the Pagans had gotten some knowledge as appears from what Pherecydes writes That the great Daemon who wasted the Earth was a Serpent and hence calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a Serpentine kind and generation setting mankind as it were in battel aray against God And what mischief he all along designed and still carries on against the race and posterity of Adam the Histories of former Ages and the present state of the World will easily inform us So mightily did this grand deceiver who abode not himself in the Truth disseminate and diffuse his own wicked nature amongst men that God the good and gracious maker of all things designed to destroy the works of his own hands and by an universal deluge wash away that poison wherewith this old Serpent had infected the Earth But notwithstanding this the Tyrant kept still his hold and with the increase of the world increased likewise his own strength and dominion making whole Nations to become his Vassals and do him service For what else can we think when we read of whole Countries over-spread with wickedness and vice barbarity and lust being adopted into their Laws and practised in their most solemn Religions Porphyry tells us that these airy Goblins delight in nothing more nor contend more eagerly than to be accounted Gods and their Prince that he may usurp the place of the most high God And this assertion of his is sufficiently made good in that they constantly commanded Sacrifices to be offered to them throughout the whole Pagan world Nor did their boundless Pride think this a sufficient insultation over the calamitous state of mankind unless they offered up likewise to them their own bloud Thus we read in Histories of Children young Virgins and Men offered up in Sacrifice to these bloud-thirsty Deities Nay even the more civilized Romans admitted the shedding of humane bloud to Iupiter Latialis which barbarous custom continued to the time of Iustin Martyr and Tatian I need not insist longer upon this since the Sacred writings acquaint us that God's own people were sometimes so miserably depraved and Paganized as to sacrifice their Sons and Daughters unto Devils Nor is the uncleanness and filthiness practised among the Pagans in their Religious Worship less notorious Insomuch that those very Festival days which were consecrated to the honour of the Gods were celebrated with
being all embodied Spirits that is vitally united to Matter they must of necessity be capable both of pain and pleasure the sense of which is more or less acute and vigorous according to either the Tenuity or Grossness of their Bodies and by consequence they are liable and obnoxious to harm and injury from those of their own Society which considering the mischievousness of their natures and dispositions each ones particular Lusts being the grand rule and measure of his Actions would certainly breed an infinite Ataxy and confusion amongst them and at last the ruine and destruction of their Kingdom if not prevented by some external restraint and discipline Wherefore they being all so deeply lapsed into the Animal life whose very foundation is self-love and preservation of the irregular Exertions of their sensual Appetites their Reason which though perfectly subservient to their brutish Faculties yet is no whit abated or diminished by their degeneracy would not fail of moulding them into a Body Politick and enacting by their general consent and approbation for the maintenance and security of their usurped Dominions all such Laws and necessary Provisions as might both secure themselves from outrages and villanies committed upon one another and the more advantageously and successfully drive on the general trade of wickedness throughout the whole kingdom of Hell and Darkness 2. But besides this there is another cogent reason and inducement to believe there is an Order and Government among the dark Fiends in that they are not all of the same rank and quality but may probably have as many divisions among them as there are diversities of Animals upon Earth though they all agree in the common Angelick nature which if so that thirst and desire of Rule and Authority which is so largly spread and diffused through their natures and capacities and so great a branch of the sensual life to which they are wholly addicted will undoubtedly stir up the more powerful and politick among them to take the reins of Government and Authority into their hands and prescribe Laws to the rest such as may both establish and preserve the Empire and Kingdom of Darkness from domestick and intestine broils and dissentions and uphold it when assaulted by forein Invasions And there seems to be an admirable consent between what Reason suggests and the Holy Scriptures in which mention is made of the Prince of Devils who is likewise called the Prince of the aiery Powers or Spirits And to quicken us up to a studious watchfulness and diligence against the latent frauds and machinations of those Infernal hunters we are assured that our contest is against Principalities and Powers and against the Aerial wicked Spirits under their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Prince And the learned Dr. Hammond in his Notes upon that place of S. Paul supposes the Apostle by those several expressions to denote several sorts of Devils either in respect of their Mansions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Ignatius ad Ephes. Aerial or Earthly Spirits or else of the inclinations which they suggest The Earthly Devils suggesting grosser carnal appetites filthiness of the flesh c. the Aerial pride vain-glory malice c. the filthiness of the Spirit And Drusius upon Ephes. 2.2 6.12 cites two Iewish Authors who speak after this manner Debet homo scire intelligere à terrâ usque ad firmamentum omnium plena esse turmis praefectis c. i.e. A man is to know and understand that all from the Earth to the firmament is full and no place empty of troops of Spirits with their Chieftains and such as are Praepositi all which have their residence and flye up and down in the Air some of them incite to peace others to war some to goodness and life others to wickedness and death And that there are great diversities among the evil Daemons some being more Aiery and Spiritual transacting the affairs of the kingdom of Hell by subordinate Instruments and others more gross and feculent employed in the basest and most slavish actions some sportful and ludicrous others savage and cruel the Sacred Writings give us likewise some further intimation of In Mar. ix 25. we read that our Saviour cast out a dumb and deaf Spirit which certainly denotes a distinct kind of Devil it being not so probable that he was called so from the effects wrought in the possessed for when the Disciples asked our Blessed Lord the reason why they could not cast out that Devil whose dispossession they had attempted he seems to tell them that it was a peculiar kind of Devil that could only be ejected by Prayer and Fasting Others sport themselves in ratling among their chains and fetters and whirling round storms and tempests in their Aiery Regions and Dominions to the destruction of Men and Beasts and the Fruits of the Earth as they did with Iob. And the Psalmist affirms the evil Angels to be the executioners of the sadder sentences of God the Judge of the world Psal. 78.49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger wrath and indignation and trouble by sending evil Angels among them where the Septuagint read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And these are the grim Serjeants and inexorable Officers who carry the Souls of wicked men to their places of punishment which therefore Origen calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the publick Executioners and the Author of the golden Verses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subterranean Daemons Now this diversity of Devils must needs cast them into a Political Government 3. Nor is it to be thought but they would retain the same Order and Government in this their dark Empire in which they were instated while they continued faithful subjects of the kingdom of Light Now it is most certain that there are different degrees of Dignity and Order among the good Angels and S. Paul gives us an account of some of them Col. i. 16. For by him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers And here it will not be amiss to give the Reader a short discourse of S. Ierome as a Commentary upon these words of S. Paul produced by Zanchy if he have not miscited him in his Treatise of Angels Nunc quaerendum est ubi Apostolus haec quatuor nomina c. i. e. Now let us search where the Apostle found these four names written Thrones Dominions Principalities and Powers and whence he had them For it is not just to think that he who was so well read in the Scriptures should speak any thing that was not contained in those sacred Volumes I suppose therefore that he either brought to light some secret Tradition of the Jews or at least that he understanding the Law to be Spiritual put a more sublime sence upon those things which were written as it were according to the History and Letter And
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
and ways of recovering men out of the hands of the Devil undervalued and despised when he sees men wilfully shut their eyes against those bright rays of Truth that encircle them then in a just judgment he suffers them to fall under the power of Satan and to be led away as the Apostle speaks with strong delusions to the occecation and blinding their very Reasons and Judgments And this insensate condition can never arrive to its full maturity and perfection without the potent Energy and Activity of the Devil CHAP. VI. That nothing hinders but having full Possession of the Minds of Men these Evil Spirits may likewise enslave their Bodies FOR the Possession of the Mind by such strong falshoods as shall lead to all Impurity of life and actions may be as real a work of the Devil though not so visible as his inacting their Bodies And if it might as well conduce to the interest and advantage of his Kingdom to make such visible discoveries of himself by acting in the Bodies of men there is no question but such Possessions would be infinitely more frequent than they are For the frame and temper of the Mind being the peculiar object of Divine Providence it is certain that a man may lapse so far into wickedness and vice as to forfeit this Care and to turn himself out of her Protection and then he comes into the dominion of and becomes a prey to the invisible Harpyes And though these bodily vexations and infestations by evil Daemons may sometimes befal others yet they are more infrequent and permitted by Providence for ends and purposes not readily discoverable by us But when they are exercised upon deplorably wicked and profligate persons those Daemons seise upon and use but what is their own Now that there have been such real Possessions of men by Devils hath been so fully attested by unprejudic'd persons in all Ages that he cannot escape the suspicion of having imbibed some Atheistical principles that shall have the confidence to deny them But because there are many so staggering fluctuating and uncertain in their Religion that they can hardly be perswaded to believe the existence of such Spirits or the association and confederation of men with these foul and unclean Daemons and that the Scriptures speak of Wizards Witches and Magicians by which we understand persons that combine with and are confederate with impure Spirits I shall endeavour to take off this grand Objection against those Sacred Writings by shewing the possibility of the thing that there have been in all Ages of the World such as have practised and entred into Familiarity with wicked Daemons and that the Scriptures are not therefore to be derided and exposed by profane Wits when they speak of these things as matters of Fact and Reality since true and genuine Philosophy asserts the same and the wisest and most learned persons among the Heathens believed it and that the Arguments and Objections against it are weak and frivolous and betray the ignorance and unskilfulness of their Authors CHAP. VII Of Witchcraft THE Devil is not contented to abuse mankind at a distance as it were by all those ways and arts and illusions in offering temptations from without and thereby seducing them from their obedience to God but in all Ages those impure Spirits have made use of capable subjects with whom they have entred into a nearer union and stricter confederation being first initiated into those hellish mysteries by some External solemnities by which they surrender themselves to the will and power of those Aiery tyrants and by seeming for a time to command render themselves Vassals to the mockery cruelty and unbridled lusts and passions of those malicious Goblins for ever And such persons are properly called Magicians Wizards and Witches Nevertheless it must here be acknowledged that there have been and doubtless are a kind of Necromancers or Magicians who are not like the common sort not only grosly sunk and debauched in their lives but also knowingly do homage to evil Spirits as such for the gratification of their Lusts but more refined Ones who call themselves Theurgists such as being in some measure freed from the grosser Vices and thinking to have to do only with good Spirits yet being proud and vain-glorious and affecting wonders and to transcend the generality of mankind are by a Divine Nemesis justly exposed to the illusions of the Devil or evil Spirits cunningly insinuating here and aptly accommodating themselves to them Now such as these may have the assistance of wicked Spirits though they know them not to be so in the performance of many strange and wonderful things without any such solemn compacts as those fouler and grosser Sorcerers enter into And though Porphyry and some others did distinguish these two sorts so as to condemn indeed the grosser which they called Magick or Goety but allowed the other which they termed Theurgie as laudable and honourable and as an art by which they received Angels and had communication with the Gods Yet S. Austin assures us they are both damnable and bound to the observation of false and silthy Devils instead of Angels which he further proves by relating a memorable story out of Porphyry of a certain Chaldean who good man complained that all his endeavour to purge his Soul by these Theurgick consecrations was frustrate by reason a great Artist envying him this happiness adjured the powers he was to deal with by holy Invocations and bound them from granting him any of his requests Of this sort were probably Zoroaster Apollonius Tyanaeus Apuleius and some others of later times For a more distinct and orderly procedure in this Chapter I shall consider these three things 1. First the account which the Scriptures give of Magick or Witchcraft In the Law of Moses a severe punishment no less than Death it self is ordained for Necromancers Wizards and Witches and such as have commerce with familiar Spirits Levit. 20.27 And the people of Israel are expresly forbid to consult with any such Levit. 19.31 Deut. 18.10 11. Now it seems very dilute and insipid to direct the intention of these Laws only against Juglers Miracle-mongers or Impostors as if it were impossible in the nature of the thing that there should be any confederation of men with evil Spirits and that all those strange effects performed by Necromantick Arts and truly supposed to be brought to pass by the assistance of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 malicious and deceitful Daemons with whom the Magicians are confederate are only Prestigious delusions and tricks as it were of Leger du maine For first the reason of the Law it self shews it to be of a higher and greater importance Deut. 18.12 For all that do these things are an abomination to the Lord and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee And surely nothing can be a greater and more hainous wickedness than for a man to forsake the
guidance of an Almighty Providence and have recourse upon all occasions to those wandring Goblins who intend nothing less than the destruction of all those that have to do with them And that which adds a further confirmation of the greatness and Majesty of this Law is what the Iews themselves saw before their departure out of Egypt that is the opposition made against Moses by the Magicians of Pharaoh whose miracles were not Juggles and Impostures done by sleight of hand but real things produced and effected by the assistance of evil Spirits For had they been otherwise they might still have gone on and not cried out This is the finger of God when a power transcending theirs restrained and overruled them And indeed whoever considers aright the frame of the Polity and Kingdom of Darkness how far those evil Daemons have degenerated from all Goodness and Righteousness and how studious they are to promote and disseminate a Spirit and Nature of Wretchedness and Vice and withal how deadly and implacable foes of mankind and how ready at all turns to wait upon either the fond curiosity or more deliberate and designed purposes of those that will be tampering with them will not easily allow the concernment of these Laws to be so low and trifling as to look only at Juglers Cheats and Impostors But there having been such among the Pagans who surrounded the Iews as really practised Sorcery and entred into familiarity with wicked Spirits it is certain that such are here likewise meant by Moses And therefore In the second place the words themselves do properly bear that sence For Mecaseph denotes alike Magicians and Inchanters and both these are called in Scripture Melahesim which word is from Lahas susurravit because those persons did by whispering or muttering converse with or desire the assistance of Daemons The other word Ob will best be explained by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spirit of Python or by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 belly-speakers i. e. those out of whose bellies as the Oracles out of Caves the Devil spake Ofthese Photius gives an account in his Epistles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wicked and unclean Spirit that inhabits a mans belly as a Serpent his hole in the Earth and being unclean is fit to dwell in that place which is the receptacle of Ordure they appositely call Engastrimuthus And of this kind of Devil saith he which loves to dwell in the Ordure both of men and women 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. It is a great deceiver of people and Author of destruction to all that give ear to it These the Hebrew calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the belly and the reason is rendred by Galen because they speak without opening their mouth and so seem to speak out of the belly 2. The second particular to be insisted upon is this That nothing hinders in the reason of the thing it self but that there may be real confederations and contracts betwixt wicked and wretched Persons and evil Spirits To this purpose we must know that the Devil hath all along endeavoured to Ape and Imitate the actions of God Almighty and to deprave the Institutions he appointed in his Worship to perverse and wicked ends Thus because Sacrifices were offered to the True God the Arch-Fiend commands likewise the same to be done to him And as God sometimes by fire from Heaven declared his acceptation of the Sacrifices performed to him so this likewise hath been counterfeited by the Devil as in the Sacrifice offered up to Iupiter by the Rhodians And at Hierocaesarea and Hypaepae saith Pausanias wood laid upon the Altar is commonly set on fire without putting fire to it only at the mumbling of some few words by a Priest Moreover Solinus reports the same of the Vulcanian Hill in Sicily where when the Sacrifice is prepared ab ipso Numine fit accendium the green wood fires of it self and the Deity by consuming the Sacrifice by fire gives a testimony of his acceptance of the Oblation And upon some Mountain in Africa if I misremember not the Cacodaemon offers himself to those who for certain days have duly prepared themselves splendidâ circumfusum nube environ'd with a bright cloud an imitation doubtless of the Divine Presence manifested by a cloud upon the Tabernacle of the Iews or that which overshadowed the Disciples at the Transfiguration of our Saviour Now as the Sacrifices offered up to the true God of Israel were Federal Rites and those that did partake of them did thereby enter into a Covenant with God to become his servants and obey his Laws so the Aiery Principality hath Mimically observed the same thing and those that offered Sacrifices to Daemons were supposed by partaking of those Sacrifices to enter into a stricter league and familiarity with those evil Spirits And as all Covenants between God and Men have been performed by certain sensible Rites and Ceremonies the nature of man in these Earthly Bodies requiring that it should be so in like manner have all the mutual compacts and stipulations between wicked men and Devils been transacted by some sensible ways and signs or other If therefore in all confederations between men and superior and invisible Powers there have been some External and visible Ceremonies whereby these Consociations have been ratified and confirmed why should we startle so much at the intimacy and familiarity of an impure and foul Spirit with a Wizard or Witch Nay though there should intervene to complete the Hellish Contract some such External Rite as the drawing of bloud from those wretched persons by the wicked Daemon For the drinking of bloud hath sometimes been made use of by Conspirators and other wicked persons as the strongest Sacrament and Tye of a mutual Confederacy that could be imagined Thus Plutarch in the life of Valerius Publicola relates that the Conspirators against Brutus and his fellow Consul bound themselves one to another by a great and horrible Oath drinking the Bloud of a man and shaking hands in his Bowels whom they would Sacrifice And that the Gnosticks and Nicolaitans made use of the like Ceremonies is recorded by Eusebius Epiphanius and others whose impious Transactions gave occasion to the Heathens to object Thyestean Banquets against the Christians Of the Cataphryges S. Austin in his Catalogue of Heresies tells that they are said to have very abominable Sacraments for they celebrated their Eucharist with the Bloud of an Infant of a year old which they forced out of his body by pricking and making small wounds mixing it with flour and so making bread of it And what reason have we to think that there may not some such damnable solemnity be used in the compacts between Magicians and these silthy Daemons The result of all then is this If there have been Confederations and Compacts between men and Devils transacted and performed by sensible signs then there may still be an Agreement or Confederacy between an
evil Spirit and a Witch 3. Thirdly we are to take notice That there are divers Degrees of these lapsed Spirits and that they sute themselves according to the tempers and constitutions of the persons they deal withal This I have in part already discovered but shall now prosecute it a little further wherefore though the whole Army of these wicked Spirits that rebelled against God how numerous soever be cast down from the Ethereal Regions and confin'd within the Atmosphere of the Earth partly by a Divine Decree and partly urged by the Fatal necessity of their degenerate natures yet their propensions and inclinations are not all alike but are as various and different as those of mankind Psellus from Marcus the Eremite a skilful Daemonist relates six kinds of Daemons the first Fiery called Lelurion i. e. Nocturnal Fire and these wander in the top of the Aiery Region yet far beneath the Moon The second are Aiery whose Mansions are these lower Regions nearer to us The third are Terrestrial dwelling upon the Earth and perillous foes to mankind The fourth are Aquatick or watry keeping their haunts about Rivers Lakes and Springs drowning men often raising storms at Sea and sinking Ships The fifth sort are Subterranean living in Caverns and Hollows of the Earth often hurting and killing Well-diggers and Miners for Metals causing Earthquakes and Eruptions of Flames and Pestilent Winds The last and worst sort are those light-hating Ghosts or night-walkers the dark and most inscrutable kind and striking all things they meet with cold Passions And all these Daemons saith he hate both Gods and Men but some worse than others But whether there be just so many kinds is not at all material certain it is that among that degenerate crue their Humours and Passions are various and different and so are fitted for the undertaking different Employments according as the great Divan or superior Council of Darkness shall order and allot them And these Daemons take care to sute themselves to the tempers of those they have familiarity withal and the Devils with whom Apollonius conversed might be far different from those fouler and grosser Fiends that attend a wicked Sorceress daily sucking her bloud and nestling in her loathsome rags To carry on this a little higher A deep Contemplator that considers the frame of the World and the several Beings contained therein together with their mutual relations affections and dependences upon one another shall find that there is a certain Sympathy running through the Universe whereby Superior things act upon Inferior and this is continued through the whole material Creation by that Plastick nature that pervades the whole and being life and activity and consequently incorporeal acts fatally and Magically that is without any express consciousness of what it does From hence arises a kind of union that combines and makes a continuation between all things in Nature which the Platonists signified when they said the whole World was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Magician or Inchanter and this they called Natural Magick that is the Concords and Discords or Sympathies and Antipathies of Nature as may be seen in several instances Now as in Nature there is such a Conspiration so likewise in Moral Agents whereby things are carried by a certain Assimilation according to the temper and disposition of the mind Thus wicked men do by a kind of harmony or agreeableness of Nature invite and draw wicked Spirits to their Association and this Magnetism is raised and Invigorated by a deep grounded exorbitancy of the Passions and Affections so that a person deeply immersed in Envy and Malice and edged with a sharp desire of Revenge does as naturally call and solicite an evil Daemon as the cries and shrieks of dying Beasts will gather the rest of the same Species to their assistance Nor is there any greater difficulty in conceiving that an impure Spirit may thus be solicited into a confederacy with a Witch being otherwise sufficiently prompted to such villany by their own wicked natures than that an evil Daemon should be called down by certain Charms and Previous Consecrations to inhabit an Image For this latter S. Austin cites a passage out of Hermes Trismegist Wherefore our Fathers erring exceedingly in Incredulity concerning the Deities and never penetrating into the depth of Divine Religion they invented an Art to make Gods whereunto they joyned a Virtue out of some part of the Worlds Nature like to the other and conjoyning these two because they could make no Souls they framed certain Images whereinto they called either Angels or Devils and so by these mysteries gave these Idols power to hurt or help them Having thus far shewed that there have been in all Ages such persons as we call Witches or Magicians not only from the account which the Holy Scriptures give of them but from the Nature and Reason of the thing it self and by rational evidence made good the possibility of a Confederation between Men and wicked Daemons there remains no more now but to answer those Objections and refute the Arguments in which some so mightily triumph that they think nothing is more plain than that Witchcraft is a mere Fiction and Imposture and a ridiculous piece of non-sence which it is greatly to be feared is thus far improved to cast a contempt upon the Sacred Scriptures and to explode the Being of Spirits as Creatures rather existing in mens Brains and Imaginations than any where else in the Universe and by degrees to make Religion a meer cheat and delusion 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 Answ. THis Objection proceeds either from ignorance or misunderstanding the nature and powers of the Soul whose union with the Body is not by Cogitation and Will for then there might be an actual separation whenever men pleased but fixed in some lower Power which chains and links the Soul to the Body even against her will in acute and sharp Diseases And this union is upon certain terms and conditions which so long as they continue unbroken and inviolate the Soul is confined to her Earthly mansion and habitation but when these laws and conditions shall be infringed either by external violence or the prevalency of a Disease or some other enormous and extreme disorder and perturbation in the Body then she dislodges not by explicit Will and Counsel but by Necessity and Constraint because the Body is no longer tenantable or capable of her reception and then ensues that which we properly call Death which as that acute Philosopher Des-Cartes rightly concludes never happens through any defect or fault of the Soul but only because some of the principal parts of the Body are depraved and corrupted And the difference he says between the Body of a living Man and that of a dead one is much what the same as between a Watch or any other
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
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.