in which way those must conceive him that acknowledge nothing but Body in the World which certainly is a very great dis-interest to his Glory and suggests very unbecoming thoughts of him And by the due setling the Notion of a Spirit the conceit of the Soul 's Traduction is overthrown which either ariseth from direct Sadducism or a defect in Philosophy Hereby our Immortality is undermined and dangerously exposed But due Philosophical Disquisition will set us right in the Theory For the former of the Errors mention'd viz. the Aâ—…hropomorphite Doctrines that make God himself a corporeal Substance Those cannot be disproved but by the Use and Application of the Principles of Philosophy Since let us bring what Arguments we can from the Scriptures which speak of the Perfection Infinity Immensity Wisdom and other Attributes of God These no doubt will be granted but the Query will be Whether all may not belong to a material Being a question which Philosophy resolves and there is no other way to search deep into this Matter but by those Aids So likewise as to the Traduction of the Soul The Arguments from Scripture against it are very general yea many expressions we find there seem at first sight to look that way And therefore this other help Philosophy must be used here also and by the distinct representation which it gives of the Nature of Sprit and Matter and of the Operations that appertain to each this Error is effectually confuted which it cannot be by any other proceeding Thus Philosophy befriends us against Sadducism in the first Branch of it as it explodes the being of Spirits 2. The other is the denyal of the Immortality of our Souls The establishment of this likewise the Students of Philosophy and God's Works have attempted in all Ages and they have prov'd it by the Philosophical considerations of the nature of Sense the quickness of Imagination the spirituality of the Vnderstanding the freedom of the Will from these they infer that the Soul is immaterial and from thence that it is immortal which Arguments are some of the most demonstrative and cogent that the meer reasons of Men can use but cannot be manag'd nor understood but by those that are instructed in Philosophy and Nature I confess there are other Demonstrations of our Immortality for the plain Understandings that cannot reach those Heights The Scripture gives clear evidence and that of the Resurrection of the Holy Jesus is palpable But yet the Philosophical Proofs are of great use and serve for the conviction of the Infidel to whom the other inducements are nothing and the deeper knowledge of things is necessary to defend this great Article of Religion against such Men since they alledge a sort of Arguments to prove the Soul to be mortal that cannot be consuted but by a reason instructed in the Observations of Nature For the Modern Sadduce pretends that all things we do are performed by meer Matter and Motion and consequently that there is no such thing as an immaterial Being so that when our Bodies are dissolv'd the whole Man is destroyed and lost for ever which dismal conclusion is true and certain if there be nothing in us but Matter and the results of Motion and those that converse but little with Nature understand little what may be done by these and so cannot be so well assured that the Elevations Mixtures and Combinations of them cannot be at last improv'd so far as to make a sensible reasoning Being nor are they well able to disprove one that affirms that they are actually advanc'd to that height whereas he that hath much inquired into the Works of God and Nature gains a clear sight of what Matter can perform and gets more and stronger Arguments to convince him that its Modifications and Changes cannot amount to perception and sense since in all its Varieties and highest Exaltations he finds no Specimens of such Powers And though I confess that all Mechanick Inquirers make not this use of their Inquisitions and Discoveries yet that is not the fault of the Method but of the Men and those that have gone furthest in that way have receded most from the Sadducean Doctrines Among such I suppose I may be allowed to reckon the Noble Renatus Des-Cartes And his Metaphysicks and Notions of Immaterial Beings are removed to the greatest distance from all Corporeal Affections which I mention not to declare or signifie my adherence to those Principles but for an Instance to shew that acquaintance with Matter and the knowledge of its Operations removes the Mind far off from the belief of those high Effects which some ascribe to Corporeal Motions and from all suppositions of the Soul 's being bodily and material Thus Philosophy is an excellent Antidote against Sadducism in both the Main Branches of it But then I must confess also that the Philosophy of the late Peripatetick Writers doth rather assist than overthrow this dangerous Infidelity I mean in what it teacheth concerning Substantial Forms which I fear tends to the disabling all Philosophical Evidence of the Immortality of Humane Souls For these Peripateticks make their Forms a kind of medium between Body and Spirit viz. Beings that are educed as they speak out of Matter and are so dependent on it that they perish utterly or return into the bosom of the Matter as some cant when they cease to inform it But yet they allow not that those Forms are material in their essential Constitution and Nature This is the Peripatetick account of substantial Forms and such they assign to all Bodies and teach That the noblest sort of them are sensitive and perceptive which are the Souls of Brutes If this be so that Beings which are not Spirits but corruptible dependants upon Matter may be endowed with Animadversion and Sense what Arguments have we then to shew that they may not have Reason also which is but an Improvement and higher degree of simple Perception 'T is as hard to be apprehended how any of the results of Matter should perceive as how they should join their Perceptions into Reasonings and the same Propositions that prove the possibility of one prove both so that those who affirm that Beasts also have their degrees of true Reason speak very consonantly to those Principles And if such material corruptible Forms as the Peripateticks describe are sufficient for all the Actions and Perceptions of Beasts I know not which way to go about to demonstrate that a more elevated sort of them may not suffice for the reasonings of Men. To urge the Topicks of Proof I mention'd from Notions Compositions Deductions and the like which are alledged to prove our Souls Immaterial I say to plead these will signifie nothing but this That Humane Souls are no portions of Matter nor corporeal in their formal Essence But how will they evince that they are not educed from it that they depend not on Matter and shall not perish when their respective Bodies are dissolved Certainly
state things distinctly and to understand their Dependencies and Sequels Both which Imperfections the Free Philosophy cures For as to the First 1. That Philosophy begins with the inlargement of the Mind and attempts to free it from Prejudices and Pre-ingagements which sophisticate and pervert our Judgments and render us incapable of discerning Things as they are Modest impartial enquiry is the Foundation of the real experimental way of Philosophy Not that it teacheth Scepticism and Neutrality in all Things but this Caution in our Disquisitions That we do not suddenly give firm assents to Things not well understood or examin'd which no doubt is very just and safe But as to what concerns those who through ignorance or other occasions are incapable of making due enquiry I think they ought not to concern themselves about Matters of Speculation at all or at least not to affirm any thing positively about them 'T is enough for such to believe and practise the plain Duties of Religion which are clear in the Holy Oracles and with which they may be acquainted without much sagacity or deep Judgment For Matters of Theory and difficult Enquiry appertain not to the vulgar and lower rank of Understandings But for those who are capable of search after Truth and are provided with anvantages for it Freedom of Judgment is necessary in order to their success With this I said the Real Philosophy begins and in all its progresses still more and more disposeth the Mind to it and so delivers it from the vassalage of Customary Sayings and Opinions And now whoever is so disposed will not be so ready to believe that Reason is an Enemy to Religion till he have consider'd and examin'd the Matter with an impartial Judgment And I dare say whoever shall do that will want nothing to convince him that such an Opinion is false and groundless but clear and distinct Thoughts and the knowledge of Consequence with which Philosophy will furnish him This is the second way whereby it helps to overthrow this Principle of Enthusiasm viz. 2. By teaching us to state Matters clearly and to draw out those conclusions that are lodged in them For 't is confusion of Notions and a great defect in reasoning that makes dark Zeal to rave so furiously against Reason Now Philosophy is Reason methodiz'd and improved by Study Observation and Experiment and whoever is addicted to these is exercised frequently in inquiry after the Causes Properties and Relations of Things which will inure the Mind to great intentness and inable it to define and distinguish and infer rightly And by these the Allegations against Reason will be made appear to be idle Sophisms that have no sound sense or substance in them And though the Discourses of some who have talk'd much of Philosophy and Reason have been sometimes bold and sawcy and opposite to the Interests of Religion Yet true Philosophy and well manag'd Reason vindicate Religion from those abuses and shew that there was Sophistry and imposture in those Pretensions So that they are no more to be blamed for the Insolencies and Riots of those that usurp their Name than Religion it self is for the Immoralities of such as cloath themselves in the Garments of external Piety and Saintship Thus of the services of Philosophy against ENTHVSIASM I come now to the last Instance V. IT helps Religion against the Humour of Disputing By which I mean that evil Genius that makes Men confident of uncertain Opinions and clamorously contentious against every different Judgment This is that pestilent Spirit that turns Religion into Air of Notion and makes it intricate and uncertain subject to eternal Quarrels and Obnoxious to Scepticism and Infidelity That which supplants Charity Modesty Peace and Meekness substituting in their room Rage and Insolence Pride and Bitter Zeal Clamours and Divisions and all the Opposites of the Spirit of Christ and the Gospel So that it depraves Religion and makes its Sacred Name an Instrument to promote the Projects of the Kingdom of Darkness by envenoming Men one against another and inflaming their Spirits and crumbling them into Sects and disturbing Societies and so it hinders the Progress of the Gospel and lays it open to the scorns of Vnbelievers it turns Men from the desire of practising to the itch of talking and abuses them into this dangerous belief That Godliness consists more in their beloved Orthodoxy than in a sober Vertue and the exercise of Charity it makes them pert and pragmatical buste about the Reformation of others while they neglect their own Spirits fancying a perfection in the fluency of the Tongue while the worst of Passions have the Empire of their Souls These are some of the sad Effects of the Humour of Disputing which hath done deplorable execution upon Religion in all Places and Times and therefore 't is none of the least Services that can be afforded it to destroy this evil Genius and there is nothing meerly humane that contributes more towards the rooting of it out of the World than the Free and Real Philosophy For 1. An intimate Commerce with God's Works gives us to see the mighty Difficulties that are to be met in the speculation of them and thereby Men are made less confident of their Sentiments about Nature and by many Considerations and Observations of this kind are at length brought to such an habitual Modesty that they are afraid to pass bold Judgments upon those Opinions in Religion of which there is no infallible assurance And 2. By the frequent exercises of our Minds we come to be made sensible how easily and how oft we are deceived through the fallibility of Sense and shortness of our Understandings by Education Authority Interest and our Affections and so are disposed to a more prudent coldness and diffidence in things of doubtful Speculation by which the Disputing Humour is destroyed at the bottom Besides which 3. The Real Philosophy brings Men in-love with the Practical Knowledge The more we have imployed our selves in Notion and Theory the more we shall be acquainted with the uncertainty of Speculation and our esteem and love of Opinions will abate as that sense increaseth By the same degrees our respect and kindness for Operative knowledge will advance and grow which disposition will incline us also to have less regard to Nicities in Religion and teach us to lay out our chief Cares and Endeavours about Practical and certain Knowledge which will assist and promote our Vertue and our Happiness and incline us to imploy our selves in living according to it And this also will be an effectual means to destroy the Humour of Contending 4. Philosophy gives us a sight of the Causes of our Intellectual Diversities and so lessens our expectation of an Agreement in Opinions and by this it discovers the unreasonableness of making câ—…sent in less certain Tenents the condition of Charity and Vnion and of being angry and dividing upon every difference of Judgment By which the hurtful Malignities
act like his own Temptations and Perswasions In brief there is nothing more strange in this Objection than that Wickedness is Baseness and Servility and that the Devil is at leasure to serve those whom he is at leasure to tempt and industrious to ruine And 2. I see no necessity to believe that the Devil is always the Witches Confederate but perhaps it may fitly be considered whether the Familiar be not some departed Humane Spirit forsaken of God and Goodness and swallowed up by the unsatiable desire of Mischief and Revenge which possibly by the Laws and capacity of its State it cannot execute immediately And why we should presume that the Devil should have the liberty of wandering up and down the Earth and Air when he is said to be held in the Chains of Darkness and yet that the separated Souls of the Wicked of whom no such thing is affirm'd in any Sacred Record should be thought so imprison'd that they cannot possibly wag from the Place of their Confinement I know no shadow of Conjecture This Conceit I 'm confident hath prejudic'd many against the belief of Witches and Apparitions they not being able to conceive that the Devil should be so ludicrous as Appearing Spirits are sometimes reported to be in their Frolicks and they presume that Souls departed never revisâ—… the free and open Regions which confidence I know nothing to justifie For since good Men in their state of separation are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why the wicked may not be supposed to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the worst sense of the word I know nothing to help me to imagine And if it be so supposed that the Imps of Witches are sometimes wicked Spirits of our own Kind and Nature and possibly the same that have been Sorcerers and Witches in this Life This Supposal may give a fairer and more probable account of many of the Actions of Sorcery and Witchcraft than the other Hypothesis that they are always Devils And to this Conjecture Pleadventure to subjoin another which also hath its probability viz. 3. That 't is not impossible but that the Familiars of Witches are a vile kind of Spirits of a very inferiour Constitution and Nature and none of those that were once of the highest Hierarchy now degencrated into the Spirits we call Devils The common division of Spirits is in my Opinion much too general and why may we not think there is as great a variety of Intellectual Creatures in the Invisible World as of Animals in the Visible And that all the Superiour yea and Inferiour Regions have their several kinds of Spirits differing in their natural Perfections as well as in the Kinds and Degrees of their Depravities Which if we suppose 't is very probable that those of the basest and meanest Orders are they who submit to the mention'd Servilities And thus the Sagess and grandeur of the Prince of Darkness need not be brought in question on this Occasion IV. BVt IV. the Opinion of Witches seems to some to accuse Providence and to suggest that it hath exposed Innocents to the fury and malice of revengeful Fiends yea and supposeth those most obnoxious of whom we might most reasonably expect a more special care and protection most of the cruel practices of those presum'd Instruments of Hell being upon Children who as they least deserve to be deserted by that Providence that superintends all things so they most need its Guardian Influence To this so specious an Objection I have these things to answer 1. Providence is an unfathomable Depth and if we should not believe the Phaenomena of our Senses before we can reconcile them to our Notions of Providence we must be grosser Scepticks than ever yet were extant The miseries of the present Life the unequal distributions of Good and Evil the ignorance and barbarity of the greatest part of Mankind the fatal disadvantages we are all under and the hazard we run of being eternally miserable and undone these I say are things that can hardly be made consistent with that Wisdom and Goodness that we are sure hath made and mingled it self with all things And yet we believe there is a beauty and harmony and goodness in that Providence though we cannot unriddle it in particular Instances nor by reason of our ignorance and imperfection clear it from contradicting Appearances and consequently we ought not to deny the being of Witches and Apparitions because they will create us some difficulties in our Notions of Providence 2. Those that believe that Infants are Heirs of Hell and Children of the Devil as soon as they are disclosed to the World cannot certainly offer such an Objection for what is a little trifling pain of a moment to those eternal Tortures to which if they die as soon as they are born according to the tenour of this Doctrine they are everlastingly exposed But however the case stands as to that 't is certain 3. That Providence hath not secur'd them from other violences they are obnoxious to from cruelty and accident and yet we accuse It not when a whole Townful of Innocents fall a Victim to the rage and ferity of barbarous Executioners in Wars and Massacres To which I add 4. That 't is likely the mischief is not so often done by the evil Spirit immediately but by the malignant influence of the Sorceress whose power of hurting consists in the fore-mention'd Ferment which is infused into her by the Familiar So that I am apt to think there may be a power of real Fascination in the Witches Eyes and Imaginations by which for the most part she acts upon tender Bodies Nescio quis teneros oculus For the Pestilential Spirits being darted by a spightful and vigorous Imagination from the Eye and meeting with those that are weak and passive in the Bodies which they enter will not fail to infect them with anoxious Quality that makes dangerous and strange Alterations in the Person invaded by this poisonous Influence which way of acting by subtil and invisible Instruments is ordinary and familiar in all natural Efficiencies And 't is now past question that Nature for the most part acts by subtil Streams and Aporrhaea's of Minute Particles which pass from one Body to another Or however that be this kind of Agency is as conceivable as any of those Qualities which our Ignorance hath called Sympathy and Antipathy the reality of which we doubt not though the manner of Action be unknown Yea the thing I speak of is as easie to be apprehended as how Infection should pass in certain tenuious Streams through the Air from one House to another or as how the biting of a mad Dog should fill all the Blood and Spirits with a venomous and malign Ferment the application of the Vertue doing the same in our Case as that of Contact doth in this Yea some kinds of Fascination are perform'd in this grosser and more sensible way as by striking giving Apples and the
is folly and incogitancy to argue any thing one way or other from the designs of a sort of Beings with whom we so little communicate and possibly we can no more aim or guess at their Projects and Designments than the gazing Beast can do at ours when they see the Traps and Gins that are laid for them but understand nothing what they mean Thus in general But I attempt something more particularly in order to which I must premise That the Devil is a name for a Body Politick in which there are very different Orders and Degrees of Spirits and perhaps in as much variety of place and state as among our selves so that 't is not one and the same Person that makes all the Compacts with those abused and seduced Souls but they are divers and those 't is like of the meanest and basest quality in the Kingdom of Darkness which being supposed I offer this account of the probable Design of those wicked Agents viz. That having none to rule or tyrannize over within the Circle of their own Nature and Government they affect a proud Empire over us the desire of Dominion and Authority being largely spread through the whole circumference of degenerated Nature especially among those whose pride was their original transgression every one of these then desires to get Vassals to pay him homage and to be employed like Slaves in the services of his Lusts and Appetites to gratifie which desire 't is like it may be allowed by the constitution of their State and Government that every wicked Spirit shall have those Souls as his property and particular Servants and Attendants whom he can catch in such Compacts as those wild Beasts that we can take in hunting are ours by the allowance of our Laws and those Slaves that a Man hath purchas'd are his peculiar Goods and the Vassals of his Will Or rather those deluding Fiends are like the seducing Fellows we call Spirits who inveigle Children by their false and flattering Promises and carry them away to the Plantations of America to be servilely employed there in the Works of their Profit and Advantage And as those base Agents will humour and flatter the simple unwary Youth till they are on Ship-board and without the reach of those that might rescue them from their hands In like manner the more mischievous Tempter studies to gratifie please and accommodate those he deals with in this kind till Death hath lanâ—…h'd them into the Deep and they are past the danger of Prayers Repentance and Endeavours and then He useth them as pleaseth Him This account I think is not unreasonable and 't will fully answer the Objection For though the Matter be not as I have conjectur'd yet 't will suggest a way how it may be conceiv'd which destroys the Pretence That the Design is inconceivable X. BVt X. we are still liable to be question'd how it comes about that those proud and insolent Designers practice in this kind upon so few when one would expect that they should be still trading this way and every-where be driving on the Project which the vileness of Men makes so feisable and would so much serve the interest of their Lusts. To which among other things that might be suggested I return 1. That we are never liable to be so betrayed and abused till by our vile Dispositions and Tendencies we have forfeited the care and oversight of the better Spirits who though generally they are our guard and defence against the malice and violence of Evil Angels yet it may well enough be thought that sometimes they may take their leave of such as are swallowed up by Malice Envy and desire of Revenge qualities most contrary to their Life and Nature and leave them exposed to the invasion and sollicitations of those Wicked Spirits to whom such hateful Attributes make them very sutable And if there be particular Guardian Angels as 't is not absurd to fancy it may then well be supposed that no Man is obnoxious to those Projects and Attempts but only such whose vile and mischievous Natures have driven from them their protecting Genius Against this dereliction to the power of Evil Spirits 't is likely enough what some affirm that the Royal Psalmist directs that Prayer Psal. 71. 9 10. Cast me not off in the time of old Age forsake me not when my strength faileth For They that keep my Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the LXX and the Vulgar Latin Qui custodiunt animam meam they take counsel together saying God hath forsaken him persecute him and take him for there is none to deliver him 2. 'T is very probable that the stare wherein they are will not easily permit palpable Intercourses between the bad Genii and Mankind since 't is probable that their own Laws and Government do not allow their frequent excursions into this World Or it may with as great likelyhood be supposed that 't is a very hard and painful thing for them to force their thin and tenuious Bodies into a visible consistence and such Shapes as are necessary for their designs in their correspondencies with Witches For in this Action their Bodies must needs be exceedingly compress'd which cannot well be without a painful sense And this is perhaps a reason why there are so few Apparitions and why Appearing Spirits are commonly in such hast to be gone viz. that they may be deliver'd from the unnatural pressure of their tender Vehicles which I confess holds more in the Apparitions of Good than of Evil Spirits most Relations of this kind describing their discoveries of themselves as very transient though for those the Holy Scripture records there may be peculiar reason why they are not so whereas the Wicked Ones are not altogether so quick and hasty in their Visits The reason of which probably is the great subtilty and tenuity of the Bodies of the former which will require far greater degrees of compression and consequently of pain to make them visible whereas the latter are more feculent and gross and so nearer allied to palpable Consistencies and more easily reduceable to Appearance and Visibility At this turn I have again made use of the Platonick Hypothesis That Spirits are embodied upon which indeed a great part of my Discourse is grounded And therefore I hold my self obliged to a short account of that supposal It seems then to me very probable from the Nature of Sense and Analogy of Nature For 1. we perceive in our selves that all Sense is caus'd and excited by Motion made in Matter and when those Motions which convey sensible Impressions to the Brain the Seat of Sense are intercepted Sense is lost So that if we suppose Spirits perfectly to be disjoin'd from all Matter 't is not conceivable how they can have the sense of any thing For how material Objects should any way be perceiv'd or felt without Vital Union with Matter 't is not possible to imagine Nor doth it 2. seem sutable to the
Analogy of Nature which useth not to make precipitious leaps from one thing to another but usually proceeds by orderly steps and gradations whereas were there no order of Beings between Us who are so deeply plunged into the grossest Matter and pure unbodied Spirits 't were a mighty jump in Nature Since then the greatest part of the World consists of the finer portions of Matter and our own Souls are immediately united unto these 't is exceeding probable that the nearer orders of Spirits are vitally join'd to such Bodies and so Nature by degrees ascending still by the more refin'd and subtile Matter gets at last to the pure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or immaterial Minds which the Platonists made the highest Order of Created Beings But of this I have discoursed elsewhere and have said thus much of it at present because it will enable me to add another Reason of the unfrequency of Apparitions and Compacts viz. 3. Because 't is very likely that these Regions are very unsutable and disproportion'd to the frame and temper of their Senses and Bodies so that perhaps the Courser Spirits can no more bear the Air of our World than Bats and Owls can the brightest Beams of Day Nor can the Purer and Better any more endure the noysom Steams and poisonous Reeks of this Dunghil Earth than the Delicate can bear a Confinement in nasty Dungeons and the foul squalid Caverns of uncomfortable Darkness So that 't is no more wonder that the better Spirits no oftner appear than that Men are not more frequently in the Dark Hollows under-ground Nor is 't any more strange that evil Spirits so rarely visit us than that Fishes do not ordinarily fly in the Air as 't is said one sort of them doth or that we see not the Batt daily fluttering in the Beams of the Sun And now by the help of what I have spoken under this Head I am provided with some things wherewith to disable another Objection which I thus propose XI XI IF there be such an intercourse between Evil Spirits and the Wicked How comes it about that there is no correspondence between Good Angels and the Vertuous since without doubt these are as desirous to propagate the Spirit and Designs of the Vpper and better World as those are to promote the Interest of the Kingdom of Darkness Which way of arguing is still from our Ignorance of the State and Government of the other World which must be confest and may without prejudice to the Proposition I defend But particularly I say 1. That we have ground enough to believe that Good Spirits do interpose in yea and govern our Affairs For that there is a Providence reaching from Heaven to Earth is generally acknowledg'd but that this supposeth all things to be order'd by the immediate influence and interposal of the Supreme Deity some think is not very Philosophical to suppose since if we judge by the Analogy of the Natural World all things we see are carried on by the Ministery of Second Causes and Intermediate Agents And it doth not seem so Magnificent and Becoming an apprehension of the Supreme Numen to fancy his immediate Hand in every trivial Management But 't is exceeding likely to conjecture that much of the Government of us and our Affairs is committed to the better Spirits with a due subordination and subserviency to the Will of the chief Rector of the Universe And 't is not absurd to believe that there is a Government that runs from Highest to Lowest the better and more perfect orders of Being still ruling the inferiour and less perfect So that some one would fancy that perhaps the Angels may manage us as we do the Creatures that God and Nature have placed under our Empire and Dominion But however that is That God rules the Lower World by the Ministery of Angels is very consonant to the Sacred Oracles Thus Deut. 32. 8 9. When the Most High divided the Nations their Inheritance when he separated the Sons of Adam he set the Bounds of the People 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the number of the Angels of God as the Septuagint renders it the Authority of which Translation is abundantly credited and asserted by its being quoted in the New Testament without notice of the Hebrew Text even there where it differs from it as Learned Men have observ'd We know also that Angels were very familiar with the Patriarchs of old and Jacob's Ladder is a Mystery which imports their ministring in the Affairs of the Lower World Thus Origen and others understand that to be spoken by the Presidential Angels Jer. 51. 9. We would have healed Babylon but she is not healed forsake her and let us go Like the Voice heard in the Temple before the taking of Jerusalem by Titus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And before Nebuchadnezzar was sent to learn Wisdom and Religion among the Beasts He sees a Watcher according to the LXX an Angel and an Holy One come down from Heaven Dan. 4. 13. who pronounceth the sad Decree against Him and calls it the Decree of the Watchers who very probably were the Guardian Genii of of Himself and his Kingdom And that there are particular Angels that have the special Rule and Government of particular Kingdoms Provinces Cities yea and of Persons I know nothing that can make improbable The instance is notorious in Daniel of the Angels of Persia and Graecia that hindred the other that was engaged for the Concerns of Judaea yea our Saviour himself tells us that Children have their Angels and the Congregation of Disciples supposed that St. Peter had his Which things if they be granted the good Spirits have not so little to do with Us and our Matters as is generally believed And perhaps it would not be absurd if we referr'd many of the strange Thwarts and unexpected Events the Disappointments and lucky Coincidences that befal us the unaccountable Fortunes and Successes that attend some lucky Men and the unhappy Fates that dog others that seem born to be miserable the Fame and Favour that still waits on some without any conceivable Motive to allure it and the general neglect of others more deserving whose worth is not acknowledg'd I say these and such-like odd things may with the greatest probability be resolv'd into the Conduct and Menages of those Invisible Supervisors that preside over and govern our Affairs But if they so far concern themselves in our Matters how is it that they appear not to maintain a visible and confest Correspondence with some of the better Mortals who are most fitted for their Communications and their Influence To which I have said some things already when I accounted for the unfrequency of Apparitions and I now add what I intend for another return to the main Objection viz. 2. That the Apparition of Good Spirits is not needful for the Designs of the better World what-ever such may be for the Interest of the other For we have had the
Appearance and Cohabitation of the Son of God we have Moses and the Prophets and the continued Influence of the Spirit the greatest Arguments to strengthen Faith the most powerful Motives to excite our Love and the noblest Encouragements to quicken and raise our Desires and Hopes any of which are more than the Apparition of an Angel which would indeed be a great gratification of the Animal Life but 't would render our Faith less noble and less generous were it frequently so assisted Blessed are they that believe and yet have not seen Besides which the Good Angels have no such Ends to prosecute as the gaining any Vassals to serve them they being Ministring Spirits for our good and no self-designers for a proud and insolent Dominion over us And it may be perhaps not impertinently added That they are not always evil Spirits that appear as is I know not well upon what grounds generally imagined but that the extraordinary detections of Murders latent Treasures falsified and unfulfill'd Bequests which are sometimes made by Apparitions may be the courteous Discoveries of the better and more benign Gâ—…nii Yea 't is not unlikely that those Warnings that the World sometimes hath of approaching Judgments and Calamities by Prodigies and sundry odd Phaenomena are the kind Informations of some of the Inhabitants of the Upper World Thus was Jerusalem forewarned before its sacking by Antiochus by those Aiery Horsemen that were seen through all the City for almost forty days together 2 Mac. 5. 2 3. And the other Prodigious Portents that fore-ran its Destruction by Titus which I mention because they are notorious Instances And though for mine own part I scorn the ordinary Tales of Prodigies which proceed from superstitious Fears and unacquaintance with Nature and have been used to bad Purposes by the Zealous and the Ignorant Yet I think that the Arguments that are brought by a late very Ingenious Author to conclude against such Warnings and Predictions in the whole kind are short and inconsequent and built upon too narrow Hypotheseis For if it be supposed that there is a sort of Spirits over us and about us who can give a probable guess at the more remarkable Futurities I know not why it may not be conjectured that the kindness they have for us and the appetite of fore-telling strange things and the putting the World upon expectation which we find is very grateful to our own Natures may not incline them also to give us some general notice of those uncommon Events which they foresee And I yet perceive no reason we have to fancy that what-ever is done in this kind must needs be either immediately from Heaven or from the Angels by extraordinary Commission and Appointment But it seems to me not unreasonable to believe that those officious Spirits that oversee our Affairs perceiving some mighty and sad Alterations at hand in which their Charge is much concerned cannot chuse by reason of their affection to us but give us some seasonable hints of those approaching Calamities to which also their natural desire to foretel strange things to come may contribute to incline them And by this Hypothesis the fairest Probabilities and strongest Ratiocinations against Prodigies may be made unserviceable But this only by the way I desire it may be considered further 3. That God himself assords his Intimacies and converses to the better Souls that are prepared for it which is a priviledge infinitely beyond Angelical Correspondence I confess the proud and fantastick Pretences of many of the conceited Melancholists in this Age to Divine Communion have prejudiced divers intelligent Persons against the belief of any such happy vouchsafement so that they conclude the Doctrine of Immediate Communion with the Deity in this Life to be but an high flown Notion of warm Imagination and over-lushious self-flattery and I acknowledge I have my self had thoughts of this nature supposing Communion with God to be nothing else but the exercise of Vertue and that Peace and those Comforts which naturally result from it But I have considered since that God's more near and immediate imparting himself to the Soul that is prepared for that happiness by Divine Love Humility and Resignation in the way of a vital Touch and Sense is a thing possible in it self and will be a great part of our Heaven That Glory is begun in Grace and God is pleased to give some excellent Souls the happy Ante-past That Holy Men in ancient Times have sought and gloried in this Injoyment and never complain so sorely as when it was with-held and interrupted That the Expressions of Scripture run infinitely this way and the best of Modern good Men do from their own experience attest it That this spiritualizeth Religion and renders its Injoyments more comfortable and delicious That it keeps the Soulunder a vivid Sense of God and is a grand security against Temptation That it holds it steady amid the Flatteries of a Prosperous State and gives it the most grounded Anchorage and support amid the Waves of an adverse Condition That 't is the noblest incouragement to vertue and the biggest assurance of an happy Immortality I say I considered these weighty things and wondred at the carelesness and prejudice of Thoughts that occasion'd my suspecting the reality of so glorious a Privilege I saw how little reason there is in denying Matters of inward Sense because our selves do not feel them or cannot form an apprehension of them in our Minds I am convinced that things of gust and relish must be judg'd by the sentient and vital Faculties and not by the noetical Exercises of speculative Understandings And upon the whole I believe infinitely that the Divine Spirit affords its sensible Presence and immediate Beatihck Touch to some rare Souls who are divested of carnal Self and mundane Pleasures abstracted from the Body by Prayer and Holy Meditation spiritual in their Desires and calm in their Affections devout Lovers of God and Vertue and tenderly affectionate to all the World sincere in their Aims and circumspect in their Actions inlarged in their Souls and clear in their Minds These I think are the dispositions that are requisite to fit us for Divine Communion and God transacts not in this near way but with prepared Spirits who are thus disposed for the manifestation of his Presence and his Influence And such I believe he never fails to bless with these happy foretasts of Glory But for those that are Passionate and Conceited Turbulent and Notional Confident and Immodest Imperious and Malicious That doat upon Trifles and run fiercely in the ways of a Sect that are lifted up in the apprehension of the glorious Prerogatives of themselves and their Party and scorn all the World besides For such I say be their Pretensions what they will to Divine Communion Illapses and Discoveries I believe them not Their Fancies abuse them or they would us For what Communion hath Light with Darkness or the Spirit of the Holy One with those
whose Genius and Ways are so unlike him But the other excellent Souls I describ'd will as certainly be visited by the Divine Presence and Converse as the Chrystaline Streams are with the Beams of Light or the fitly prepared Earth whose Seed is in it self will be actuated by the Spirit of Nature So that there is no reason to Object here the want of Angelical Communications though there were none vouchsafed us since good Men enjoy the Divine which are infinitely more satisfactory and indearing And now I may have leave to proceed to the next Objection which may be made to speak thus XII XII THe belief of Witches and the wonderful things they are said to perform by the help of the Confederate Daemon weakens our Faith and exposeth the World to Infidelity in the great Matters of our Religion For if they by Diabolical Assistance can inflict and cure Diseases and do things so much beyond the comprehension of our Philosophy and activity of common Nature What assurance can we have that the Miracles that confirm our Gospel were not the Effects of a Compact of like nature and that Devils were not cast out by Beelzebub If Evil Spirits can assume Bodies and render themselves visible in humane Likeness What security can we have of the reality of the Resurrection of Christ And if by their help Witches can enter Chambers invisibly through Key-holes and little unperceived Crannies and transform themselves at pleasure What Arguments of Divinity are there in our Saviour's shewing himself in the midst of his Disciples when the Doors were shut and his Transfiguration in the Mount Miracles are the great Inducements of Belief and how shall we distinguish a Miracle from a Lying Wonder a Testimony from Heaven from a Trick of the Angels of Hell if they can perform things that astonish and confound our Reasons and are beyond all the Possibilities of Humane Nature To this Objection I reply 1. The Wonders done by Confederacy with Wicked Spirits cannot derive a suspition upon the undoubted Miracles that were wrought by the Author and Promulgers of our Religion as if they were performed by Diabolical Compact since their Spirit Endeavours and Designs were notoriously contrary to all the Tendencies Aims and Interests of the Kingdom of Darkness For as to the Life and Temper of the Blessed and Adorable JESUS we know there was an incomparable sweetness in his Nature Humility in his Manners Calmness in his Temper Compassion in his Miracles Modesty in his Expressions Holiness in all his Actions Hatred of Vice and Baseness and Love to all the World all which are essentially contrary to the Nature and Constitution of Apostate Spirits who abound in Pride and Rancour Insolence and Rudeness Tyranny and Baseness Universal Malice and Hatred of Men And their Designs are as opposite as their Spirit and their Genius And now Can the Sun borrow its Light from the Bottomless Abyss Can Heat and Warmth flow in upon the World from the Regions of Snow and Ice Can Fire freeze and Water burn Can Natures so infinitely contrary communicate and jump in Projects that are destructive to each others known Interests Is there any Balsam in the Cockatrices Egg or Can the Spirit of Life flow from the Venom of the Asp Will the Prince of Darkness strengthen the Arm that is stretcht out to pluck his Usurp't Scepter and his Spoils from him And will he lend his Legions to assist the Armies of his Enemy against him No these are impossible Supposals No intelligent Being will industriously and knowingly contribute to the Contradiction of its own Principles the Defeature of its Purposes and the Ruine of its own dearest Interests There is no fear then that our Faith should receive prejudice from the acknowledgement of the Being of Witches and Power of Evil Spirits since 't is not the doing wonderful things that is the only Evidence that the Holy JESUS was from God and his Doctrine True but the conjunction of other Circumstances the Holiness of his Life the Reasonableness of his Religion and the Excellency of his Designs added credit to his Works and strengthned the great Conclusion That he could be no other than the Son of God and Saviour of the World But besides I say 2. That since Infinite Wisdom and Goodness rules the World it cannot be conceiv'd that they should give up the greatest part of Men to unavoidable deception And if Evil Angels by their Confederates are permitted to perform such astonishing things as seem so evidently to carry God's Seal and Power with them for the confirmation of Falshoods and gaining credit to Impostors without any Counter-evidence to disabuse the World Mankind is exposed to sad and fatal Delusion And to say that Providence will suffer us to be deceived in things of the greatest Concernment when we use the best of our Care and Endeavours to prevent it is to speak hard things of God and in effect to affirm That He hath nothing to do in the Government of the World or doth not concern himself in the Affairs of poor forlorn Men And if the Providence and Goodness of God be not a security unto us against such Deceptions we cannot be assured but that we are always abused by those mischievous Agents in the Objects of plain Sense and in all the Matters of our daily Converses If One that pretends he is immediately sent from God to overthrow the Ancient Fabrick of Established Worship and to erect a New Religion in His Name shall be born of a Virgin and honoured by a Miraculous Star proclaimed by a Song of seeming Angels of Light and Worshipped by the Wise Sages of the World Revered by those of the greatest Austerity and admired by all for a Miraculous Wisdom beyond his Education and his Years If He shall feed Multitudes with almost nothing and fast himself beyond all the possibilities of Nature If He shall be transformed into the appearance of extraordinory Glory and converse with departed Prophets in their visible Forms If He shall Cure all Diseases without Physick or Endeavour and raise the Dead to Life after they have stunk in their Graves If He shall be honoured by Voices from Heaven and attract the Universal Wonder of Princes and People If he shall allay Tempests with a Beck and cast out Devils with a Word If he shall foretel his own Death particularly with its Tragical Circumstances and his Resurrection after it If the Veil of the most famous Temple in the World shall be Rent and the Sun darkned at his Funeral If He shall within the time foretold break the Bonds of Death and lift up his Head out of the Grave If Multitudes of other departed Souls shall arise with Him to attend at the Solemnity of his Resurrection If He shall after Death visibly Converse and Eat and Drink with divers Persons who could not be deceived in a Matter of clear Sense and ascend in Glory in the presence of an astonisht and admiring Multitude I
by this Project since those that find such success in the unknown Conjurations may by that be toll'd on to more express Transactions with those Fiends that have assisted them incognito Or if they proceed not so far yet they run upon a Rock by acting in the Dark and dealing in unknown and unwarranted Arts in which the Effect is much beyond the proper efficiency of the things they use and affords ground of more than suspicion that some Evil Spirit is the Agent in those wondrous Performances Upon this account I say it is not to me unlikely but that the Devils may by their own Constitution be bound to attend upon all that use their Ceremonies and Forms though ignorantly and without design of Evil and so Conjuration may have been performed by those who are none of the Covenant-Sorcerers and Witches Among those perhaps we may justly reckon Balaam and the Diviners For Balaam Moncaeus hath undertaken to clear him from the Guilt of the greater Sorcery And the Diviners are usually distinctly mentioned from those that had Familiar Spirits The Astrologers also of Elder Times and those of Ours I take to have been of this sort of Magicians and some of them under the colour of that Mystical Science worse And I question not but that things are really done and foretold by those pretended Artists that are much beyond the regular Possibilities of their Art which in this appears to be exceedingly uncertain and precarious in that there are no less than six ways of erecting a Scheme in each of which the Prediction of Events shall be different and yet every one of them be justifiable by the Rules of that pretended Science And the Principles they go upon are found to be very Arbitrary and Unphilosophical not by the ordinary Declaimers against it but by the most profound Inquirers into things who perfectly understand the whole Mystery and are the only competent Judges Now those Mystical Students may in their first Addresses to this Science have no other Design but the satisfaction of their Curiosity to know remote and hidden things Yet that in the Progress being not satisfied within the Bounds of their Art doth many times tempt the Curious Inquirer to use worse means of Information and no doubt those mischievous Spirits that are as vigilant as the Beasts of Prey and watch all occasions to get us within their envious reach are more constant Attenders and careful Spies upon the Actions and Inclinations of such whose Genius and Designs prepare them for their Temptations So that I look on Judicial Astrology as a fair Introduction to Sorcery and Witchcraft And who knows but that it was first set on foot by Evil Spirits as a Lure to draw the Curiosâ—…'s into those snares that lie hid beyond it And yet I believe also It may be innocently enough studied by those that aim only to understand what it is and how far it will honestly go and are not willing to condemn any thing which they do not comprehend But that they must take care to keep themselves within the Bounds of sober Enquiry and not indulge irregular Sollicitudes about the knowledge of Things which Providence hath thought fit to conceal from us Which who-ever doth lays himself open to the Designs and Sollicitations of Wicked Spirits and I believe there are very few among such as have been addicted to those Arts of Wonder and Prediction but have found themselves attâ—…qued by some unknown Sollicitors and intiâ—…d by them to the more dangerous Actions and Correspondencies For as there are a sort of base and fordid Spirits that attend the Envy and Malice of the Ignorant and viler sort of Persons and betray-them into Compacts by Promises of Revenge So no doubt there are a kind of more Aiery and Speculative Fiends of an higher rank and order than those wretched Imps who apply themselves to the Curious and many times prevail with them by offers of the more Recondite Knowledge as we know it was in the first Temptation Yea and sometimes they are so cautious and wary in their Conversations with more resined Persons that they never offer to make any express Covenants with them To this purpose I have been informed by a very Learned and Reverend Doctor that one Mr. Edwards a Master of Arts of Trin. Coll. in Cambridge being reclaimed from Conjuration declared in his Repentance that the Daemon always appeared to him like a Man of good fashion and never required any Compact from him And no doubt They sort themselves agreeably to the State Port and Genius of those with whom they converse Yea 't is like as I conjectured are assistant sometimes to those to whom they dare not shew themselves in any openness of appearance lest they should fright them from those ways of Sin and Temptation So that we see that Men may act by Evil Spirits without knowing that they do so And possibly Nebuehadnezzar's Wise Men might be of this fort of Magicians which supposal I mention the rather because it may serve me against some things that may be objected For it may be said If they had been in Confederacy with Devils it is not probable that Daniel would have been their Advocate or in such inoffensive terms have distinguisht their skill from Divine Revelation nor should he one would think have accepted the Office of being Provost over them These Circumstances may be suppos'd to intimate a probability that the Magi of Babylon were in no profest Diabolical Complotment and I grant it But yet they might and in all likelyhood did use the Arts and Methods of Action which obtain Demonaick Cooperation and Assistance though without their privity and so they were a loss criminal sort of Conjurers For those Arts were conveyed down along to them from one hand to another and the Successors still took them up from those that preceded without a Philosophical Scrutiny or Examen They saw strange Things were done and Events predicted by such Forms and such Words how they could not tell nor 't is like did not inquire but contented themselves with this general account That 't was by the power of their Arts and were not sollicitous for any better Reason This I say was probably the case of most of those Predictors though it may be others of them advanced further into the more desperate part of the Mystery And that some did immediately transact with appearing Evil Spirits in those times is apparent enough from express mention in the Scriptures I have alledg'd And the Story of the Witch of Endor 1 Sam. 28. is a remarkable Demonstration of the Main Conclusion which will appear when we have considered and removed the fancy and glosses of our Author about it in his Discovery where to avoid this Evidence he affirms This Witch to be but a Cozener and the whole Transaction a Cheat and Imposture managed by her Self and a Confederate And in order to the perswading this he tells a fine Tale viz. That she departed from
Saul into her Closet Where doubtless says he she had a Familiar some lewd crafty Priest and made Saul stand at the Door like a Fool to hear the cozening Answers He saith she there used the ordinary words of Conjuration and after them Samuel appears whom he affirms to be no other than either the Witch her self or her Confederate By this pretty knack and contrivance he thinks he hath disabled the Relation from signifying to our purpose But the Discoverer might have consider'd that all this is an Invention and without Book For there is no mention of the Witch's Closet or her retiring into another Room or her Confederate or her Form of Conjuration I say nothing of all this is as much as intimated in the History and if we may take this large liberty in the Interpretation of Scripture there is scarce a Story in the Bible but may be made a Fallacy and Imposture or any thing that we please Nor is this Fancy of his only Arbitrary but indeed contrary to the Circumstances of the Text. For it says Saul perceived it was Samuel and bowed himself and this Samuel truly foretold his approaching Fate viz. That Israel should be deliver'd with him into the hands of the Philistines and that on the morrow He and his Sons should be in the state of the Dead which doubtless is meant by the Expression that they should be with him Which contingent Particulars how could the Cozener and her Confederate foretel if there were nothing in it extraordinary and preternatural It hath indeed been a great Dispute among Interpreters whether the real Samuel was raised or the Devil in his likeness Most later Writers suppose it to have been an Evil Spirit upon the supposition that Good and Happy Souls can never return hither from their Coelestial Abodes and they are not certainly at the Beck and Call of an impious Hag. But then those of the other side urge that the Piety of the words that were spoke and the seasonable Reproof given to despairing Saul are Indications sufficient that they came not from Hell and especially they think the Prophesie of Circumstances very accidental to be an Argument that it was not utter'd by any of the Infernal Predictors And for the supposal that is the ground of that Interpretation 't is judged exceedingly precarious for who saith that happy departed Souls were never employed in any Ministeries here below And those Dissenters are ready to ask a Reason Why they may not be sent in Messages to Earth as well as those of the Angelical Order They are nearer allyed to our Natures and upon that account more intimately concern'd in our Affairs and the example of returning Lazarus is evidence of the thing de facto Besides which that it was the Real Samuel they think made probable by the Opinion of Jesus Syrac Ecclus. 46. 19 20. who saith of him That after his death he prophesied and shewed the King his end which also is likely from the Circumstance of the Woman's Astonishment and crying out when she saw him intimating her surprize in that the Power of God had over-ruled her Inchantments and sent another than she expected And they conceive there is no more incongruity in supposing God should send Samuel to rebuke Saul for this his last folly anâ—… to predict his instant ruine than in his interposing Elias to tâ—… Messengers of Ahazias when he sent to Beelzebub Now if it were the Real Samuel as the Letter expresseth and the obvious sense is to be followed when there is no cogent Reason to decline it he was not raised by the Power of the Witches Inchantments but came on that occasion in a Divine Errand But yet her Attempts and Endeavours to raise her Familiar Spirit though at that time over-ruled are Arguments that it had been her custom to do so Or if it were as the other side concludes the Devil in the shape of Samuel her Diabolical Confederacy is yet more palpable I Have now done with Scot and his presumptions and am apt to fancy that there is nothing more needful to be said to discover the Discoverer But there is an Author infinitely more valuable that calls me to consider him 'T is the great Episcopius who though he grants a sort of Witches and Magicians yet denies Compacts His Authority I confess is considerable but let us weigh his Reasons His First is That there is no Example of any of the Prophane Nations that were in such Compact whence he would infer That there are no express Covenants with Evil Spirits in particular Instances But I think that both Proposition and Consequence are very obnoxious For that there were Nations that did actually worship the Devil is plain enough in the Records of Ancient Times and some so read that place in the Psalms The Gods of the Heathen are Devils and Satan we know is call'd the God of this World Yea our Author himself confesseth that the Nation of the Jews were so strictly prohibited Witchcraft and all transaction with Evil Spirits because of their proneness to worship them But what need more There are at this day that pay Sacrifice and all Sacred Homage to the Wicked One in a visible Appearance and 't is well known to those of our own that traffick and reside in those Parts that the Caribbians worship the Devil under the name of Maboya who frequently shews himself and transacts with them the like Travellers relate concerning divers other parts of the Barbarous Indies and 't is confidently reported by sober intelligent Men that have visited those places that most of the Laplanders and some other Northern People are Witches So that 't is plain that there are National Confederacies with Devils or if there were none I see not how it could be inferr'd thence that there are no Personal Ones no more than that there were never any Daemoniacks because we know of no Nation universally possessed nor any Lunaticks in the World because there is no Country of Mad-men But our Author reasons again 2. To this purpose That the profligate Persons who are obnoxious to those gross Temptations are fast enough before and therefore such a Covenant were needless and of no avail to the Tempters Projects This Objection I have answered already in my Remarques upon the IX Prejudice and say again here that if the Designs of those Evil Spirits were only in general to secure wicked Men to the Dark Kingdom it might better be pretended that we cannot give a Reason for their Temptations and Indeavours in this kind But it being likely as I have conjectur'd that each of those Infernal Tempters hath a particular property in those he hath seduced and secured by such Compacts their respective Pride and tyrannical desire of Slaves may reasonably be thought to ingage them in such Attempts in which their so peculiar Interest is concerned But I add what is more direct viz. That such desperate Sinners are made more safe to the Infernal Kingdom
not of those whereby the propagation of the Gospel might have been much advanced viz. the Mystery of Printing and the Magnet and yet no one useth his silence in these Instances as an Argument against the Being of things which are evident Objects of Sense I confess the omission of some of these Particulars is pretty strange and unaccountable and concludes our ignorance of the Reasons and Menages of Providence but I suppose nothing else I thought I needed here to have said no more but I consider in consequence of this Objection it is pretended That as Christ Jesus drove the Devil from his Temples and his Altars as is clear in the Cessation of Oracles which dwindled away and at last grew silent shortly upon his appearance so in like manner 't is said that he banisht him from his lesser holds in Sorcerers and Witches which Argument is peccant both in what it affirms and in what it would infer For 1. The coming of the H. Jesus did not expel the Devil from all the greater Places of his Residence and Worship for a considerable part of barbarous Mankind do him publick solemn Homage to this day So that the very Foundation of the Pretence fails and the Consequence without any more adoe comes to nothing And yet besides 2. If there be any credit to be given to Ecclesiastick History there were Persons possessed with Devils some Ages after Christ whom the Disciples cast out by Prayer and the Invocation of his Name So that Satan was not driven from his lesser Habitations as soon as he was forced from his more famous Abodes And I see no reason 3. Why Though Divine Providence would not allow him publickly to abuse the Nations whom he had designed in a short time after for Subjects of his Son's Kingdom and to stand up in the Face of Religion in an open affront to the Divinity that planted it to the great hindrance of the progress of the Gospel and discouragement of Christian Hopes I say Though Providence would not allow this height of insolent Opposition yet I see not why we may not grant that God however permitted the Devil to sneak into some private skulking Holes and to trade with the particular more devoted Vassals of his wicked Empire As we know that when our Saviour had chased him from the Man that was possessed he permitted his Retreat into the Herd of Swine And I might add 4. That 't is but a bad way of arguing to set up fancied Congruities against plain Experience as is evidently done by those Arguers who because they think that Christ chased the Devil from all his high Places of Worship when he came that 't is therefore fit he should have forced him from all his other less notorious Haunts and upon the imagination of a decency which they frame conclude a Fact contrary to the greatest Evidence of which the thing is capable And once more 5. The consequence of this Imagined Decorum if it be pursued would be this that Satan should now be deprived of all the Ways and Tricks of Cozenage whereby he abuseth us and Mankind since the coming of Christ should have been secure from all his Temptations for there is a greater congruity in believing that when he was forced from his haunts in Temples and publick Places he should be put also from those nearer ones about us and within us in his daily temptations of universal Mankind Then that upon relinquishing those he should be made to leave all profest Communication and Correspondence with those profligate Persons whose vileness had fitted them for such Company So that these Reasoners are very fair for the denial of all Internal Diabolical Temptations And because I durst not trust them I 'le crave leave here to add something concerning those In order to which that I may obtain the favour of those wary Persons who are so coy and shy of their assent I grant That Men frequently out of a desire to excuse themselves lay their own guilt upon the Devil and charge him with things of which in carnest he is not guilty For I doubt not but every Wicked Man hath Devil enough in his own Nature to prompt him to Evil and needs not another Tempter to incite him But yet that Satan endeavours to further our wickedness and our ruin by his Inticements and goes up and down seeking whom he may devour is too evident in the Holy Oracles to need my Endeavours particularly to make it good Only those diffident Men cannot perhaps apprehend the manner of the Operation and from thence are tempted to believe that there is really no such thing Therefore I judge it requisite to explain this and 't is not unsutable to my general Subject In order to it I consider That Sense is primarily caused by Motion in the Organs which by continuity is conveyed to the Brain where Sensation is immediately performed and it is nothing else but a Notice excited in the Soul by the impulse of an External Object thus it is in simple outward Sense But Imagination though caused immediately by material Motion also yet it differs from the external Senses in this That 't is not from an Impress directly from without but the Prime and Original Motion is from within our selves Thus the Soul it self sometimes strikes upon those Strings whose Motion begets such and such Phantasms other-while the loose Spirits wandring up and down in the Brain casually hit upon such Filements and Strings whose Motion excites a Conception which we call a Fancy or Imagination and if the Evidence of the outward Senses be shut out by Sleep or Melancholly in either case we believe those Representations to be real and external Transactions when they are only within our Heads Thus it is in Enthusiasms and Dreams And besides these Causes of the Motions which stir Imagination there is little doubt but that Spirits Good or Bad can so move the Instruments of Sense in the Brain as to awake such Imaginations as they have a mind to excite and the Imagination having a mighty influence upon the Affections and they upon the Will and external Actions 't is very easie to conceive how Good Angels may stir us up to Religion and Vertue and the Evil Ones tempt us to Lewdness and Vice viz. by Representments that they make upon the Stage of Imagination which invite our Affections and allure though they cannot compel our Wills This I take to be an intelligible account of Temptations and also of Angelical Incouragements and perhaps this is the only way of immediate Influence that the Spirits of the other World have upon us And by it 't is easie to give an account of Dreams both Monitory and Temperamental Enthusiasms Fanatick Extasies and the like as I suggested This may suffice for an Answer to the first Pretence viz. the silence of the Gospel in this Matter I come to examine the other That 2. MIracles are ceast thefore the presumed Actions of Witchcraft are Tales
well learn'd to apply the Doctrines they had been taught that he that should endeavour to undeceive them was sure to hear what an Enemy this Reason this Carnal Reason this Vain Philosophy was to Free Grace and Faith and how little able to judge of those Rich those Precious those Spiritual Enjoyments 'T was time now in such an Age as this to assert the sober use of Reason and to rescue Religion by it And They did this happily and shamed all false pretences to the Spirit shewing That there was nothing but Nature and Complexion in the Illuminations Incomes Raptures Prophesies New Lights fluency of Expression mysteriousness of Phrase and other wonderful things of the Enthusiasts which were ignorantly taken to be Divine Communications to the great abuse of Religion and the Souls of Men Perceiving I say that this dangerous Phanatick Spirit was the evil Genius of the Age they bent all their force against it and detected the imposture and labour'd zealously to disabuse the credulous People who were exceeding apt to be taken with such glorious Nothings But of this I shall have another occasion to speak more ANd because the wildness of Enthusiasm and reproaches of Reason had expos'd Christianity it self to the Suspicions of some and Contempts of others as if it were a precarious unreasonable thing that depended only upon Mens Fancies Therefore here They labour'd also with very pious pains to demonstrate the Truth and Reasonableness of the Christian Religion The Beeing of God The Immortality of Humane Souls And Authority of Scripture which they did with much Zeal and much Judgment And these Doctrines were too seasonable and necessary in that Age in which the most glorious Professors laid the whole stress of Religion upon Fancies and thereby undermin'd the Foundations of Faith and Truth and by many Vanities and endless Divisions had made so many Infidels and unhappily dispos'd so many others to go the same way Against these therefore They bent their strength and rescued multitudes especially those of the springing Generation from the hands both of the Enthusiast and the Infidel Answering and discrediting all the new Pretensions and Objections both of the one and the other And their Endeavours here were very needful because the Ancient Books of those kinds were despis'd and neglected by the concern'd Parties and they were not so suitable to the Guize and Fashion of our Age and many Exceptions were started a-new and many other vain things boasted of to which those elder Discourses did not apply their force But these new Defenders of the Christian Truths met them all and spake the things that were suitable as well as those that were strong and true By these means the reasonable sober Spirit began to propagate and the Enthusiast who took notice of it and knew it would destroy his Glorious Imaginations rais'd a loud clamour against these Men as Socinians and advancers of Proud Reason above Free Grace and Faith From this envious and foolish Charge they sufficiently justified themselves by several Sermons and publick Determinations in their Academical Solemnities against the chief Principles of Socinianism sirenously asserting the Deity of Christ and Immortality of Humane Souls c. and vigorously opposing the main Socinian Tenents In consequence of which they shew'd the sure and safe ways to destroy those Opinions without hurting the Catholick Doctrines which many had wounded to do them spight and in this Design some of them appeared in publick with great success HAving thus asserted the Honour of our Faculties and maintain'd the Fundamental Interests of Religion They took notice what unworthy and dishonourable Opinions were publish'd abroad concerning God to the disparagement of all his Attributes and discouragement of vertuous Endeavours and great trouble and dejection of many pious Minds and therefore here they appear'd also to assert and vindicate the Divine Goodness and love of Men in its freedom and extent against those Doctrines that made his Love Fondness and his Justice Cruelty and represented God as the Eternal Hater of the far greatest part of his reasonable Creatures and the designer of their Ruine for the exaltation of meer Power and arbitrary Will Against these sowr and dismal Opinions They stood up stoutly in a time when the Assertors of the Divine Purity and Goodness were persecuted bitterly with nick-names of Reproach and popular Hatred They gave sober Accounts of the Nature of God and his Attributes suitable to those Declarations of himself he hath made by the Scriptures and our Reasons They shew'd continually how impossible it was that Infinite Goodness should design or delight in the misery of his Creatures That God never acts by meer arbitrary Will but by a Will directed by the Perfections of his Nature That to act arbitrarily is Imperfection and Impotence That he is tyed by the excellency of his Beeing to the Laws of Right and Just and that there are independent Relations of True and Good among things antecedent to all Will and Vnderstanding which are indispensible and eternal That Goodness is the Fountain of all his Communications and Actions ad extra That to glorifie God is rightly to apprehend and celebrate his Perfections by our Words and by our Actions That Goodness is the chief moral Perfection That Power without Goodness is Tyranny and Wisdom without it is but Craft and Subtilty and Justice Cruelty when destitute of Goodness That God is not pleased with our Praises otherwise than as they are the suitable Actings of his Creatures and tend to make them love him in order to their being happy in him By such Principles as These which are wonderfully fertile and big of many great Truths they undermined and from the bottom overthrew the fierce and churlish Reprobatarian Doctrines And those Truths they proved from the Scripture and the Nature of God and Reason of Things with all possible clearness and strength of Evidence OBserving further That Faith was preach'd up as the whole of Religion and that represented variously phantastickly and after an unintelligible manner drest up in Metaphors and Phrases and dangerous Notions that prescinded it from Good Works and made them unnecessary Here they appeared also and detected the vanity and canting of this Airy Divinity Stating the Notion of Faith plainly and clearly and stripping it out of its Chymerical cloathing Teaching That Faith in the general is the Belief of a Proposition affirm'd and Divine Faith the belief of a Divine Testimony and Evangelical Saving Faith such a Belief as works on the Will and Affections and produceth the Works of Righteousness So that the Faith that is said to justifie in the forensick sense is a complex thing and takes in an Holy Life and all the Graces of the Spirit which are call'd by the name of Faith because that is the Root of all the rest Thus they asserted the necessity of a real inward Righteousness against the Solifidian and Antinomian Heresies which had poison'd the whole Body of the then Current
to dissenters and prevent all vehemencies of captious dispute all schisms and unnecessary separations and many Wars and Persecutions upon the account of Religion For if the things in which Men differ be not Religion be not Faith and Fundamental If this be true and this truth acknowledg'd All these would want pretence and so Peace and Vnity would possess the spirits of Men. They saw that Religion which was shaken by divisions and rendred suspected of uncertainty through the mixture of uncertain things would stand safe and firm when 't was lay'd only upon the plain infallible undoubted propositions That holiness would thrive when Mens zeal was taken off from talking and disputing against others and directed inwards to the government of themselves and the reformation of their own hearts and lives That Papism which in those times of distraction began to spread even here would drop to the ground if it were believed That the necessary principles of Religion were few and plain and those agreed on For then there would be no need of an Infallible Interpreter and Judge I say They were sensible that all the great Interests of Religion and Mankind might be served by the acknowledgment of this one Reasonable Principle which they saw was the only way to bring us to stability and consistence â—…o Peace and Vnion In Consequence of this Spirit and Doctrine they discours'd the things wherein they differ'd from others with mildness and modesty without anger and damning sentences and afforded their converses to all sorts of good Men though they believ'd them mistaken They never exprest rage in their conversations or discourses against bare errours and mistakes of judgment But for the pride and confidence censoriousness and groundless separations that are the frequent attendants of different opinions These sometimes mov'd them to anger and expression of just resentment because they look'd on them as great Immoralities and very pernicious sins And on the occasion of these spiritual vices they were warmed with zeal against the Sectaries and Bigots for the taking down of whose pride and confidence They thought it necessary to detect the Impostors and to expose their vanities which they did successfully and shew'd That their Divinity consisted most in Phrases and their boasted spirituality in fond affections That their new lights were but freakish fancies and old Heresies revived and the precious Mysteries of their Theology but conceited absurdities and non-sense in a fantastick dress They happily drew the parallel between our Separatists and those antient ones the Pharisees and proved that the same spirit acted the Ataxites that govern'd those Jewish Fanaticks And because their pretences were taking and specious and had caught great numbers of the easie well meaning people of Bensalem Therefore to disabuse them they labour'd much to shew the shortness of their kind of Godliness and the danger of placing all Religion in Praying Hearing Zeal Rapture Mysteries and Opinions Accordingly they declar'd and prov'd That 1. Fluency and Pathetick eloquence in suddain Prayer may proceed and doth many time from excited passion and warm imagination from a peculiar temper and heated melancholly That these are no sign that a man prays by the spirit nor do they argue him to be one jot the better then those that want the faculty or any whit the more accepted of God for it That to pray by the spirit is to pray with Faith Desire and Love and that a Man may pray by the spirit and with a Form 2. That people may delight to hear from other causes then conscience and a desire to be directed in the government of their Lives That hearing is very grateful to some because it feeds their opinions and furnisheth their tongues and inables them to make a great shew of extraordinary Saint-ship They represented that meer animal Men and fond lovers of themselves may be much taken with hearing of the Gracious promises and Glorious priviledges of the Gospel when at the same time they are told they are all theirs and theirs peculiarly and exclusively to the rest of Mankind That pride and vanity and self-love will recommend and indear such preaching That it is most luscious to fond and conceited men to hear how much better and more precious they are then their Neighbours how much dearer to God and more favour'd by him what an interest they have in free distinguishing Grace and how very few have a share in it besides themselves How their enemies are hated of God and how sad a condition they are in who differ from them in practices and opinions To doat on such preaching and admiringly to follow such Preachers They shew'd was but to be in love with flattery and self-deceit That it was no sign of Godliness but an evident argument of pride malice and immoderate selfishness That these are the true causes of the zeal and earnestness of many after Sermons and of the pleasure that they have in hearing though they would perswade others and believe themselves that the love of Religion and sence of duty are the only motives that prevail with them 3. Concerning zeal They taught That zeal in it self is indifferent and made good or bad as it's objects and incentives are That meer education and custom natural conscience and particular complexion do sometimes make Men very zealous about things of Religion That though the fervours of the Ataxites for their Doctrines and ways were not all feigned but real and sincere Yet their zeal was nothing worth being but meer natural passion kindled by a fond delight in their own self chosen practices and opinions That their coldness to the great known necessary duties of Justice Charity Obedience Modesty and Humility was an evident sign that their heat for pretended Orthodox tenents and modes of worship had nothing Divine in it That true zeal begins at home with self-reformation and that where it was imployed altogether about amendments of external Religion and publick Government it was pernicious not only to the World but to a Mans self also 4. And because the heights of zeal ran up sometimes into raptures and exstacies which were look'd on as wonderful appearances of God in the thus transported persons Therefore here also They undeceived the people as I said in the general before by shewing That these alienations may be caused naturally by the power of a strong fancy working upon violent affections That they together may and do oft produce deliquiums of sense That the Imagination working then freely and without contradiction or disturbance from the external senses and being wholly imploy'd about Religious matters may form to it self strange Images of extraordinary apparitions of God and Angels of Voices and Revelations which being forcibly imprest on the fancy may beget a firm belief in the exstaticall person that all these were divine manifestations and discoveries and so he confidently thinks himself a Prophet and an inspired Man and vents all his conceits for Seraphick truths and holy Mysteries And by the vehemency
they had generally silly and fantastick conceptions of Free Grace Gospel-liberty Saving knowledge Pure Ordinances The motions of the Spirit Workings of Corruption Powerful preaching Liberty of Conscience Illuminations and Indwellings That their Admirers generally talk'd those words by rote without knowing the meaning of them and that the Teachers themselves understood them in a false and erroneous sense That bating such words and the talk of Outgoings Incommings Givings-in Dawnings Refinings Withdrawings and other Metaphors there was nothing extraordinary in their whole Divinity but the non-sense and absurdities of it Thus They declar'd freely against the Gibberish of that Age and stated the right Notion of those points of Religion which the others had so transformed and abused FUrther Whereas the Sects kept up loud cryes against the Church of Bensalem as guilty of Superstition Will-worship undue Impositions and Persecution They took them to task here also and declar'd That Superstition in the properest sense of it imports An over-timerous and dreadful apprehension of God which presents him as rigid and apt to be angry on the one hand and as easie to be pleas'd with flattering devotions on the other so that Superstition works two wayes viz. by begetting fears of things in which there is no hurt and fondness of such as have no good in them on both which accounts they declar'd the Ataxites to be some of the most superstitious people in the World They shew'd That their dreadful notions of God which represented him as one that by peremptory unavoidable decrees had bound over the greatest part of men to everlasting Torments without any consideration of their sin only to shew the absoluteness of his power over them I say They declar'd that those black thoughts of Him were the Fountain of numerous superstitions That their causless fears of the innocent Rites and usages of the Church of Bensalem which were only matters of order and decency appointed by the Governours of the Church and not pretending any thing in particular to divine Institution was very gross and silly superstition That they were very superstitious in being afraid and bogling at prescribed Forms of Prayer kneeling at the holy Sacrament the Cross in Baptism and the like becomming and decent Institutions That 't was Ignorance and Superstition to fly off with such dread from a few injoyn'd Ceremonies because forsooth they were symbolical and significant That the Ceremonies that are not so are vain and impertinent That the Ruling Powers may appoint such for the visible instruction and edification of the People and for the more reverence and solemnity of Worship That the current principle among them That Nothing is to be done in the Worship of God but what is particularly commanded and prescribed in Scripture is a foolish groundless conceit and the occasion of many Superstitions That though this is always pretended and said yet it was never proved That to observe the Church in such appointments without any opinion of their antecedent necessity is a due act of obedience to it But to fly from them as sinful and Anti-christian is great Superstition These things they declar'd and prov'd against the negative Superstitions of Taste not Touch not handle not And They shew'd also how justly chargeable the Ataxites were with many Positive ones in that they doated upon little needless foolish things and lay'd a great stress of Religion upon them That the keeping such stir about pretended Orthodox opinions and the placing them in their Creeds among the most sacred and fundamental Doctrines was a dangerous and mischievous Superstition That it was very superstitious to dignify private conceits or uncertain tenents with the style of Gospel-light Gods Truths precious Truths and the like expressions of admiration and fondness That to intitle the Spirit of God to the effects of our imaginations and the motions of natural passions was Superstition and that so was the opinion of the necessity and spirituality of suddain conceiv'd prayer That there was much Superstition in their Idolizing their particular ways of Worship and models of Discipline as the pure Ordinances and Christs Government and Scripture Rules And that in these and many other respects they that talk'd so much against Superstition were themselves most notoriously guilty of it As to Will-worship They taught after your most learned Hammondus That the Apostle in the only place where it is mention'd Col. 2. doth not speak of it in an evil sense But that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports a free and unconstrain'd worship which is the more acceptable for being so That Sacrifices before the Law Free-will-offerings under it The feasts of Purim and Dedication Davids design of building the Temple the Austerities of the Rechabites and St. Paul's refusing hire for his labour among the Corinthians were of this sort That men are not to be blamed for Will-worship except they would impose it without Authority as necessary That when they thus teach for Doctrines their own Traditions and grow so proud and conceited with them as to separate from the publick Communion upon the fancy that they are more pure and holy then others That this their Will-worship is sinful and Pharisaical which was the case of the Ataxites who therefore were Will-worshippers in the evil sense But the Anti-fanites shewed that the pious Institutions of just Authority were no way lyable to any such imputation That such might impose particular Circumstances and Decencies and that those Impositions were no way contrary to Gospel Liberty That that was only Freedom from the Jewish yoke from the bondage of sin and power of Sathan not Liberty from the Injunctions and Appointments of Civil or Ecclesiastical Governours That all or the chief power of these conconsisted in fixing and appointing circumstances of order and decorum that were left undetermined and not prescrib'd in Scripture That if they may not do this they are in a manner useless That the Church of Bensalem impos'd nothing that was grievous or prohibited They minded the Ataxites that themselves were great Imposers That they imposed Oaths and Ceremonies in that part of Religious Worship a form of words the lifting up of the hand and That they would have impos'd numerous doubtful and false opinions to have been subscrib'd as a necessary Confession of Faith making thereby their own private tenents of equal moment and certainty with the great fundamental Articles which is proper imposing upon the Conscience That they would not by any means allow Liberty of Conscience when they were in power that this then was the great Abomination and the most accursed thing in the world That they persecuted the Bensalemites for their Consciences with wonderful inhumanity That when other power is taken from them they are grievous persecutors with their Tongues and are continually shooting the Arrows of bitter scornful words against all that are of different judgment Thus Those Divines disabled all the charges and pretences of the Fanites and turn'd the points and edge upon themselves And