propositions they maintain rather than their true natural Sense such as 't is found in other Authors and in ordinary use of a Tongue that is so familiar to them Of these I might recite a thousand proofs if it were necessary and time would allow me Sect. 13. Besides as much as Man has taken pains to acquire uncertain and corrupted Sciences so much has he been negligent of informing himself in the best the finest and at the same time the smallest part of Sciences with which he is ordinarily less acquainted for as I have already said the Youth in the Schools run over all the Countries of the Ancient Heathens only to make a booty of Latin and Greek before they do so much as visit Christianity which is only shewn to them as at a distance they are yet of too tender a constitution to be loaden with such solid meat and too young to be mixed with such important Affairs so that they are taught almost nothing of that matter It is not thought convenient for them to know what Soul and Body are wherein consists the Essence of the Soul or that of the Angels and Devils and what knowledge and operations those Spirits are capable of and what share and administration they take here below in human Affairs No light is afforded to them that may dissipate the darkness that has been spread over their understandings in their youth nor blot out the impressions that have been made upon them as to this point by the means already mention'd so that this darkness and these impressions destitute of Antidotes do still penetrate farther Even those that follow the Principles of Descartes tho' they distinguish better than others the nature of Soul and Body as will be shown in my Second Book Chap. 1. Sect. 12 13 14. yet when they come to the operations of such Spirits as are not joyned to a Body either Angels or Devils and undertake to explain how they can act upon other Bodies either of Men or other matter they take as much freedom as they can and go as far as they can be carried by the prejudices they have imbibed with all others before they studied Scripture and Philosophy Sect. 14. That which may adorn the Human Mind with Light and form its Judgment is what is less intended to be acquired in Universities tho' they seem to be the place where such a rare thing should be gotten which most unhappily affords not the means to grow rich I mean Mathematicks and that part of natural Philosophy that discovers the nature and course of the Heavens not because they treat of our present subject but for two other reasons I shall add The first is that more certainty is to be found in Mathematicks than in all other Sciences because they are grounded upon infallible Principles such Students as are used to the certainty of these Principles will not acknowledge for truth such as are not attended with a full and entire conviction and put a little value upon such Sciences as have not the same certainty But the Second Reason is still more particular viz. That Mathematicks especially that part that treats of the knowledge of Stars manifestly discovers several things that undeniably shew the Sacred Writers accommodated themselves to the stile and capacity of the Vulgar and speak of the Heavens Earth Sun Moon and Stars not according to their own nature and as they are in themselves but according to the common notions of Men. And therefore those that are somewhat addicted to that Science credit not so easily the discourses of other Men and are not satisfied with probabilites They are not disposed to fill the Air with Spirits nor to fix them to Stars nor to confound Spirits and Stars together But the mischief is as I have already hinted that few Learned give up themselves to that part of the Sciences tho' it is the most useful and beautiful of all Sect. 15. All these prejudices with which we have been once fill'd which have been rooted in us more and more by the ways already alleag'd which have grown by the new nourishment they daily received and which have neither been banished nor weaken'd by the endeavours of a better informed Judgment all these prejudices I say are no where more sensible than in the subject we treat of And therefore we have destin'd this First Book to establish this Truth and make it very plain to the end it might be clearly perceived that all those Opinions concerning the Devils Divinations and Witchcraft draw their first Original from the Heathens who communicated them to the Jews during the Babilonian Captivity where they had more conversation with the Philosophers than in the Land of Canaan whilst they liv'd separated from all other Nations of the Earth There they insensibly took the tincture of the Heathen Doctrines and Practices at least of such as seem'd not directly opposed to their Law The first Christians springing from the middle of the Jews and Heathens kept likewise most part of the same Doctrines and intended to gain the Heathens by too great and easie a compliance with their Opinions Thus was insensibly laid the foundation on which the great aedifice of Popery is now founded and rais'd Sect. 16. Another Judgment may be pass'd upon that matter if Popery were put in parallel with Heathenism and not esteem'd the worse of these two For why should not they be held for Heathen Legends what the Pagans have published of their Miracles Oracles Gods Aërial Spectres Dreams and the like prodigies That is why do we not call 'em Lies as we rightly so name the Roman Legends Have we more reason to look upon as suspitious those wonders the relations of which are inserted almost in all the Books of the chief Roman writers and to look upon them as a branch of superstition then to deal in the same manner with those of the Heathens Whence comes it that we publickly laugh at both in our discourses and writings the sham miracles of the former as being meer delusions and trifles and that we approve both by our words and our Books the narrations that the latter make of the wonders seen amongst them and that we quote them as true thô they be of the same matter and weight with the others The antiquity of those Authors and of the times in which they have written has it so much power and efficacy and must we more easily credit stories because they are said to have happen'd a long while ago and in far remote Countries But what 's that to the main point Truth fits not it self in this manner to the inclinations of Men. Lies were anciently told as well as they are now and as well in Foreign Countries as in our own Sect. 17. It is methinks sufficiently proved by all the quotations of this Book that there are no Miracles Oracles purging Fires Apparitions of Hobgoblins or Souls Witchcraft by Letters and â—â—aracters or choice of Days either in
in this second examination of the second part where the certainty of the knowledge which proceeds from Scripture alone is treated of I am nevertheless obliged to employ my Reason to the end it may serve me to examine what Scripture contains not that it may reach so far as to comprehend the things themselves but it ought nevertheless to comprehend what the Scripture it self says and that things are such as it says although I conceive them not such as they are But see here the knot of the difficulty that is that every one crys out that the Scripture says such or such things because he conceives that the Scripture says them and when the Scripture may be understood two â—â—ys we easily embrace the Sense which best suites our Notions If already without too much examination we have sufferd our selves to be prejudiced with Opinions of which we would however be better satisfied and find some more particular instruction in the Scripture It is not sought with that impartiality and liberty of Mind which are necessary but we still incline towards the prejudices If there is the least appearance that we may by wresting the Scripture adapt it to the Sense we would have it we never fail to do all our Endeavours in order thereto and afterwards imagine to have found there sufficient proofs in favour of our Opinion because it seems to say what we desire As we see two Counsellors explain the same Law each for the advantage of his Client and that they never want Reasons on both sides to confute the contrary Arguments so that they appear each to have the right on his side and that it is very difficult to extricate what they have so much perplexed But it is said that I my self do what I condemn in others and for me I maintain that those who are conscious of their guilt and worthy of censure cast that imputation upon me seeing me explain so many passages in another Sense than that with which they are prevented without any other Reason than because it is ordinarily received They are persuaded that this change proceeds in me from the same cause that I discover in them See the true cause that makes them say I wrest the Scripture not that I really wrest it but rather that I keep not as a Slave to their Interpretations But I make say they a false Supposition and after I endeavour to give to the Scripture a Sense which agrees to that Supposition That may be but to know what it is you must examine after what manner I make the exposition of the Scripture and whether I turn it towards my prejudices and theâ—efore 't is necessary that I explain a little more clearly every one of the Articles I treat of The Principle they say I suppose is that a Spirit cannot act upon a Body nor upon other immaterial Spirits That 's the burthen of the Song and what they make me say over and over every where and is so confidently published that even my Friends can scarce forbear crediting it as there come every day occasions which make me know it It is a prejudice that passes from hand to hand from one party to another It insensibly spreads it self in all the Minds and in that Disposition the reading of my Book is undertaken but they seldom read it entire from one end to the other as it would be but just and necessary to do they only read some separate places viz. those they are referr'd to and especially those in which I dispute upon the Operations of Spirits For I may boldly say that of those that have read my Book with attention I find but very few which hold the same Discourses On the contrary they take quite another party viz. that of Truth So that I defie all those that have read it to mark so much as one place where I put as a Principle of my Opinion touching the Devil That a Spirit cannot act either upon a Body or another Spirit What is then the foundation of this noise which is so strongly and so generally spread abroad and which is the cause of the great prosecution that is made against me It is this general prejudice which proceeds from the common Exposition of the passages of Scripture upon this that is That a Spirit as a Spirit and so much the more as it is a Spirit can without Body act upon all sorts of Bodies and upon other Spirits I require proofs of this Thesis and because this demand is unthought of and extraordinary and upon which by consequence every one is not prepared my demand is taken for a Negative But before I lay my self that foundation which ordinarily is not call'd in Question I examine first the Grounds upon which these People themselves rest their Opinion or upon what they ought to establish it according to the Idea they have of Spirits I say according to the Idea they have of Spirits for whether according to the Principles of Descartes they distinguish them from Bodies the more neatly then other Philosophers do or that they grosly attribute something corporeal to them These two Idea's nevertheless proceed as yet equally from that they conceive the Operations of Spirits upon external Objects whether Bodies or other Spirits as a property of the Spiritual Nature and from that they include them in the notion they have of that Nature and it is by this means that instead of considering the Body as an instrument which is necessary to the Operation of Spirits or at least proper to them they look upon it as an obstacle to the liberty and virtue of the Operations of a Spiritual Nature Thence comes that every Body crys â—ut so differrently against me some saying that Descartes's Philosophy has spoiled me and that is the fruit which is reaped by his Followers desiring to cast upon it the Errors that they accuse me of Others who being in the same prejudice yet are Cartesians at bottom give out that I understand not the Philosophy of Descartes But whatever my Learning and Experience be I intend to have to do but with sensible People and leave the others at full liberty to pass upon the Doctrine I teach such Judgments as they please An Abridgment of the Second Book As to what concerns my Second Book see the method I have taken I begin with the distinction of names in fixing at first what must be understood by a Body and a Spirit to avoid all equivocations which I have done in the first Chapter I speak of God in the Second proveing not only that the supream Being which I denote by that word is only one but also that there is not the least communion between it and created things directly confuting the Opinion of Spinosa upon this subject which I pretend to do with more force and evidence than any hitherto because ordinarily they undertake to demonstrate by the most perfect and incomprehensible Essence of God the manner and virtue of the Operations
Scriptures It seems to me that I am in the right to conclude that those Angels that is to say those Messengers were Men as they named themselves not being able in the mean while to determine what must be understood by the Angel of the Face of God which conducted Israel in the desert Exod. 23 Chap. and by the Angels by whom God gave his Law upon Mount Sinai I propose only my thoughts and what seems to me may be understood by it by a Collation of the passages of the Holy writ which make mention of the manner of that Divine conduct of the Israelites in the desert Chap. 15. I pass farther and examine what is said in the Scripture concerning the Angels with relation to some certain Persons Nations and Countries And I conclude from thence that what has ever been variously written upon this subject by particular Authors is not founded upon Scripture because all the passages made use of to ground those Opinions speak but figuratively At last coming to the Devil and to the rest of evil Angels I see that this name has been given as well to ill Men as to evil Spirits and even first to wicked Men. So I examine in the 17 18 and 19 Chapters what may most conveniently be understood by the Chief of evil Spirits but in making the examination of all the particular passages which are usually applied to the Devil I find that the name of Satan or Devil is used in some of these passages and that of Daemon and of Daemonium in some others And that there are several denominations ordinarily applied to the Devil which obliges me to double my cares that I may discover what ought to be understood by Devil especially in the History of the fall of the first Adam and in that of the temptation of the second This is the matter of the 20 and the 21st Chapters The other passages which contain the name of Satan appear to me to be different from these of which I treat in the 23 24 and 25 Chapters I examine afterwards in the 26 to the 30 what are the Daemonia and those that are called Possest And lastly in the 31st Chapter what must be understood in all the other passages where instead of the name of Devil and of Demons others quite different are used And therefore as the principal operations attributed to the Devil in Scripture consist in the fall of the First Man and the assaults he made upon our Saviour in the Desart Thence I take occasion to examine Whether those Accounts may serve to the Opinion of the power of this evil Spirit and of the power of his operation upon Men But it seems to me that in the narration of Moses touching the fall of Man that happen'd by the discourse of a Serpent nothing is said that ought to carry me to conclude that the Devil himself can act immediately upon the Soul and Body of Man Here I keep to that discovery without going any further Those that are of another Opinion find that this conclusion is drawn from that Relation with a full evidence and aske how the fall of Man could happen otherwise rendring themselves guilty of the same fault they reproach me with by pretending to know themselves how the thing came to pass and to be able to render the reason of it But he that judges ought not to speak of it so positively declaring he knows nothing of it and finds nothing revealed upon that point he is presently accused of denying the same thing it self and of not believing the matter of Fact because he grants he is not acquainted with the manner of it The celebrated Voetius has however explained himself upon this subject very near as I do for in the first part of his Disputes pag. 915. speaking of the fall of Man he says upon the Question to know how and in what manner it is not possible to give so satisfactory an answer but it may be seen that there remains still something which the weakness of our understanding cannot comprehend nor likewise how the Devil seduced Eve Examining the temptation of our Lord by the Devil I agree that the Tempter is the evil Spirit and I believe that the literal Sense may very well pass supposing that it was a wicked Man so called But I shew that understanding these words of the evil Spirit literally the quite contrary may be inferr'd from what is ordinarily gather'd from thence Thereupon if I be ask'd how I understand and explain that narration I answer That I believe that the thing was done in a Vision See how Schultetus speaks who as well as Voetius has been a member of the national Synod of Dordrecht in his Exercit. Evang. Lib. 11. Chap. 3. the question is to know whether the thing really happend or in a vision he answers it was in a vision and after gives some reasons which however I do not judge so strong as mine None has right to require from me that I should precisely explain my self upon the passages of Scripture and upon others from which they suppose to draw strong proofs in favour of that Opinion the truth of which I here call in question nor that I should declare what sense I give them especially to those who mention the fall of the first Man in Paradise and the temptation of our Lord in the Desart For I have had no other design on this occasion but to examine whether these passages understood according to the Letter afford sufficient proof to make us admit the consequences that are usually drawn from thence and to establish the common Opinion which is had of the craft and power of the Devil to act upon Men. If it were necessary to proceed farther and to examine all these passages to the bottom in order to penetrate their true sense a whole Book scarce suffices I refuse not however to do it and hope to undertake it as soon as the Divine Providence will furnish me with occasion and leisure I shew as to other passages of the Holy Writ that they cannot be understood of evil Spirits but only of ill Men and of the works of God not of those of the Devil thô without hesitating these passages are ordinarily applyed to the Devil I maintain in the 22 Chapter that it was a Man which brought David to number the People Chap. 23. that the passage wherein the fight of Michael against the Devil is mention'd is very obscure and that there is a great uncertainty in the present Opinions upon that point as all Divines grant and that by consequence nothing can be concluded from them especially if it be supposed as some learned do that the Devil was but a meer Man I shew in Chap. 24. That the Spirit of Python that is spoken of in the 16th Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles can no ways be applied to the Devil Neither does the famous History of Job always alledged one of the first as a
proof of his power being well examined in its whole extent attribute to him the least part in the evils which by the Providence of God happen'd to that Holy Man As to the Angel of Satan which tormented St. Paul I place him in the same rank with the fight against Michael that is in uncertainty there being no ground to pretend to a perfect understanding of this passage and therefore I look upon it as insufficient to prove any thing which is the matter of the 25th Chapter But as the Possest are universally alledg'd for a certain proof of the great power of the Devil and that we read so many times in Scripture that the evil Spirits have been cast out by our Saviour Jesus Christ I beslow five Chapters upon examining what is in it I see that the term of Diabolus which we Translate Devil is not found in any of the passages in which those Relations are contained but only that of Daemon which I illustrate in the 26th Chapter In the 27th I shew that the most dangerous diseases especially those of the Head were usually ascribed to Demons or even call'd by the name of Demons and in the 28th that our Saviour Jesus Christ has not changed the usual way of speaking but made use of them according to the custom of that time neither did he always immediately confute all the errors in the 29th and 30th Chapters so that the cure of Daemonia was not properly an expulsion of Devils but a miraculous cure of incurable Diseases I come after to other passages of Scripture where neither the names of Devil Satan or Demon are made use of but those of the Prince of the World Prince of the power of the air Prince of this Age of Lordships Powers Dominions and the like And I shew that there is not the least cause to apply them to the Devil but that the Stile of Scripture leads us of it self to understand by all these names a certain order of persons Having then examined all I could not conclude that the Scripture considered truely and without prejudice attributes to the Devil this power and these operations which the prevention of Commentators and Translators discovers in it I grant it has been very troublesom to me to be obliged to take this party and to confute and censure very famous Men and most approved interpreters It even seemed to me that I exposed my self very much because I know that a more advantageous opinion is had of those that are not known and that a Prophet is neither esteemed in his own time nor in his own Country For this Reason I did first resolve not to meddle with those of Scripture where I found my self constrain'd to go from the expositions ordinarily received But at last considering that my work would appear but imperfect and that they would not fail to object those famous passages to which I should be then obliged to answer I at last prevailed with my self to venture in the main Sea and to fly before none that came to attack me further I do not believe that any one can shew me that the interpretations that I make are founded upon the light of reason and humane understanding or upon any other particular proposition I should have asserted such as this is said to be that a Spirit cannot act upon a body nor upon other Spirits I have made use of for this effect but of the ordinary means that the knowledge of Languages afford us so there is no more unjust accusation then that which is raised against me upon this subject And therefore when I compare with the analogy of the whole Scripture with the grounds of our Divinity and with the rules of true Piety whatever is ordinarily published concerning the understanding of the Devil his power his operations his apparitions in divers places in the World his Dominion and the Kingdom which he raises against that of Jesus Christ I conclude not only that they are not grounded upon these three principles but also being considered with all the necessary attention they appear contrary to them In this place I begin to enter into dispute and to draw my conclusion from arguments which the Scripture and reason furnishes me with having by the means heretofore established upon those two principles searched after the ways how plainly and without equivocation to understand the state of the questions which properly and particularly cocern the Devil This is not then the point in question to dispute of the meaning of those passages which mention the fall of Man or speak of Angels some of whom appeared to Abraham and others wrestled with Jacob or of the tentation of Our Lord Christ in the desert nor of the sense of those that say David was tempted by Satan and that Job was tormented by him and the like places but the Chief point the scope of all this search is to know what to believe concerning the Devil Upon this I bestow the five last Chapters and in the three first of these five which are the 32th 33th and 34th I am not afraid of calling Reason to my assistance after having shewn that the Scripture is silent upon this subject for I presume to have made appear in the 32th Chapter that the apparitions of Evil Spirits are contrary to true Reason and that the Holy Scripture affords no proofs of it Afterwards in the 33th Chapter I show that the knowledge that the Devil may have as well of things Natural as Civil and above all of things Spiritual which concern our Salvation is nothing of what is believed I rest as yet upon the same foundation of Scripture and Reason to prove the Empire of the Devil is but a Chimera and that he has neither such a Power nor such an Administration as is ordinarily ascribed to him which is contained in the 34th Chapter At last after having treated of all those things with all possible exactness I come to the conclusion of my second Book where I shew the importance of this examination by reason of the great value the vulgar put upon the Devil and his Operations in the World My Opinion is that these sorts of Discourses shake the Grounds of the Doctrine of our Salvation and cause a great damage to Piety in divers occasions I demonstrate the first of these things in the 35th Chapter and the second in the 36th As to the Doctrine I prove in this place what I have asserted in the first Chapter of my Book viz. that the common Opinion concerning the Devil is opposite to the proofs that Jehova is God and that Jesus is the Messiah and that the Books of the Prophets and Apostles are the Word of God In what concerns Piety I shew that the Service of God is thereby greatly weakened that the Filial fear is very much diminished by that they have of the Devil that the esteem that the holy Angels deserve is almost destroyed that the glory and virtue of the miracles of
our Saviour Jesus are very much lessened that the vanity of Man is maintained and increased and that the comfort of the humble is cut off or at least suffers a great diminution That is whatever is contained in my second Book An Abridgment of the Third Book After having thus simply treated of what concerns Spirits and particularly the Devil according to the knowledge that sound Reason can furnish us with according to that which may be drawn from the word of God where Reason ceases I pass still following the order and division established in my first Book to those Men who according to the common sentiment have communication with Spirits especially with the Devil The same order to which I have kept in my second Book is also observed in this for in the eight first Chapters I make an exact scrutiny of all which may contribute to clear the subject I treat of and afterwards in the seven last I shew what light the inquiry has afforded me and how far one can rely upon what I have discovered I propose at first the true state of the question shewing that the query is not Whether Magick is possible for I grant it but whether there is a Magick which by the virtue of agreement made between Men and the Devil may discover hidden things predict those that are to come and produce effects above the force of nature This is discust in the first Chapter Following the distinction that I have already heretofore many times set down I make in the first and second Chapters the search required and that first by the light of Reason which I divide it into two parts in the first I examine whether it be possible to conceive that Men have any commerce with Spirits that the one and the other may rely upon mutual help or that they may act one upon another In the second part I examine whether there is Reason to believe that there may be express compacts between them that they may mutually contract and reciprocally perform the conditions of their Covenants I expresly deny the first of these founded upon the Reasons alledged Book 2. Chap. 2. and I unfold a little more precisely in the 2 Chapter of this what is contained in the first which I defend against the arguments of Glanvil an English Author I bestow the third Chapter upon confuting those compacts of the Magicians with the Devil as ridiculous and altogether incredible and I answer at the same time several objections and shifts of Glanvil convincing him by his own Reasons that are sufficient for that purpose I pass afterwards to the Scripture as to an upper School from the 4th Chapter to the 7th I undertake it over from the beginning to the end to find out with the utmost exactness what it discovers to us upon this point and upon all it's dependencies either by it's expressions or by the examples it affords us Than I begin to establish what we may believe of it according to Scripture As an Introduction to this examination I relate all the names it gives to that sort of People to their trade and art and I compare the difference to be found between the translations of our own Interpreters as well as between the translation of others This examination is but general but afterwards I come to particulars whether the Scripture speaks of that sort of People of their trade and arts so as it is ordinarily supposed This I do from the fifth Chapter to the 12th but finding it expresses not it self as they give out I examine what sort of People they can be and what the Scripture really says of them from the 13 Chap. to the 17th I discuss the first of these as well by Scripture as Reason and proceed by degrees searching first whether these of whom the Scripture speaks have a particular communication with the Devil whether they make their predictions and enchantments by his undertaking or by his power and at last whether they have between them covenants for that purpose The passages of Scripture which I examine upon this subject are of three sorts some contain Histories of that kind of People and of their Witchcrafts which I show in the 5th 6th and 7th Chapters viz. In the 5th all the enchantments of the Egyptians in the 6th those of Bilsa those of the Priests of the Philistins and of the Witch of Endor and many others by whom the idolatrous Kings of Israel fell into great Sins especially when they came to the Court of Babylon and in the 7th Chapter the enchantment of Simon and Elimas who are called enchantors those of the maid servant which was in the Town of Philippi who had a Spirit of Pithon and those of the seven Brothers Exorcists Afterwards I come to the examination of the names of words of actions and circumstances as well by themselves as comparing the Dutch translations of the Scripture with those which have been made in divers Languages by different Translators and by comparing with the texts the explications which are given by so many different interpreters All the passages where those things are contained being examined very attentively give cause to conclude that the Magicians or Enchanters have been very mischeivous People whose Doctrine and morals were very much corrupted but they do not furnish any probable argument to assert that these People had a particular communication with the Devil The second Order of the passages of the Holy Writ upon this subject consists of those that contain the express Laws which condemn that sort of People and forbid them the exercise of their Function which I examine in the 8th and 9th Chapters But I find no other Reasons for those Prohibitions and the punishments inflicted upon them but their Idolatry and Cheats both of which are Criminal and not becoming the People of God The third Order consists in those Reasonings and Proverbial Expressions dispersed through the whole Scripture that have relation to those things either to the Persons themselves or to their ways I examine therefore whether nothing can be understood in those places whence some consequence may be drawn to illustrate the subject in hand But having bestowed the whole tenth Chapter upon it I find nothing more than before Now as in the third Chapter I have examined by the light of Reason whether there is cause to believe the possibility of the communication of Men with the Devil by express Covenants I do here the same by that of the Holy Writ For in the two following Chapters I run it over again and insisting upon all the passages where the least mention is made of Alliances or Compacts that are not made with God but against Him sinfully and with an evil design I find not so much as one that speaks of those Agreements made with the Devil or any thing like it Upon this I bestow the 11th Chapter In the 12th I run over again the whole Scripture from the beginning to the end From the
the common Opinion I alledge first in general those that are most ordinary and familiar concerning Apparitions and Magick Such are the Apparitions of the Fairys that were so much talked of in our Country as the Fairy of Rosemberg and the like in the 17th Chapter In the 18th I speak of those that pretend to be invulnerable to Sword and Musquet-Ball and I prove that all the Discourses and Narrations made upon that subject are altogether false I come afterwards to examine particular Relations And First of those that can have no particular name or properly be called Apparitions Divination Witchcraft or Possession because they are made up of several kinds of Witchery of which Possession uses to be the Principal This is the matter of the 19th and 20th Chapters In the 21st I pass to Apparitions in the 22 to Divinations and afterwards to Witchcraft from the 24th to the 32 Chapters I relate but Three Instances of the First sort The First is the going out of the Children of Haâ—â—elon in 1284. The Second is the Devil Zechariah whom Volscius mentions in his History of the Churches of Sclavonia which Instance I expound in the 19th Chapter as a Specimen of whatever may be invented or practis'd as to this The Third is the story which happen'd Twelve years ago at Bolsward that was published with very extraordinary circumstances I relate it in the 20th Chapter I come afterwards to such Cases as have a particular Reference to Apparitions and Witchcraft or enchantments if there be any such Of the First kind I produce the famous Devil of Mascon And having taken off the vail from the Cheat I deal in the same manner with the Spirit of Tedworth that was lately brought again upon the Stage to frighten me The Question is Whether they have succeeded in that Design of which the Reader shall be able to judge by the 21st Chapter He will likewise find in the 22 a full description of the Phantasm that appeared a year ago at St. Aneberg and of another Story which happen'd the last Summer at Lauzanne contained in a Letter written with the hand of a Minister of that Town whom they would trouble with it which I think sufficient to shew what Opinion must be had of Apparitions and Phantasms But as to Divination there occurs the most singular and ingenious Story which I ever heard of that happen'd whilst I was writing this Treatise and having begun at Lyons a Year ago is still in force to this Day It concerns a Man who by the motion of a Wand he carryed in his hand boasts of discovering springs of Water hidden Gold and Silver Robbers and Murtherers I give a short account of the different relations made of it with the judgments of the learned that are all contrary to one another and I examine what may be thought of it after a serious consideration But before I speak of Magick I examine in the 23 Chapter such proofs as are drawn from the very confession of those that are detained Prisoners as guilty of that crime and I demonstrate that nothing in the World is less worthy of credit than such confessions Thence I take occasion to examine the proceedings and enquiries of the Judges that take notice of it and show their nullity and injustice Afterwards I come to the chief proofs that have been alledged for Magick either far or near long ago or lately and begin with a case which happened within the walls of our City of Amsterdam in the house of the Orphans about the Year 1570 whilst the Inhabitants profest as yet the Popish Religion to which I add another story which happened at Hoorn in 1670 with that of Antoinette Bourignon which she has related her self all the circumstances of it having happened in her sight at the Hospital of l'Isle In the 24th Chapter I show what judgment must be made of such stories In the 25th I speak of that Woman of Abbekerk that thrice publisht she was become miraculously with Child and has been held not long ago every where for a famous Magician in the Years 1658 and 1659. From that sort of People that are only look't upon as Magicians by the Vulgar I come to those that have been condemn'd for such by the sentence of Judges and by consequence put to Death I mention not such as have been set down by Schottus and some other Authors because it would be to no purpose since they may be seen in their writings I only relate such new instances as are come into my knowledge that I may leave no room to objection nor be charged of having past by such matters of fact as might have perplex'd me and to which I had nothing to reply For that Reason I first examine what happened in our own Country from the very time of the Reformation and mention in the 26th Chap. the History of those that have been burnt here for Magick as one at Schoonhove and 4 at Vtretch as also another story of one that being accused of the same crime had been condemn'd to the Rack by the Court of Holland and was acquitted by the supream Council This happened in the Years 1591 1592 and 1593. Thence I go over to Denmark and in the 27th Chapter I make an examination of that black Art that was said to be practised 80 Years ago at Kogen in Zealand a Province of that Kingdom I likewise examine all the other particular events worthy to be taken notice of that happened in that Country and were published several times in the Danish Tongue and from that translated into Latin and Dutch To which I add a story of another unhappy wretch executed this very Year From thence I go over to Sweden and in the 29th Chapter I relate what is inserted in the Royal Records concerning that famous Magick that began to appear in 1669 and again in 1670 and a third time in 1674 to which I add another sentence delivered to me by a person that saw the execution of it at Golnaw in Pomerania I afterwards mention the Magick practised in the West of England the falsehood of which I discovered my self and gave the History of it to the publick This is the matter of the 30th Chapter The 31th contains a judicial information made at Harlingen with a letter written to me upon that subject from Leuwarden which contains several other matters of fact concerning Magick happen'd about the Years 1667 and 1668. I conclude this Chapter with the relation of a case that happened in the City of Amsterdam 7 Months ago which has been lately communicated to me the particulars of it having been discovered whilst I was writing this 4th part Some People may suppose it useless to add narrations of a less consequence after having shown the groundlseness and delusions of more considerable facts But I thought that in reference to the Vulgar it was convenient to add here another Chapter that is the 32th where I relate the Story of a
Child in Friezeland it was supposed to be bewitch'd of which I have had a full account by the letters of his friends and relations that by this specimen any one may judge of all the narrations of that nature that are so much credited by the common People who take such matters of fact for undeniable effects of Magick As for the rest should I make an enquiry after all the examples that are reported to prove the Operations of the Devil I should never compass my end And therefore I perswade my self that I have alledged a sufficient number of them to satisfy the Reader who shall not be able to doubt of their truth because I have produced such as are most known lately happened and in neighbouring places or at least attended with one of those 3 circumstances and consequently may be examined with great conveniency and certainty and testified for the most part by living persons Thus I put an end to this Treatise and make my conclusion briefly rehearsing all the proofs related in the 4 Books each in it's place These proofs show that there are no natural Reasons nor Revelations in the Holy Writ no certain experiments that give us cause to ascribe to wicked Spirits all the Operations and effects that are generally supposed to proceed from the Devil or from Men his Confederates This is contained in the 33th Chapter whereupon it must be remembred that what I say concerns only the common Doctrine and Opinion Afterwards 't is not difficult to show how wrongfully such a superstition is cherished and increased instead of moderating it or even rooting it out if possible In the 34th Chapter I charge with that fault Clergy Men and Divines more than Princes and Magistrates because the former are more particularly obliged to meditate upon those matters to watch over the preservation of the Souls committed to their care and to attempt the cure of a Disease that is so contagious and feeds upon the very Bowels But because 't is probable that this undertaking will but slowly proceed I will in the mean while propose to the Reader and my self the lesson of the Apostle in his first Epistle to Timoth. 4.7 Reject prophane and Old Wives Fables and exercise they self to Godliness I show in the 35th and last Chapter that this is what I chiefly intend in this work and that I obtain my end in most of those that undertake the Rending of it with suitable dispositions Besides I hold it for certain that those who take occasion or pretence from thence to accuse me with error and libertinism are Men themselves that have not for the word of God all the deference that could be wisht This I demonstrate in particular with so great evidence that I have already had the satisfaction to see that my work produeed a great fruit when but one half of it appeared So that I hope by the blessing of God it being now finished I shall gather as plentiful a Harvest as the sorrows which it caused to my Enemies whilst I was publishing it were uneasy and smarting THE CONTENTS OF THE First Volume CHAP. I. OF the Importance Necessity and Vsefulness of the Matter and in what Order it ought to be Treated of Pag. 1. CHAP. II. That the Opinions of the Heathens concerning God and Spirits are to be found in Greek and Latin Authors Pag. 8. CHAP. III. That those Opinions are the Sourse and Basis of the Art of Divination Pag. 22 CHAP. IV. That all the different sorts of Witchcraft that have been in use proceeded from the same Original Pag. 32 CHAP. V. That we see still amongst the present Pagans the same Doctrine Pag. 38 CHAP. VI. That this Conformity must be sought first in the remains of Paganism in Europe Pag. 43 CHAP. VII That the same Sentiments are to be found amongst most of the Nations of Asia Pag. 51 CHAP. VIII That the Witchcraft practised amongst the People proceeds from the same sourse Pag. 63 CHAP. IX That the Opinions and Practices of the African Heathens agree at bottom with the Sentiments and Customs of the other Pagans Pag. 69 CHAP. X. That very near the same Opinions and Practices are to be found in America Pag. 75 CHAP. XI Where all the Sentiments and Practices of so many different Heathens are usefully compared together Pag. 89 CHAP. XII What are the Opinions of the Jews and how necessary it is to examine them Pag. 100 CHAP. XIII That the Witchcraft anciently practised and still in use amongst the Jews proceeds from the same Original Pag. 115 CHAP. XIV That the Doctrine of the Spirits and the exercise of Magick are also in request amongst the Mahometans Pag. 127 CHAP. XV. That some of the Heathen Opinions upon this subject have in process of time crept in amongst the Christians Pag. 140 CHAP. XVI That some of the first Christians derided the Conjurations of Spirits and others credited and practised them Pag. 162 CHAP. XVII That it is necessary to compare all those various Doctrines and Practices of the Jews Mahometans and Christians and to examine wherein they differ and in what they agree together Pag. 168 CHAP. XVIII That the Doctrines ascribed to the Manichees are a mixture of all the preceding and the original of the Opinions most common to this day Pag. 176 CHAP. XIX That the Opinions and Practices already mentioned have been most or all introduced in Popery which has added to them new inventions of Men. Pag. 182 CHAP. XX. What is the Doctrine of Popery concerning Apparitions of Spirits and how they torment Men either by themselves or by the Ministry of other Men. Pag. 197 CHAP. XXI That several means are practised against Attacks and the Illusions of the Devil and Magicians Pag. 211 CHAP. XXII That neither the Opinions that are received among us nor our Practices go usually so far and that is for that reason that our Authors are not found to agree so well together upon this subject Pag. 220 CHAP. XXIII That of all these Opinions put together there result some certain propositions in which they differ and others in which they agree Pag. 236 CHAP. XXIV That all that has been related shews upon what foundation the Christians in general and the Protestants in particular say such extraordinary things of the Devil Pag. 244 THE World Bewitch'd VOL. I. Containing the Opinions of all Nations from the first Ages till the present time concerning God Spirits and their Customs CHAP. I. Of the Importance Necessity and Vsefulness of this Matter and in what Order it ought to be treated of I Promised to undertake this Work a long time ago and 't is yet longer since I projected it 'T is now at last come to its perfection but I am afraid to venture too much by the publishing of it my own Experience in several Occasions and my frequent Conversing with very Rational Men together with my particular Study have a thousand times afforded me the occasion to consider Whether
it was possible that whatever the Vulgar and the Learned say of Devils and whatever they ascribe to them were true I would not have spar'd so much time as to search into this matter had not I perceiv'd that the Opinions of most Men and perhaps of all the World are only grounded upon an unsure and wavering Foundation This has moved me impartially to examine several things which my Calling and common Conversation offered to me This examination forced my Mind to reject many Opinions which I had admitted at first only because they were common though grounded upon insufficient Reasons as I came by degrees to be sensible of so that I find that at present I know much less than I formerly imagined to do especially as to the subject in hand This however I do not say with a design to Censure or Destroy what others have Written I only intend to joyn my Thoughts to theirs for a fuller Instruction of such Readers as love Truth and are enquiring after it Sect. 2. I am not afraid to mistake if I say that whatever belongs to this matter has not been exhausted Those that have written upon it before having been somewhat retarded by Prejudices that stick to their Mind though they had freed themselves of many others for I own they have proceeded so far as to destroy most of the works of the Devil at least so far as 't was necessary to free Men from Superstition and frivolous Fears But as for me I would if it were possible altogether overthrow them and not leave one Stone upon another that should not be demolished And therefore I 'll try whether I can bring my Countrymen to my Opinion especially those of my Profession desiring them to read this Treatise with as little prejudice as I have written and not to suffer themselves to be persuaded by other Reasons but such as proceed from Natural Light from a clear Interpretation of the Holy Scripture and from certain Experiments I have right to require these Conditions from the Reader since they cannot be rejected by any Rational Person that they are a Law to which I submit my self and that the great consequence of the matter requires them Sect. 3. I am Confident and I hope that the Reader will more plainly perceive it hereafter that no point of the Christian Religion is more important than this and that no certain and sufficient proofs may be had of all the others than by rejecting the Opinion commonly receiv'd amongst the Vulgar concerning the Craft and Power of the Devil Can it be imagin'd a small Matter to know whether the Devil has a Kingdom upon Earth and what are the Limits that separate his Dominions from that of God Almighty Or is 〈◊〉 unserviceable to examine whether such a cursed and detestable Creature can do more wonderful things than God ever did and consequently whether the trust we repose in God and the fear we have of the Devil ought to be equal Such Thoughts ought never to enter into a Christian Heart yet they creep into it unawares at least I think so and can scarce doubt of it for the more I search into this matter the more it seems evident to me that whoever entirely believes all that it used to be ascrib'd to the Devils and his Angels and all that is commonly said of them both by the Learned and the Vulgar saving the bottom of the Doctrine publickly receiv'd and taught in our Church he can have no convincing proof that JESVS is the Messiah or that there is but one God And if in this Writing I do not make the Reader very sensible of it I grant that I have composed it to no purpose Sect. 4. But if I succeed it will at the same time plainly appear that it was altogether necessary to publish this Treatise because the Vulgar are still confirm'd in their Errors by Men of Letters and of great Name who being full themselves of those prejudices make use of their Tongue and Learning to lead others into the same Labyrinth To that end they wrest several Expressions and Histories of the Holy Scripture which being not accurately examined nor conferr'd with others give a great probability to the common Opinion concerning the Devil but if taken in the ordinary Sense they prove evidently oppos'd to other clear Expressions concerning the Fundamental Articles of our Faith It follows that such a Sense cannot subsist without overthrowing the grounds of our Salvation that I can hardly bear since a long time the nicety with which Points of small consequence or at least of little certainty use to be treated of since one cannot discuss them without getting into a suspicion of entertaining Erroneous Opinions whilst in the mean time we are not yet agreed upon Matters of the utmost consequence or if we are agreed upon them it 't is without any foundation And therefore since none was ever found fault with for defending an Article of Faith or giving out a new Explication of it so I persuade my self that I do well by publishing the Illustrations upon a matter on which the whole Edifice of our Salvation is grounded in order that whoever will carefully and impartially examine it may become Wiser and Learneder Sect. 5. As to what concerns this Book I will at first set down the subject matter of it before the Reader The design is to examine to the bottom what the Devil can do and what he really doth that is How far his Knowledge extends either in Natural or Supernatural Things Either as to the Presence as it is conceal'd from Men or as to the Future as it is contingent or possible and not necessary Moreover what Direction or Power he has to operate in Nature what Communication he has with Men with the Human Soul and with all sorts of Bodies That he should transmute himself into them or put on their various Forms That he should act upon the Soul or upon the Body That he should direct Thoughts Words Actions and Gestures What is his Power over the Beasts and Fruits of the Earth Over the Air and Winds What his help may contribute to the Knowledge of Man and his Actions Herein consist Auguries or Soothsaying Witchcraft the Art of Conjuring up Ghosts and of Divining Dreams All which things are methodically and in the same order that is mentioned here treated of in this Book Sect. 6. But because the perfect Knowledge of them depends upon another viz. which is the Nature of a Spirit wherein it consists and how it 's distinguished from that of the Body for Devils are undeniably Spirits and Man is composed of a Body and a Spirit so it will be necessary in this Treatise to proceed farther and to examine first the Nature of Spirits Good and Bad and then that of Man Besides God himself being a Spirit but infinite and independent we ought not to pay our selves with the conformity of the Name but by reason of the manifest difference betwixt
It is the more necessary to enter into that examination that we shall see withal the Customs of very many Nations arid that the proofs they shall furnish us with of the uniformity of Opinion that which we contend to be amongst the Heathens will then be more general and extended then such as are drawn from the Writings of those we have already spoken of of which Christianity has taken place since they inhabited only a small part of life World and have given us in their Writings but a slender account of the other Heathens So that all these others the number of which is far more considerable are absolutely unknown to us Sect. 2. Experience teaches us that we cannot better divide the World then as into three great Islands one part of which was known to the antient Greeks and Romans though not perfectly The second part is come to our knowledge since about two hundred years The third is yet for the most part unknown The first is called for that Reason the Antient World divided into Europe Asia and Africa But in the North of Europe which continent is not much greater than one half of the other there are still many Heathen Inhabitants In Asia the Christians are hardly the tenth part of the People and about the third part of the rest follow Mahomet so that the greatest number is still Pagans The Mahometans take up the North of Africa and the Heathens possess the two third parts Eastward The half of the third part is filled with Mahometans and the other half by imperfect Christians In the new World called America or the West Indies the Southern part is almost as big as Africa and the Northern which is not yet fully known is perhaps as big as Asia All that Country is Heathen save a small number of Christians gone thither from Europe viz. some Spaniards Portuguese English French and Dutch who bring over from time to time some Heathens though very few to Christianity at least the English are now very earnest in it In the mean while those Europeans may inform us of the State of those Nations as to what concerns their Belief and Religion of which they have gotten a great knowledge by the Commerce they have with them But as to the Austral Country which is known only by the Conjectures that we can make upon its Circuit their being no Inland Sea 't is perhaps as big as Europe and Asia together Now that great part having never been enlightned by the Doctrine of our Saviour must be presumed to be still altogether Heathen Sect. 3. But it will perhaps be said to what purpose is all that Narration I answer that having shown the Reader that three parts of the known World consider'd as divided into five are still Pagan he cannot but infer that we are not sufficiently informed of the Customs and Sentiments of the Heathens concerning Spirits by the Books of those Nations that subsist no more and who never made up the tenth part of the Inhabited World and therefore we must not keep there but 't is likewise fit to examine the Opinions of those many Nations who are not yet Christians whose uniformity upon this question notwithstanding so many other things in which they differ and with all the great distance of the places they Inhabit which cuts of all manner of Communication betwixt them so that the greatest part of the one never heard so much as one word of the other That Uniformity I say is an evident proof of the good which the common light of the Understanding remained in Man after his Fall has preserved in him and of the evil which the general corruption has brought to the fame And when we come to the examination of the Sentiments of the Christians that will help us to distinguish betwixt those general Truths and those impure mixtures of Corruption For these Reasons I shall now speak of the Belief and Practices of the present Heathens Sect. 4. But I need not to treat largely of it for an entire Volume would not suffice Neither do I intend to write a History but only to give Instances in order to show what the most pare of the Nations known to us think in this matter 'T is not convenient to proceed in this enquiry farther then it 's requisite to show that all those People agree together as also with the Ancient Nations thô there is never so great a difference in their Language Country and time The way is already more than half traced out by the diligence of Carolinus who in his Modern Paganis◠has extracted out of more than 50 Authors whatever the Heathens of our time Believe and Practise as to Religion in all Asia Africa and part of Europe 'T is pity he has not lived long enough to inform us of the Opinions of the new World It would have proved very serviceable to me for it would have spared me the trouble of consulting a great many Writers whence I have extracted them Sect. 5. In the mean while it will not be useless to observe that all the Authors which Carolinus has follow'd and which I am likewise oblig'd to follow are Christians and therefore they have set down the Belief and Worship of those Heathens only upon the particular Information they received from the Heathens themselves or the things that they saw them practise so that they cannot afford us such a clear and neat knowledge of what they relate as is that which may be gathered from the Writings of the Ancient Heathens who have themselves in their own Tongue treated of their own Affairs And therefore we cannot relie so much upon the descriptions of the present Heathenism which are made by Christians who undoubtedly have but seen or learned part of the Sentiments and Customs of the People they speak of and who perhaps are not disposed to make such a simple and natural relation of them as could be desired Now I find that all those Writers are in the fame prejudice when they tell us that there are many Nations who adore the Devil himself vexing themselves with grievous pains and cruel torments to be his Martyrs But the mistake of those Authors seems to me to discover it self for he that has been quoted before says in the 7th Chap. of his 1st Part pa. 56. That Trigaltius testifies that most of the Chinese interrogated the Devil or Familiar Spirits as they call'd a them of which there are many amongst them and that they esteem it rather a Divine than a Diabolical operation I believe that 't is the same with all the other Nations woh are accused directly to adore the Devil and am perswaded that if the thing were strictly examined it would be found that they have not so much as a Notion of what we understand by the word Devil Sect. 6. For 't is easie to conceive that those that have not the same knowledge and sentiments of God with us cannot also have the same Ideas of
the Devil that the Christians have since he that knows not God after the manner of the Christians cannot also know the Devil and that is impossible that any rational Creature should know the Devil as he is and adore him For as to what is said by the Apostle concerning the Heathens that they offer their sacrifices to the Devils 1 Cor. 10.20 'T is not expresly said to the Devil as to the Chief of the wicked Angels no more then in St. Matth. 25.41 But to him as the Chief of the Demons of which we have formerly spoken And 't is observable that the Greek word used by St. Paul is not that of Devils but Demons which is the name the Heathens gave to a sort of inferior Gods as has been already said After that Observation let us see what conformity may be found betwixt the sentiments of the Ancient Pagans and that of the Modern Heathen as to Spirits we shall begin with Europe thence proceed to Asia and Africa and at last go over into America CHAP. VI. That this Conformity must be sought 1st in the remains of Paganism in Europe Sect. 1. IT has been already said that there are some Pagans in the extremity of Europe especially in the Northern parts but they are so brutish and wild that it is easier to see what they do than to conceive or guess what they believe They are Laplanders and Finlanders especially those Swedish Dominion with whom we are best acquainted by a description drawn from the best Authors which Scheffer has made in his Swedish Lapland and therefore I shall declare as much as I judge convenient for my design First what he says of these and afterwards what is added of the others yet without giving credit to whatever is written of which I scarce believe one halfe to be true This however is certain that those People tho' under the Dominion of Christian Princes viz. those of Swedeland Denmark and Muscovy are as fond of their Pagan Superstition and continue as zealously tho' secretly their antient practises as they have little knowledge of Christianity and inclination to embrace our Faith In the mean while Scheffer has made of late such an accurate description of Lapland and upon such certain information that one may methinks surely relye upon what he says and as he frequently intermixes in his Narrations other Laplanders and Finlanders it may be probably inferr'd that he esteems them all very near alike in Belief and Worship which may be confirm'd by this reason that what other Writers say of those other Nations is pretty agreeable with what Scheffer relates of Swedish Lapland And therefore I shall follow him only tho' I ought not to say him only since his Book contains whatever the others had written before him Let us then First â—ee which are the sentiments of those Pagans and afterwards we shall speak of their Magick Sect. 2. The objects of their Worship are divided into three sorts as into so many degrees the most sublime are Thor or Thordoen which is properly the Thunder Storjunkare or Stourra-passe which signifie Holy and Great and Baiwe that is the Sun The first has also the name of Tiermes which in the Laplandish Language is as much as the noise of the Thunder because that God is believed to be the Master of Thunder and seems therefore to be their Jupiter He is also named Aijeke that is Great Father The Laplanders ascribe co him an absolute Power over the Life and Death of Men over their Health and Diseases and over the wicked Demons who live on the top of the Rocks Mountains and Lakes They believe that he restrains those Demons when they vex Men too much that he chastises them that he sometimes Thunder-strikes 'em and puts 'em to death esteeming it to be the chief employment of the Thunder as the eminent Latins imagin'd that Jupiter cast his Thunderbolt upon the wicked and all other Criminals for that purpose they give him a Bow which they imagin'd to be the Iris or Rainbow that he might dart his Arrows wound and kill all the wicked Demons They call in their Tongue the Iris Aijeke dauge the great Fathers Bow that is the Bow of the Good and Beneficent God who preserves them as his Children and defends them against the Insults of those wicked Demons They imagine that God has likewise a Hammer which they call Aijewetchera with which he strikes on the Neck of the Demons and breaks their Head Storjunkare or Stourra-passe which signifies the Governor of the Country is amongst them as the Great Pan or as Diana having the Country and Woods under his directions Fishes and Birds are also at his disposal and all Animaâ—s and wâ—ld Beasts acknowledge his Empire 't is by him 〈◊〉 they are happy in hunting and without his leave they cannot catch any thing True it is that Aijeke or Tiermes governs Gods Demons and Men but Storjunkare in quality of Vicar of that God has the conduct of all those other things Barwe that signifies the Sun as Paiwe does the Day is adored by them for the good he does to the Earth but they particularly venetrate him in Summer time because they always see him that he has restored them his Light dissipated their Darkness brought Heat and expel'd Cold. Sect. 3. The Manes of the Romans mentioned before Chap. 2. Sect. 15. Are among the Laplanders Inferior Gods which they call Sitte They erect no Figures to their Honour and content themselves with offering Sarcifices to them we find in no writing what sentiments they have of the power of those Sitte nor for what reason they make them Offerings The last sort of those Inferiour Gods are the Juhles or Inhlaforket that are a Vagabond Crowd whom they believe to wander in the Air and through Forests and Mountains But I find also no where what good or hurt those Spirits may in their Opinion procure to Men only they believe them Inferior to the Sitte however they pay them also some Worship behind their Cottage at a Bow shot distance which Worship ends in a superstitious Sacrifice They consecrate to them neither Images nor Statues no more then to the Manes they have likewise no Image of Bawe or the Sun either because he is visible himself or because the most secret Science of their Mysteries accounts him but one God with Tiermes There is but Ayeke and Storjunkar who have Statues erected to their Honour those of Aijeke are of Wood and those of Storjunkare of Stone Sect. 4. 'T is upon those Opinions that their Divinations and Witchcraft are grounded and hereupon I can't but make this observation that by reading Scheffer and comparing what he fays of his own with what he has collected from other Authors it may easily be perceived that the Witchcraft of the Northern Nations extends not so far as is commonly reported But then we must credit what Scheffer assures us from his own experience in the following words Chap. 12. Tho
of the first operating by the last and that they hold the Celestial Bodies for Gods because they act upon the sublunary which are of a particular and necessary use to Mankind Thus the Heathens endeavour each according to his fancy to acknowledge a Deity in Heaven and to adore it upon Earth Sect. 8. The immortality of the Soul the punishment of the wickâ—d and the rewards of pious Men after this Life are generally believed in Peru but not the Resurrection of the dead says Montanus pag. 307. However 't is strange that a People who have such a gross Religion and such material Gods should nevertheless believe that the Soul subsists tho' they hear nothing of it after the death of the Body and that they could not imagine that the Body which subsists still for some time before their Eyes though without Life can return to its first State as Trees Herbs and Plants which dye and revive Sect. 9. The Statues of their Gods that are of many strange Figures and some very frightful are used to utter Oracles in their Pagodes Some says Montanus give their Answers as formerly did the Diabolical Oracles of Delphos and Dodona he calls them Diabolical following the common Opinion that the Oracles of the Heathens were not pronounced by God but by the Devil But it may be seen in the Book of Anthony Vandale of Oracles how little ground that Opinion has and we shall also treat of it in its proper place Sect. 10. As to their practices no people is so much esteemed in Peru as those we call Exorcistâ— Magicians and Diviners because they discover private Robberies even such as are committed in very remote Countreys and foretell good or bad fortune which happâ—â—s saith Montanus by their converse with wicked Spirits in dark places They declared to the Spaniards the victories their Country-men obtained or the Battles they lost in the Low Countries the very same day that they were fought There are also in Peru many She Diviners who shut themselves in their Houses where they make themselves drunk with Chica mixed with the Herb Vilca till they fall down on the place and when they awake and come to themselves again they answer all the Questions that are proposed to them Sect. 11. The Cannibals who take the Name of Caraibes and dwell to the North of Southern America acknowledge the Sun for their Soveraign God but in the mean while each Bâ—ie or Priest has his own which he calls out to himself in the most frightful Nights by Songs or inchanted Verses in the midst of the smoak of Tobacco The Devil says Montanus but I would rather say the Spirit utters his Oracles by the means of dead bones wrap'd up in Cotton Those Heathens have at all times but especially in case of death much to endure from the Piais or Magicians but methinks Montanus had express'd himself better had he said Priests rather then Magicians One of the greatest disturbances they cause is that when they are consulted they persuade People that such or such has caused them to interrogate such a deceased which incites the nearest Relations of the deceased to avenge themselves of those that have disturbed his Rest by that action Sect. 12. Montanus adds to this also The Caraibes follow a most strange Opinion concerning the Soul every one believes to have as many Souls as beatings of the heart The chief of which is still the Heart it self which after the death goes to Icheiri or the God that is particular to him where he lives in the same condition that he has done upon Earth for which reason they kill the Servants upon the Tomb of their Masters to go and Minister to them in the other World The other Souls that consist in Beatings of the Heart have two sorts of abode The Maboias wander in Deserts and Woods and the Ormiceous keep along the Sea and overturn Vessels The Souls of warlike Heroes go into the fortunate Islands where the Arouages are their Slaves Bloâ—dy Cruel Mâ—n go out of this life eternally to wander in dry Wildernesses behind high Mountains to carry the Yoak of the Arouages a People that was expell'd out of its ancient abode if we believe the account that is given of their Destruction From all this it appears that this Nation acknowledges almost no other God but their own Souls of which they have very near the same Sentiments that the ancient Greeks had of their Demons and Heroes Sect. 13. Richard Blome an English Author has published of late in his America a large account of the Opinions and Practices of the Carabes where he speaks of the Isle of St Vincent They have says he some Natural Notion of a Deity or Supream Being but who is too much pleased with the enjoyment of the Soveraign Happiness to disturb himself with the Wicked Actions of Men and whose Goodness is so great that he is averse from avenging himself of his Enemies when they refuse to pay the Honour due to him They likewise believe that there are good and bad Spirits and that the Good are Gods each of whom has his particular Admistration but that the Vniverse was not created by them tho' every one of them may be the Creator of the Country where he is venerated and which he governs Sect. 14. They never call upon their Gods but to let them come to them which is done by the Ministry of the Priests and for the 4 following reasons First to be aveng'd for some injury received Secondly to be cured of their Diseases Thirdly to learn the success of the War Fourthly to expel the great Devil or rather the wicked God Mapoia whom they never adore Thence may be inferr'd that they believe good and bad Spirits besides they acknowledge the immortality of the Soul which Opinion is the Original of Demons and Heroes since as they suppose they are the Souls of the Deceased which they call to their assistance against their Enemies Sect. 15. The Description of their Witchcraft is to be found in the same place after this manner When their Priests call upon many of their Gods together they seem to dispute and quarrel with one another so far as to come to blows somtimes they hide themselves amongst Dead bones which they draw out of Graves and wrap up in Cotton whence they utter their Oracles They use that Witchcraft to bewitch their Enemies for which purpose the Witches must have somthing that has belong'd to the party to be bewitched the Spirit seizes sometimes upon the body of those Women whence they give formal answers to whatever is proposed to them They serve up Meat to those Spirits in places separated from the Commerce that is kept with them The Boy or Priest that has brought it being gone out they hear the Dish move and the Devil according to Blome or the God according to that People moves the Jaws and makes a great noise as if he chewed the Meat that has been served to him
Names which the Administring Angels seeing said among themselves Let us consult together how we shall do to make Adam Sin against his Creator otherwise he is like to become our Master Sammael who was a great Prince in Heaven she has been before mentioned Ch. 12. S. 8. was present at this Council with the Saints of the first Order and the Seraphins of six Troops Sammael chose some of the twelve Orders to accoâ—â—â—â—ny him and came down below to visit all the Creatures whom God eternally Blessed had created He found none so cunning and so proper to deceive as the Serpent The Author comes afterwards to the Seduction and Fall of Man upon which he tells as many Stories as he has already done So was the Seduction of Man the cause of the fall of the Devil Afterwards he relates how God punished Adam Eve and the Serpent and imposed on each of them his proper Pain He call'd them all three before him charged by his Sentence Adam with nine Curses and condemn'd him to Death but he precipitated Sammael and his whole Troop from the Heavens the abode of his Holiness He cut off the Feet of the Serpent for it had before the shape of a Camel and Sammael rode upon him and he cursed it above all other Beasts and living Creatures That 's the Fall of the Devil according to the Opinion of the Jews for we must not charge this Story upon Eliezer alone The Targums that contain the most ordinary and received explications of their best Doctors mention this Fable in several places Sect. 14. They give yet another original to the Demon feigning him to be issued from Lilis That 's saith Manasse the Name of the Wife of the Devil who according to the Opinion of some had been the Wife of Adam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lilit Is a word to be found in the Holy Scripture Isa 34 14. which our Interpreters translate Satyr the French Lutin and the Dutch Duyuell but we must hear Rabbi Elisha who in his Thisbi has set up the whole Legend We find in some Writings that for one hunderd and thirty years during which Adam abstained from his Wife there came she Devils to him who grew big with Child and brought forth Devils Spirits Hobgoblins and Night Phantasms I find again in other places that the Devils have been brought forth by four Mothers Lilis Naome Ogera and Macholas We likewise read in the Book of Ben Syra Quest 60. that Nebuchadnezar asking him why most Children died within the eighth day of their Birth he answer'd because Lilis kill'd them of which matter there is more largely treated in the same place but I shall not write more of it because I dont credit it By that Narration may be seen how gross the Fictions of the Jewish Doctors are since there are Men amongst 'em who cannot believe them how apt soever that Nation may be to be imposed upon Sect. 15. But as if those four she Devils had not been sufficient to People the World with wicked Spirits they have invented a third sort from what is mention'd Gen. 6.2 That the Sons of God seeing the Daughters of Men that they were fair took for Wives such as they liked From very ancient times the Jews by those Sons of God understand the Angels Wherefore Josephus says in his first Book of the Jewish Antiquities Chap. 4. That several Angels of God mixing themselves with Women begot a very insolent Generation He even knows the Names of those Angels that were carried to that excess of Letchery Aza and Azael were the chiefest amongst them being both enamour'd with the Beauty of Naema Cain's Daughter Thence proceeded the Giants mention'd in the same place of the Holy Writ who as we may infer from that Narration must have been half Devils and half Men. Asmodee the wicked Spirit of Sara Daughter to Raguel of whom mention is made in the Book of Tobit was likewise issued from that Marriage but others affirm him to be Sammael If it be asked how Spirits have the faculty of Generating Eliezer explains that difficulty in his 22th Chapter When they were thrown down from their Holy abode their strength and shape became like to that of Men. Sect. 16. But not to fill up this Book with Tales they had rather imagine as some Heathens have done Chap. 2. S. 12. that those wicked Spirits are half Angels and half Men. Whereupon Vorstius in his Notes upon Rabbi Eliezer relates the following words taken from Rabbi Scheem Toob in that place where Rabi Nitron speaks of Lilis The power of the Devils Night Phantasms and Wicked Spirits which we sometimes see in a human shape proceeds from the concourse of that Chief of theirs and as to their state the Opinion of the Learned is that they resemble Men as much as they do Angels because on the one side they are not such a subtle substance as those of the other Spirits and on the other they are not composed of such a gross matter as that of Men. If we desire to know why those cursed Creatures are called by the Jewish Doctors sometimes Spirits and sometimes Male and Female as tho' they were Men the same Toob will tell us in his 5th Chapter as Vorstius relates in the 22th Chapter of Rabi Eliezer where he speaks of a second Order of Spirits consider'd as distinguished into ten Orders From that Order proceeds in the Universe two sorts of Spirits of Error or Satyrs who behave themselves like Men who appear to them in their Dreams in the shape of handsome Women transforming themselves now into Men then Women Sect. 17 'T is now time to learn their Opinion concerning human Souls at least if they understand themselves distinctly enough to inform us of it For it already appears from what I have quoted out of Philo Sect. 12. that the most Learned do not stick to an accurate distinction betwixt Angels and Souls And Josephus that famous Historian almost as ancient as that other Author says in his seventh Book of the Wars of the Jews Chap. 25. That the Spirits called Daemons are those of the worst of Men who fall upon the living and kill them if not hindred from it Thence it appears that he ascribes something Corporeal to those Spirits so much the more that he fancies that they may be expell'd by the Root Baaras or by some other formerly shewed by Solomon as the same Author intimates in his eighth Book of the Jewish Antiquities But I am to make a large mention of that sort of Enchantment in the following Chapter Sect. 18. The Book which the learned Hoornbeck has written against the Jews contains in short their Opinions as to the Nature and Original of Souls Their Opinion says he Pag. 319. is that the Souls were all created together with the Light the first day of the Creation and not only that they were Created together but by Couples the Soul of a Man and that of a Woman so that
tbem who eagerly addicted themselves to Magick by which they got afterwards into great reputation and that the expounding of Dreams was a pretence they made use of to commit a vast number of Deceits and Villanies We see continues that learned Author in the Book Maarsar Shemi fol. 45. Col. 2 3. That Rabbi Joseph Ben Calpata Rabbi Ismael Ben. Jose Rabbi Lazarus and Akiba made it their whole business many of their expoundings are related in the place I have quoted out of Lightfoot and from several things contained therein it may be infer'd that they instructed their Disciples in those Arts. In the Book Shabbat fol. 3. Col. 2. mention is made of a Phantasm that appeared to one of their Bigots whilst he was meditating the Law and fol. 8. Col. 2. fol. 14. Col. 3. all sorts of Conjurations are treated of some to cure Wounds others against the sting of Serpents against Theft and even against Enchantments this I have Collected from the Second part of the works of Lightfoot page 147. where many other things of that nature are to be found but not necessary to relate and much less to extract out of the own Books of the Jews Sect. 3. However it will not be besides the purpose to add what the same Lightfoot has gather'd from several of their writings especially from the Book Sanhedrin concerning their Bathkol or the Daughter of the Voice which is the name the Jews gave to the Echo pretending it was an Oracle that under the Second Temple supplyed the want of the Vrim and Thummim with which the First Temple was honoured This is known by all that are but a little acquainted with the Jewish affairs and have read some of their writings but here are proofs that show they made use of Bathkool Divinations Rabbi Jochanan and Rabbi Simeon designing to consult Bathkool to go and see Rabbi Samuel the Babylonian they pass'd before the School and heard a Boy reading what is contained 1 Sam. Chap. 25. verse 1. Samuel is Dead They observ'd that and found that the Samuel they sought was Dead Here follows another story Rabbi Jonah and Rabbi Josah went to visit Rabbi Acha while he lay sick they said let us hear what Bathkool will say and immediatly they heard a Voice of a Woman that said to her Neighbor The Candle goes out to which the Neighbor answer'd Pray don't let it go out nor extinguish the light of Israel Lightfoot Tom. 2. p. 167. It is as sure that those words proceeded from Bathkool as it is certain that Elijah is present at the Circumcision of the Children of the Jews as 't is commonly believed among them and as all the learned know Sest 4. But besides those singularities we may take notice that all their Witchcraft is founded upon two grounds the influences of the Stars and thy apparitions of Spirits the reason of the former ground is that thô they esteem not the Celestial lights to be Gods yet they ascribe to them a particular virtue working upon and influencing Human Actions as well external as internal senses We have already heard Philo and Ben. Maimon upon that matter 'T is very usual with them to say The Planets make such a one Wise or Rich as Buxtorf relates it in his Lexicon Talmudicum out of the Books of the Sabbath these are happy influences or Constellations that are called Mazzal-toob but Mazzal-ra is a malignant Star under which one is born or whose virtue influences him all his Life Buxtorf says again upon the Authority of the same Book That the Planet of the Day of ones Birth influences him not but only that of the Hour And even we find in that Book which is the Genius of every Man according to the Planet under which he 's born He who is born under the Sun will be handsom free not dissembling but of an unconstant humour Under Venus he 'll be rich and letcherous Under Mercury skilful and of a good memory Under the Moon sickly and unstedfast Under Saturn unfortunate Under Jupiter just and Under Mars happy Which is the same with all the other Constellations In the mean while it is commonly said That there is no Planet in Israel because all the Jews seem to be born under one Planet being all of the same Genius and Conduct therefore we must conclude that those distinctions concern only strangers and that Israel has the skill of foretelling their good and bad Fortune However they are much disturb'd when the Moon is Eclipsed because they take that accident as an ill presage to them which is an evident proof of the unstedfastness of the Jewish Nation Sect. 5. As to the Spirits Manasse Ben Israel discovering the true ground of the Jewish Divinations leads us to the wicked Spirits saying That some of them are skilful and shrew'd and others foolish and dull The most skilful flying from one corner of the World to the other sometimes learn what is to happen For this Reason he acknowledges page 18. That several Conjure up those Spirits and do wonders by help of the black Art We read even in some Cabbalistical Books as in Pirke Chalos and Ratsiel and in some others the names of those Spirits and the form of the Conjurations used for that purpose There are also to be found all the presages that may be drawn from the various sorts of Apparitions If those Sprits appear to a Man alone they forebode nothing good if they appear to two persons together they presage nothing ill but it never happens that they shew themselves to three in a company Sect. 6. The ways and means they use for their Witchcraft and Divinations are to be observed in the Ceremonies of their Feasts and the whole course of their ordinary Life Every one knows that Marriage is the lawful way to beget Children which makes them believe one must needs know how to preserve himself in that occasion from the wicked Spirits There is none but has read the Book of Tobit how he expel'd the Devil Asmodee by the inspiration of the Angel Raphael and how they took together a Fish which as some suppose was a Pike as to the Heart and Liver says Raphael if the Demon or wicked Spirit disturbs any Person whether Man or Woman he needs but make a perfume before him and the party shall be no more vexed Chap. 6. v. 7. When he was marryed with Sara he remembred the words of Raphael and took the Ashes of the perfumes put the Heart and the Liver of the Fish thereupon and made a smoke with it which when the Evil Spirit had smelt he fled into the utmost parts of Egypt and the Angel bound him there Chap. 8. v. 23. Sect. 7. If that Narration is esteem'd Apochryphal by the Protestants that of Josephus deserves not a better name when in the Second Chap. of the 8th Book of his Jewish Antiquities he deduces the Original of Magick from Solomon and lays the foundation of it upon the wisdom
of that King nay he asserts That God himself had inspired him with that Art so powerful against Demons for says he He has made use of Witchcraft to expel diseases and has left in his writings forms of Conjurations by which the Devils that molest mankind are so far banished that they never dare come back again And that sort of cure is now in great request amongst our Nation It consisted according to the description given of it in the use of some certain Root which they seal'd up and put under the Nostrils of the possessed At the same time they uttered the name of Solomon and the words of his Conjuration and so was the Devil forced to flie He declares to have been an Eye-witness himself of an operation of this nature made in the presence of the Emperor Vespasian and his Sons on the Person of one Eliezer We will examine in our 4th Book how the sight of Josephus was then disposed but in the mean while we could wish he had explained to us whether this Root is the same with that he mentions in the 28th Chap. of the 7th Book of the Jewish Antiquities which he calls Baaras because of the place where it grows since he also ascribes to this last the wonderful virtue of expelling Demons for according to his relation one needs but touch the possess'd with it and the Devil is forced to run away but of this more in the 4th Book Sect. 8. Here follows how the present Jews are molested all their Life by the wicked Spirits and how they beware of them When a Child comes into the World the terrour of Lilis comes with him to seize upon the Spirits of the Parents because that Lilis intends to kill the Boys within 8 days of their birth and the Girls within the 21th The remedy of the German Jews to preserve themselves from that danger is To draw circular lines with Chalk or Charcoles upon the 4 Walls of the Chamber wherein the Woman lies and to write upon each Circle Adam Eve let Lilis be gone they also write upon the Door of the Chamber the names of the three Angels that preside over Physick Senoi Sansenoi and Saumangelof as Lilis her self taught them when she hoped to drown them all in the Sea This is related by Elias in his Book entituled Thisbi to which he gives no great credit as he himself witnesses I cannot omit what Buxtorf says in his Lexicon Talmudicum concerning the weapons wherewith they arm themselves against Phantoms A Vail spread over the Face hinders the Phantasm from knowing him that is frighted but if God judges that he deserves to be terrified for his sins he causes the vizard to fall down that the Ghost may see and bite him Sect. 9. But what terrour soever the Devil causes to them they nevertheless believe that if they take their opportunity they may prevent his endeavours without trouble To this the choice of days is of great use and they have so great a regard for them that they do no longer deserve the reproach that was cast upon them of Not understanding the signs of times The same Buxtorf in his School of the Jews will supply us with a specimen of that Custom At the great day of propitiations they appease Sammael with a present for on that only day in the whole Year he is allowed by a compact with God to accuse Israel of their transgressions Besides they believe themselves so cunning as to cheat the Devil The First means they use for that purpose is to blow upon the Corn withall their strength from morning to night fancying to make Sammael forget the quality of it by the fright they cast upon him The First Day of the Year is also fit to put another cheat upon him for as on that day God sits in judgment for the examination of Sins they endeavour to hinder their Enemy from bringing his accusations against them by concealing from him the date of the Day The subtilty they use in that occasion is that they forbear to read either the begining or the end of the Law as Sammael supposes that they shall do that Day and thus they never fail to catch him They also abstain as much as they can on the 17th day of the Month Tammus that answers to our June and the 9th of the following Month on which falls their Second fast to go from home and especially avoid to make any journey of 4 or 5 Miles or to appear in a Court of Justice because that time is the reign of a wicked Spirit call'd Ketelmeriri bitter Destruction a name drawn from Deut. Chap. 32. v. 24. Where Moses however speaks of quite other matters Sect. 10. The Cabbala chiefly uses such Witchcraft as is made by numbers and Letters and is in great request amongst the Jews It even teaches to apply to it the sacred word of God and withal some sentences and discourses or only some proper words and particular names to which the Jews ascribe a great Virtue whether they attribute it to the power of the apparition of absent bodies or of incorporeal substances or whether they presume to effect by that means strange and wonderful things Malka Scheva or the Queen of Sheba that went to visit King Solomon in his glory has been often conjured up as they fancy and has appeared to the superstitious In short as to what concerns the other extraordinary effects which they boast to produce they are held for great forcerers even by Christians over credulous in this point for there are Germans who look upon them as Men that can stop conflagrations and quench Fire by throwing upon it some bewitch'd things that can draw two or several sorts of Wine out of the same Vessel and are capable of producing many other wonders Sect. 11. To speak of the other uses they make of names in Witchcraft it must be granted that they make no more difficulty to mix the name of God with it than that of the Devil The famous name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which we use to read Jehovah when punctuated is multiplied by their Doctors by 12 42 and the 72 Letters which they dispose and make words of them and apply them to Witchcraft For that Reason they call it Shem Hamphorash a name explained or divided They believe it to have a great Virtue by him Moses kill'd the Egyptian by him Israel was preserv'd from the hand of the destroying Angel in the Wilderness and by him Jesus Christ expel'd wicked Spirits Thus they blaspheme the Second Person of the Holy Trinity not being able to deny his power It is easy to be inform'd of all these things in their own writings and by their own consent The name of the Devil is likewise of much force to his great loss and sorrow That force proceeds from the 4 Hebrew Letters that compose this name with the Article perfixed to it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hassatan that make up just
and the Heavenly happiness Sect. 13. For the Sahins or Sahis of whom mention is made before scarce believe that the Soul is immortal Delavalle in his 4th Book Ch. 23. describes some Persians that are like them they are calied elh eltabquid that is People of truth or certainty They constitute the Essence of the Soul in the mixture and union of the 4 Elements as far as I can observe by the explication he gives of their belief The Soul returns to God in the same manner as she proceeded from him for she proceeds from him in as much as he is the Author of that complication of the 4 Elements and she returns to him in as much as he separates them That Sect is very numerous thô look'd upon as Heretical by other Persians Sect. 14. Every one of those various Opinions is discoverable by the practices of it's followers Delavalle relates Ch. 17. that the Persians have a great veneration for the greatest and eldest Trees because they perswade themselves that they are the abode of the Souls of the blessed for which Reason they call them Pir that is An Ancient Man or Scheich the Eldest or Iman Priest supposing that the Souls of the Priests and Old Men dwell in such Trees There are others who having learned from Pythagoras to enquire afrer the Virtue and Mystery of numbers are addicted to all sorts of Witchcraft as the Inhabitants of the Coast of Coromandel Ch. 8 Sect. 5. They boast says Marmol Book 2. Chap. 3. pag. 131. That the Celestial Spirits appear to them and communicate to them an entire knowledge of the affairs of this World They are much feared and reverenced in Africa as being great sorcerers The rule they keep was composed by one Boni named by the Arabs The Father of Enchantments and Witchcrafts the last of the three Books he has written is called The secret of the Divine Attributes and treats of the Virtue of 90 Names of God But 't is fit to mention here a sort of Cabala in great request with part of those Nations and like that of the Jews save that it is not drawn from the Holy writ for they name it a natural Science but say that he must be an Astrologer who presumes to put it in use Sect 15. The same Author adds That in Great Cairo and the Towns of Barbary there is a vast number of People that runs up and down and pretend to three sorts of Divination some divine by the black Art with Draughts and Figures some with a glass Vessel full of Water into which they power a drop of Oyl that becomes very thin and clear wherein they pretend to see Troops of Devils marching in order of Battle some by Water and others by Land as soon as they stop Queries are put to them and they answer by signs with the Eyes and Hands But to that Witchcraft little Children are required for the great ones see nothing whereas the others look into the Oyl and being asked whether they see the signs which the Devils make they answer yes which gives them great credit and gets them plenty of Money The Catoptromancy of the Ancients was somthing like that Chap. 3. Sect 10. That sort of People are called in Mauritania Moralcimines that is Enchanters because they boast of bewitching the Devils by words The third sort of those rambling Diviners are Women that make People believe they converse with Devils some of whom are white and others red or black When they are about to Divine they besmoke themselves with Sulphur and other stinking drugs after which the Demon as they say seizes upon them and they change their Voice as thô be spake by their Mouth then the enquirers approach and ask with great humbleness what they desire and having received an Answer go away leaving a present in the Witches House Sect. 16. The Bumicils are doubtless great forcecers too These fight against the Devils as they say and go all bruised and cover'd with blows in a great fright often at Noon day they counterfeit a Skirmish before the People two or three hours long with Spears or Zagaies until they fall down all loaden with blows but having rested a while they come to themselves again and walk I could not hitherto discover what rule they follow thô they are held to be Monks There are others in Barbary maimed exorcists who boast of expelling Devils and when they cannot compass their end they say that the party is credulous or that it is a Celestial Spirit These draw Circles or write some Characters and make marks on the Hand or Face of the possessed then they besmoke him with stinking smels and make their Conjuration They ask the Spirit how he is entered into that body whence he comes what he is how he is call'd and at last order him to be gone Sect. 17. I must yet relate somthing out of Ricaut concerning the Turbes There is a sort of Dervis called Mevelevi who turn with great skill and swiftness at the sound of the Flute affirming that it is by devotion and the example of their Patron Mevelava who always turned in that manner without taking in any nourishment during a fortnight whilst his friend Haraze was playing on the instrument at the end of which he fell into an extasie wherein he received from Heaven the rules of his order with many wonderful revelations Now his successors who are inclin'd to Laziness and yet cannot be quiet follow his example in this manner Some learn Legerdemains to amuse People and apply themselves to Magick and Conjurations by the help of familiar Spirits From this place in which the Author speaks of his own Head it appears that he acknowledges some such Spirits and argues about them according to his Opinion Afterwards he makes some quotations out of Busbeek that are very pertitent to our subject Sect. 18. There is says he in Egypt a Cloyster consecrated to a Saint called Kederlei the Dervis that dwell in it boast that by the Virtue of Kederlei they bewitch Serpents and Vipers and handle them at boldly as innocent Beasts Others are not afraid of the stings of Vipers or Asps and put them with the Hand into bags as we do worms where they keep them Others enchant Snakes by certain words and make them stop on a sudden when they are creeping on the banks of the Nile some of them pretend that power to be Hereditary in their Family and to pass from Father to Son and others boast that it is a gift of God in reward of Virtue and Holiness I have heard some Travellers say there are Men in Persia and the Indies whom our People look'd upon as great sorcerers because they made Serpents dance and stand upright in a box at the sound of their Voice at the winding of a Pipe or the playing of some other Musical Instrument This will be matter of examination hereafter Sect. 19. Whatever has been hitherto said of the Mahometans makes it
which issued the Demons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. mihi 44. St. Athanasius who was of the same mind explains those two things more at large in his Ambassy As to the first he says That God created the Angels to take care of the Affairs of Men that are under their direction so that God takes indeed a genâ—â—ral view of all things but as to the particular Inspection he has left it to the Angels constituted over them As to the second he speaks the same Language with the others that the love of Women made some Angels fall into Apostasie whence proceeded a sort of Demons Sect. 6. Justin that enters more into particulars as to what concerns Demons declares that he knows none that has that Divine Power of preserving and rewarding such as obey him and therefore that he knows none likewise that has the power to avenge himself upon the Disobedient and Rebels This he teaches in his 42th Question having said before in the 40th That a Wicked Spirit that has been once expell'd cannot torment him any more whom he had before possess'd In the aforesaid 42th Question he says That when a possess'd seems to break his Bands and Fetters it is the Demon that does it who has that strength himself but cannot communicate it to the Body of any Man This is very particular and it will be fit to call it to mind again in another place wherefore I desire the Reader to observe and remember it Sect. 7. Irenaeus explains himself but obscurely concerning the State of Souls after this Life when he says at the end of his Book That they go to an invisible place God has prepared for them But Justin in his second Apology pag. mihi 58. explaining himself more at large goes also more out of the common road for he affirms that the Souls of the Dead have some power over the living saying That Men being seized and cast down by the Souls of the deceased are ordinary call'd possest and furious It must be observ'd here that having spoken immediately before of human Souls separated from their Bodies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though the Latin Interpreter has used two different Words viz. first Animae the Souls and then Manes the Ghosts Mention iâ—â—ade of the latter in his second Chapter of this Book S. 14. But in my Opinion the same word cannot be taken in two different Senses at the end of one period and the beginning of the following He must therefore ascribe to the Soul of the deceased of whom he undoubtedly speaks in his first period all the Operations upon the living which the Heathens used to attribute to other Spirits call'd Demons for he there speaks of the Heathens Sect. 8. Origen who lived in the third Age had strange Notions concerning the Angels sometimes he gives them a Nature but equal to that of Men For Writing of the Light which St. John in his first Chapter says to be our Saviour he seems to believe that it was equally communicated to Man and Angels as may be seen more at large in his third Volume on St. John But in another place he makes so great a distinction betwixt Angels and Men that going from the first of Creatures endued with Reason to the last he puts the Angels as betwixt God and Men For he teaches on 1 Sam. 28. that the first Creatures are those which the Holy Writ names Gods The second those that we call'd Thrones and the third those that bear the name of Principalities Afterwards he calls in Question Whether Man is the last of rational Creatures or whether such Creatures as dwell upon Earth amongst which he ranks all the Demons or at least part of them are inferiour to Men that 's his Opinion in his first Vol. St. John Sect. 9. He again intimates elsewhere that as Men who have had the fear of God in this life become Angels after their Death as 't is read in St. Matth 22.30 though there it is not properly they become Angels but they shall be like Angels So that the present Angels might formerly have been Men Moreover he imagines that Angels and Men may dispute which are more perfect establisting betwixt the Nature of those two Subjects the same difference which our Saviour puts between the first and the last St. Matth. 19.30 and ch 20.16 he ascribes to Angels not only the Subregency of the World in his tenth Homil. upon Jeremiah and constitutes as well as other Doctors Guardian Angels upon that Principle but he persuades himself that their Virtues and Devotions may increase as those of Men proportionably to those of the Persons they keep Afterwards he destines some to watch over little Children and others over the Adult grounding his Opinion upon St. Matt. ch 18.10 where mention is made of the Angels of little Children that see the face of their Heavenly Father Sect. 10. He has this particular Opinion concerning the Stars that they may have Light and Intelligence and though he expresses not himself so plainly upon that yet 't is a necessary consequence of his Principles for upon the Words in the Hebrews 2.9 That Christ has tasted Death for all He says first that by that all must not simply be understood all Men but whatever is capable of Reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and amongst those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rational Creatures he reckons the Stars a little after and upon that foundation he is not afraid of making our Lord not only the Redeemer of Men but also of Stars that have likewise sin'd because 't is said the Stars are not pure in his sight Job 25.5 he repeates the same at the end of his 2d Volume upon St. John denying however that their Influences should hurt Men notwithstanding what is read of Lunaticks Matth. 17.14 15. Writing upon Genesis he likewise rejects Astrology to which he believes that some Angels having forgotten their Duty have persuaded Men to addict themselves Sect. 11. Tertullian in his second Book against Marcion says as to the original of Devils He has made the Angels that are Spirits now in as much as the Devil was made by God he is an Angel and belongs to his Maker but inasmuch as he has not been made by God viz. as a Devil or a Slanderer it follows that he has made himself so by forsaking God and withall deceiving himself That Language is somewhat obscure Origen speaks not better for in his first part upon St. John he seems to recite a Riddle concerning the Dragon as having been one of the first created by God in a Bodily shape and before Man He strains the Words of God to Job ch 40 v. 15. for he takes them as they are now read in the Greek Bibles as though there was this or that Dragon whereas the Hebrew Text has Behemoth that signifies a great Beast Translating the Verse thus This is the beginning of what God formed which he mad for a matter of laughter to his Angels Sect.
that some very exact Criticks believe not this work of Questions to be Athanasius's but there is no less controversie as to the true Author of the Confession ascribed to that Father However both must needs be very Antient and the former cannot be of much later Date than the age of Athanasius so that the proof drawn from thence to show what was the Doctrine of that time is still of the same force At least none doubts but St. Basil contemporary with St. Athanasius has written the three First Books against Eunomius and therefore his Testimony will be admitted with less difficulty After St. Athanasius or some other whoever he may be has descended from God through the several degrees of Angels to Men St. Basil comes to teach us how we are to consider the Holy Angels of God in their different Orders and Administrations He says at the beginning of his 3 Book against Eunomius That all the Angels have indeed the same name and are of the same nature but that some preside over whole Nations and others take care of every faithful person Now as much as a whole Nation is to be preferr'd before a single Man so much is the Dignity of an Angel committed over a whole Nation above that of another Another Angel who has only the keeping of a single person Sect. 18. However St. Austin who writ very near 50 years after St. Basil expresses not himself so freely upon this matter in his Manual Chap. 58. We cannot says he precisely tell what passes amongst those Blessed Societies above nor what difference there is betwixt persons c. And as to the signification of those four words in which the Apostles seem to comprehend all the Heavenly Societies saying either Thrones or Dominions Principalities or Powers they shall prove as they can what they assert for my part I freely confess I know nothing of it St. Jerom his contemporary for they both lived betwixt the 4th and 5th Century seems not to be so reserved but on the contrary undertakes to prove what St. Athanasius and St. Basil had asserted whereas St. Austin seems to doubt of the Truth of their Opinions saying in his Commentary on the 46th Chapter of Isaiah For many passages of the Holy Writ teach us that each of us has his Angel especially that of Matth. Chap. Ver. 10. Take care lest you despise one of these little ones for their Angels c There are therefore in his Opinion Angels for particular persons He likewise names in his Commentary on the 47th Chapter Pag. mihi 476. Tom. 5. Angelos praesides Judaeorum The Angels presiding over the Jews And upon Daniel Chap. 7. ver 2. he saith I hold the four Winds to be Angelical Powers to whom the principal Kingdoms have been entrusted according to what is written Chap. 32. ver 8. where instead of these words the most High established the bounds of Nations according to the number of the Children of Israel he reads according to the number of the Angels of God to ground his Opinion thereupon Sect. 19. St. Austin seems so modest upon the difference amongst the Angels is perhaps too reserved in what follows for immediately after what he says he speaks of the Stars in too dubious a manner saying I see likewise nothing certain upon that point whether the Sun Moon and other Stars must be comprehended in that Society tho' some hold them to be luminous Bodies without Knowledge and Sense He seems not inclinable to that last Opinion but is more apt to believe that the Stars are a kind of Angels or at least of living and understanding Creatures without daring to determine whether they are part of the four Orders to which he applies the names contained in St. Paul's passage before quoted whence 't is easy to infer that he was taken up with the Intelligences of Aristotle Sect. 20. St. Jerom explains himself openly as to the Ministery of the Angels upon the 9th Chap. of Daniel Angelorum duplex officium est aliorum qui justis praemia tribuunt aliorum qui singulis praesunt Cruciatibus The Angels discharge 2 sorts of functions some are established to distribute rewards to the just and others to inflict punishments on the Damned It appears by the series of his discourse and by the passage of the Holy Scripture at which he aims that he equally ascribes those 2 things to the good Angels according to that Opinion that there happens neither good nor evil without the Ministry of the Angels of God and consequently he attributes nothing to the Devil Sect. 21. Lactantius shows what were the Opinions of his time concerning the Devil of whom he makes a very large description in the 7th Book of his Institutions especially Sect. 8. which deserves I should give the short of here He says That God produced a Spirit altogether like him that was endued with the Virtues of his Father He seems that thereby he should understand our Lord Jesus Christ Afterwards he created another Alterum not Alium that preserved not the perfections of his Celestial Original because according to the meaning of â—actantius he envyed that first Spirit who remained faithful and obedient to God his Father Wherefore the latter bears the name of Diabolus Criminator Accuser and Slanderer The Author stops there and speaks no more of it but Sect. 14. He says that God for that Reason has granted to the Devil power over the Earth ab initio from the begining but to prevent the Devil from seducing Men he sent Angels to defend them advertising them withal not to stain themselves by their Conversation with Men but the Devil seduced the very Angels so far that they mixt with Women and were cast down from Heaven to Earth If it were so that old proverb would be verified That there would be no Devils if there were no handsom Women Sect. 22. One thing 's especially observable that Athanasius in his First and Second Book against the Arrians is the first Author as far as we know that applies to the fall of the Devil that passage of Isaiah Ch. 14. v. 12. How art thou fallen from Heaven O Morning Star which is undoubtedly said of the King of Babilon because of the great figure he made in the World Now the Morning Star is called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in Latin Lucifer which words are still to be read in the Greek and Hebrew Bibles whence several that have followed St. Athanasius have taken occasion to give the name of Lucifer to the Prince of the Devils which name he still bears If those who understand not the Latin Tongue knew that is the name of the Morning Star they would never bestow it upon Belial since it agrees so well to our Saviour who calls himself the bright and Morning Star Revel Ch. 22. v. 16. to which St. Peter undoubtedly alludes in his Second Epistle Ch. 1. v. 19. Where he says That the Morning Star must arise in our
Hearts And our promises in another sense to give us The Morning Star Revel 2.28 So that the name of Lucifer is so far from being that of the Prince of the Devils thâ—t it is the most Christian name to be read in the Bible Sect. 23. Let 's go back to Lactantius he says that Monsters were generated from that odious conjunction of Angels with Women that are half Angels or rather Half Demons or half Men thence he infers Duo genera daemonum unum caeleste alterum terrenum That there are 2 sorts of Demons one of Celestial Demons and another of Terrestrial by Celestial he seems to understand Aerial but after the word Terrenum there follows immediatly Hi sunt immunedi malorum quae geruntur auctores quorum idem diabolus est princeps These are unclean Spirits Authors of all the Evil that happens in the World the chief of whom is the Devil already mentioned From this passage may be clearly perceived that he takes for Demons those very same Spirits whom the Heathens made their Gods as has been seen Ch. 2. Sect. 9 to 13 which still confirms more and more what I have asserted Ch. 5. Sect. 4 5. That the Heathen never adored Demons but in as much as they believed them to be Gods Sect 24. The same Lactantius tells us that the Demons are indeed Spirits but Spiritus tenues incomprehensibiles Spirits of a thin subtle matter and imperceptible This we have heard before from Origen and Tertullian He explains himself very clearly as to the power he ascribe to their understanding saying That they know many future things but that it is not possible they should discover the depths of the secrets of God We have already heard Tertullian confirming this proposition by his Reasonings However Lactantius believes that Divinations by the Contemplation of the Stars by the Inspection of the intrals of Beasts and by the Observation of Birds of which mention has been made Ch. 3. Sect. 4 5 7. Are Diabolical Inspirations and therefore holds that they are still capable of discovering to Men many future things Sect. 25. St. Jerom as far as I can conceive constitutes not the same difference of places betwixt the Spirits Yet he believes Ex Pauli dictis ad Ephe Cap. 2. ver 2. 12. colligi Diabolos in aere vagari ac dominari That from what S. Paul writes to the Ephesians may be inferr'd That the Devils are wandering in the Air and â—â—igning there And writing upon the 6th Ch. v. 12. to the Ephesians he explains more at large that proposition as containing the common Opinion of the Christians of that Age. This is the Opinion of all the Doctors That the Air which is betwixt the Heavens and the Earth separating both from what it call'd the Vacuum is fil'd with powers contrary to each other We must yet examine hereafter whence the Principalities Powers and Dominions of this World have received their powert His Opinion upon this last Question is that they have it from God himself and that they exercise it more or less as a less and greater pain is inflicted upon 2 different Criminals according as 't is resolved to make their life more or less bitter he also supposes that the unclean Spirits as well as the Holy Angels are divided into certain Orders which Opinion of his may be seen in his Commentary on the 3 Ch. of Habakuk As Christ is the head of the Church and of every particular faithful Man so is Belzebub the chief of all the Demons who exercise so many cruelties in this World and each Troop of Demons has it's particular Chief and Captain under him Sect. 26. Lactantius must yet inform us what in his Opinion the Demons were able to Operate in reference to Men. We see Sect. 14. that his Opinion in general is That the Corrupted and Contagious Spirits wander'd through the World endeavouring to comfort themselves under their loss by procuring the ruin of Mankind Immediatly after he explains in particular how they hurt Soul and Body They attack says he The Souls by their craft devises and the snares they lay before them they seize upon them by their delusions and by leading them astray they stick to every private person and are always at his elbow creeping into every house from door to door And in relation to the bodies as those very Spirits are according to him partly corporeal and partly extraordinary sâ—â—tle and consequently imperceptible They insinuate into Human Bodies without being perceived act privately within their Bowels impair their Health cause Diseases cast terror into the mind by Dreams overturn it make it stray and force Men by such vexations to have recourse to them It seems however that he intends to ascribe that power to the Devil only over the Heathens because he disputes against them and that they were those that had recourse to the Demons as believing them to be Gods for over the Christians the Ancient Fathers attributed not so much power to them Sect. 27. We may learn from St. Athanasius what were the Opinions of his time as to the Souls separated from their Bodies after Death In the Book before quoted question 32. he asks Whether the Souls after their separation have knowledge of what is done amongst Men as the Holy Angels have he answers Yes at least as to the Souls of the Saints but not as to those of Sinners for their continual torments take them so much up that they have no leasure to think upon any other thing The 33th Question is What is the employment of the Souls departed from their Bodies Answer The Soul separated from the Body is uncapa ble of doing either good or evil However he says a little after That the Souls of the Saints animated by the Holy Ghost praise God and bless him in the Land of the Living He asserts Question 35. That after Death the Souls never come to bring news of the state of the Deceased which would give occasion to many cheats because wicked Spirits might feign that they are Souls of the Deceased that come back to discover somthing to the Living I desire the Reader to observe this very attentively for it will be convenient to reflect upon it hereafter Sect. 28. St. Austin gives us a more large information for thô he does not expresly reject Purgatory yet he confutes it every where as appears from several places of his Writings that have been quoted by one of my predecessors Andrew Landsman in his Book of the Apostasy of the Church of Rome yet this Father in the 69th Chapter of his Manual expresses himself thus 'T is not incredible but somthing like may happen after this life and it may reasonably be enquired whether it is so and what proof may be brought for or against this Opinion viz. that some of the faithful come sooner or later to the Eternal Felicity passing through a certain purging Fire in which they stay longer or shorter as they are more
other bad the Author of all Evil and the Prince of darkness That the first as they say is the God that has formed all things and that the other is Hyle that is the matter from which all things have been formed and which is esteem'd by them to be the Devil Some distinguish the Devil from the Prince of darkness and translate not as we do the last words of the 44th v. of the 8th Ch. of St. John He is the Father of lies but his Father is a lie namely the Father of the Devil Second As to the good God they say that his Essence is dispersed as by portions through all the Creatures and inherent to them which they explain by many wonderful Commentaries This is what they think of God and the Devil in relation to their Essence and Existence what follows concerns their Operations Sect. 4. Third The People of darkness formerly warr'd with the People of light The good God went himself to attack the Prince of darkness by some certain principal Spirits which he had produced of his own Essence who however being too weak were taken Prisoners but Christ came to repair that disorder having been begotten by some certain first Man who had been the promoter of this War and had begun it Fourth That in the mean while Christ himself is the Serpent that seduced Adam and Eve Fifth That Christ is now fixed amongst the Stars especially in the luminous Globe of the Sun in which sense they explain his Ascension to Heaven Sect. 5. Sixth They believe the Metempsychosis in this manner That the Souls shall pass into the bodies of such a kind of living Creatures as they have most loved or abused during their Life He that has killed a mouse or a fly shall pass in punishment into the body of a mouse or a fly the state in which he shall be put after death shall likewise be opposed to that in which he was during his Life He that is rich shall be poor and he that is poor shall be rich Seventh They also give two Souls to every Man one of which is always contrary to the other But enough of their Doctrines we leave the rest to Danaeus who ascribes to them 21 in all because what he and other Authors say belongs not to our subject Sect. 6. However I am not apt to assert that they have believed and taught such gross Doctrines as are imputed to them and have been now related For supposing the common Opinion concerning the Doctrine of the Manichees that they were chiefly extracted from the Philosophy of the Persians since Manes their First Author was undoubtedly a Persian and that they are strangely mingled with the Christian Divinity It is unreasonable to have the same Opinion of that People that we have of other Nations who never cultivated the study of Nature and Human learning such as those we have met with in the Northern parts of Africa and the Southern of America It may well be that the Manichees ascribe to the whole Vniverse a principle like that which is observed in it's parts viz. The active cause and the matter which Aristotle established to be eternal as well as the World and that afterwards matter considered as insensible by a misinterpretation of the words of Moses that spreads in the beginning darkness over the Abyss and the Spirit of God moving over it should have produced those monstrous thoughts of which we have given some instances Sect. 7. Supposing they have established two principal causes one of good and the other of evil but yet so as that the First is uncontestably superior to the Second as much as light is above darkness and the workman above the matter he works upon 't is probable that they had an Idea of God as a Soul infused through the whole Vniverse that consider'd by them as the body in which that First cause continually operates And as the contrary motions of corporeal passions rise against the Empire of Reason that ought to govern them so they might believe that the Animal Spirits proceeding from matter perpetually rebel against God the Fountain of all Reason Whence it would follow that God should not be more absolute master of the Vniverse than Man is of his body thence has proceeded that Idea of two different Gods one good and the other bad the latter being still inferior to the former who is indeed the workman but has not an arbitrary Government there being a power in the World so great that it is able to resist him Sect. 8. But whether I have made a just conjecture or whether the Manichees had other Opinions then those I imagine it seems nevertheless that I may reasonable suppose it upon this foundation that no Opinions so gross as those that are ascribed to them not only are not admitted but not so much as moved or propounded as we shall see very soon in the series of this work because the principal points of those sorts of belief with their dependencies have a great relation with my Second and Third Book as I hope to show at the end of the Second And therefore whether any one treats of the Devil and Spirits according to the Holy Scripture or whether he only follows his own sense and right it may 〈◊〉 assured that all his Reasonings will turn upon this notion of his that God and the Devil have each an Empire one contrary to the other and that thô the Devil be subject to the power of God yet his Empire is more apparent It is denyed that God now works any miracles but some are rashly ascribed to the Devil that surpass all those that are mentioned in the Holy writ We believe that there are Angels and gather from the Holy Scripture that they encamp about the faithful and the Devil likewise is incessantly active to do them hurt if possible he can but his abode is in Hell However it is very rare to hear any one say he has seen an Angel in a vision whereas the Devil appears almost continually If any thing has been either signified or foretold we never believe it to be the Operation of an Angel but of the Devil one is possest by him and another bewitch'd by his means unknown Tongues are spoken strange things are said others no less wonderful are perform'd and the most hidden secrets discover'd But you will scarce meet with any that has so good Opinion of the power of an Angel if we have any Holy thought or good inspiration how inconsiderable soever it may be we ascribe it to the Holy Ghost and seem not to believe that the Angels are so much as capable of contributing to it since it ne'er comes in our mind to think upon them But the Devil penetrates the most secret thoughts of Men overthrows their best designs and incessantly excites them to Evil if they are accused and convicted of any crime the excuse is always at hand for the Devil has done it or at least
ancient Fathers establish 99 to one Man Our Schottus makes their number amount to 1000,000,000,000 a Thousand Thousand Millions more of whom are good then bad though he undertakes not to determine the number of each pag. 9 10. This vast number of Angels as well bad as good are divided by way of degrees into some certain orders which are explained in particular somewhat further in that same Book Sect. 6. As to the power ascribed to good and bad Angels 1. They can neither penetrate the secret thoughts of one another nor those of Men yet they can much better pierce into futurities then Men can do by the help of natural Causes and know for instance whether the year shall be fruitful whether it will freeze very hard whether it will Rain or blow pag. 12 13 14. 2. 'T is observable that he ascribes to them the faculty of moving from one place to another tho' it be not done in an instant and that of extending and contracting themselves locally pag. 17. 18. 3. He admits the Opinion of Ignatius Erkenness that it is not necessary an Angel should have a Body to move another Body pag. 20. c. 4. That nevertheless neither Angel nor Devil can act upon each other unless they meet both in the same place pag. 21. 5. It is the common Opinion that a Spirit may assume a Body in such a manner as outwardly to be seen in a Bodily shape by a Person whose Eyes are conveniently disposed without being perceiv'd by another near him tho' his Eyes be as fit for it as those of the former pag. 24. 6. 'T is likewise the common Opinion that each Person has his particular Angel and Devil p. 37 38. Sect. 7. As to the Holy Angels in particular the Opinion of Lombard concerning their Orders and different Ministries has been always much credited among the Papists They believe that he speaks according to the Scripture when he constitutes nine Orders of them Angels Archangels Principalities Powers Virtues Dominions Thrones Cherubims and Seraphims Lombard asserts that Dionysius the Areopagite has distinguished them so but I have shewed before Chap. 15. Sect. 3. that it is Pope Gregory who has established that number tho' not altogether in the same Order These nine Orders have been since divided into three times three the three superiour Orders are the Seraphims Cherubims and Thrones and so forth ascending again and reckoning all nine Lombard explains this thought more at large saying That as the Martyrs are one Order and the Apostles another and yet one Apostle is above another as one Martyr above another he reasonably believe the same to be with the Angels Sect. 8. As to the wicked Spirits in particular 't is believed 1. That they have not all been precipitated into Hell immediately after their Fall but that part of them remained rambling without and sometime return upon Earth or abide in the Air p. 26 27. 2. That there are six different places where the Devils commonly dwell and whence they effect their Malice and Power and therefore are called in relation to those places 1. Ignean or Superaereal Devils 2. Aereal Devils 3. Terrestrial 4. Aquatick 5. Subterraneous 6. Those that hate the Light The Abbot Trithemius Delrio and Agrippa are quoted by our Author on that account pag. 28. 31. 3. They are as well as the Angels divided into several Orders But the Papists agree not together upon this matter neither our Author nor Agrippa who has treated at large of this matter agree together nor with others but after all I relate here what is most generally received to which I add that the Opinion of Thyleus who divides the Devils into three Spiritual Dominions and nine Quires is not rejected pag. 36 37. Sect. 9. Their Power and Effects have always been much exalted amongst the Papists They hold for certain that the wicked Spirits can do great wonders either by their Knowledge or Power Mira hoc loco vocamus says Schottus quorum causas etiam sapientes ignorant digna admiratione censent sive de â—aetero natura facultates transcendunt sive non I give here the name of wonders to those Effects the causes of which even the Wise are ignorant of and judge them worthy Admiration whether or no they surpass the forces of Nature pag. 39 40. 'T is therefore his Opinion That the Devils can produce Effects that are above the power of Nature For though he declares afterwards That they produce but apparently and not really some Effects that are peculiar to God only yet he believes that frequently they really operate others which indeed are not proper to God but which neither Men nor the ordinary course of Nature are capable of effecting without the assistance of those Spirits To prove this Thesis he quotes many Popish Authors and shows that they are all of the same Opinion In the mean while he distinguishes what the Devils are able to effect of themselves from what they cannot do but by the means of Magicians and Witches Pag. 40. to 50. Sect. 10. The Consequence he draws from what has been said is That the Devils operate some things by motion others by the active virtue of Natural Causes and others by Illusion 1. They alledge 15 sorts of their Operations by their Motion from one place to another of which the five first consist in real Operations and the nine last in meer Representations Those of the first Classis are First They cause Fire to descend from Heaven as 't is related in the first Chapter of Job Second According to the same History they may raise Storms and Tempests Third They may likewise cause Rain bring fair weather make Winds blow upon the Sea stop the course of Vessels and overturn them Fourth They may produce Earthquakes Fifth They may transport through the Air or in some other manner the Bodies of Men and all other sorts of Bodies Sect. 11. Our Author afterward relates what they operate by motions of meer Representation to the internal and external Senses 1. They render visible things invisible by suddenly snatching them from the sight of Men. 2. They make Statues and other inanimate Objects move and walk They make them speak 4. They make appear Man and Beast in their dead Bodies as tho' they were alive 5. They take upon them Aereal Bodies and by that means produce several Effects 6. They represent the Figure of all sorts of matter either Gold Silver precious Stones or others 7. They direct in such a manner the Animal Spirits of Men that they maks appear to them past present and future things in their own shape and perswade them that they see hear and do things that are not real 8. They cause pineings and violent Diseases in human Bodies 9. By Dreams they present to People such objects as are absent and remote and forewarn them of future things 10 They produce in Men the passions of Love Hatred Anger and Fury from Pa. 51. to 54. Sect.
12. The 2d sort of Diabolical Operations is no less credited it consisting in the active virtue of Natural things and therefore 't is believed that by the power of the Devil whether he acts immediately and by himself or by Wizards and Witches Herbs Fruits Waters and most other matters may be mixed in some sort and degree and with the proportions requisite for it whereby Food Drink Physick or some other potion may be made up that shall cause a great deal of hurt to Man and Beast 'T is also believed that all these things may be done by natural ways but that they are more easily readily and efficaciously performed by the power and craft of the Devil without being perceived by the most skilful Men who can never do the like Pag. 55. Sect. 13. As to the illusions they must be understood in this Sense that the Devils indeed do some thing but not whatever they seem to operate For 't is not doubted but the Devil can do whatever is possible to be done by natural means and which may happen in process of time by the ordinary course of nature without the cooperation of that wicked Spirit as we shall say anon but he has this power by God's permission to imploy all the forces of nature for the producing of what effect he desires whence often proceeds that Men either by ignorance or because some extraordinary objects and events come before them believe things that are not in being or perswade themselves that the Devil performs some certain effects that are not natural In the mean while it remains constant and undoubted that the Devil has power to do whatever has been already mentioned as also whatever I am going to say Sect. 14. I mean to speak of illusions which Schottus together with Delrio and Molina declares to be of Three sorts those that are made by the change of the objects those that are made by the change of the Air and those that happen by the change of the Organs of the senses First Illusions are made by the change of the Object when one thing is substituted instead of another that has been suddenly and imperceptibly snatched away or when an object is presented to the Eyes in such a state and manner as that it produces a false vision or when any object made up of Air or of some other Element offers it self to the sight or lastly when there appears any thing composed of different matters mingled together so skilfully prepared that what existed before receives thereby another form and figure Second The change of the Air is made by these ways when the Devil hinders lest the object should pass through the Air and hit our Eyes when he disposes the Air that is betwixt the object and the Eye in such a manner that the object appears in another figure then really it is when hâ—â— thickens the Air to make the object appear greater then it is and to hinder it from being seen in other places but the place he designs when he moves the Air in the place through which the object is to hit the Eye that the object going through that part of the Air may also be moved and that it's figure may be presented to the Eye otherwise then it is and lastly when he mingles and confounds together several different figures in order that in one only object there may appear many together pag. 55. Third The Organs of the Senses are changed when they are either transfer'd from their places and alter'd when their humours and active particles are corrupted or thickned or when such a shining brightness passes before the Eyes that they are dazled so that it seems that a Man raves waking p. 55 56. Sect. 15. As a consequence of all these things 't is held as an undoubted truth that the Devil can perform miraculous effects upon all sorts of creatures especially upon Men viz. First That he can give life to Dead insects and make them perfect Animals which however is against the meaning of Schottus p. 129 Second And consequently that he can produce and make appear true Frogs and Serpents as was done in Egypt in the time Moses p. 57 58. 59. Third That he may discover and bring to Men hidden treasures and even if occasion serves make Money p. 116. however Schottus says with reason that he is so ill natur'd as seldom to do as to this all that is in his power Sect. 16. Concerning Man in particular 't is believed that unclean Spirits can Copulate in the shape of Men with Women and in the shape of Women with Mâ—â— so that as from that communication Children may be begotten pag. 61. to 67. 2. That the Devil as by a kind of Transmutation may change Women into the likeness of Men and Men into that of Women pag. 113. 3. That he transforms Men into the figure of Wolves Cats and other Beasts pag. 94. 4. That he may strengthen the memory of Man and enlighten his understanding pag. 114. 5. That he may restore Youth to old Men and repair their Faces 6. That he may possess himself of the Body and Senses of a Man and make him as Exstatick 7. That he may plunge Men into a deep Sleep and make them capable of Fasting whole years pag. 104 107. 8. That he may render Men invulnerable 9. That he may cause all sorts of Diseases to Man as also rid him of them p. 102. Sect. 17. I have kept the chief Article for the end that is That the Devil carries over by night through Windows and Chimnies Magicians Sorcerers and Witches to the Sabbat or their Assembling Place though after all many Popish Writers deny it But since it is the common Opinion on which the very Judges of Sorcerers partly lay the foundation of their Sentences I intend not to put it on the reckoning of the Papists in general though our Author takes it upon his own pag. 67. and 80. For I will not wrong the Papists so much as to call it their own Sentiment since there are Men amongst us that have the same Opinion as we shall hereafter Yet there is one that is particular to them of which I have been informed of late by People that have lived amongst them and have seen a very frequent practice of it I mean the Monitores When any one has sustained a loss or when 't is desired to discover an important Affair or even a Trifle a Monitory is obtained from the Bishop which is an act wherein the thing or the fact enquired after is specified This Monitory is published at the end of Parochial Masses before all the People and fastned to the Doors of Churches and at the corners of Streets and after the expired time and necessary publications they come to the ceremony of thundring it out After which it is certain that three parts of the People believe and are firmly persuaded that those who knew any thing of the matter and have not gone in time
to reveal it to the Rector or other Priest commission'd by the Bishop never fail to fall into the possession of the Devil to whom the Monitory delivers them after it 's being thunder'd out and that the Devil transforms them most or all the Nights into Dogs Cats Wolves Goats and other Animals which is called to whurry as a Wolf If one meet in the night some Wild-Beast or a Domestick straying he fancies to have met the Wolf-man and is ready to swear it Some of the most thinking and less superstitious part at least believe that the Excommunication contained in those Monitories cuts off from the Communion of their Church and delivers to the Demons those that have not submitted to it by revealing such things as 't is often very convenient and useful to conceal Sect. 18. As all these things are said in general concerning the power of wicked Spirits so certain places are assigned to them where they usually produce their Effects The coâ—mon Opinion is that there are familiar Spirits Domestick and Mountanous Devils 1. The familiar Spirits Spiritus Familiares are those who always keep by a Man even when he calls not for them whether they do it of their own accord or that they have been hired very cheap for that purpose They serve him faithfully at least outwardly whether or no he calls for them They suffer themselves to be shut up in Rings Chrystals Chests and the like and to be carried away whither soever one pleases These are the very words of Schottus pag. 134. Those Demons in Glass or Rings are according to the common Opinion shut in or fastned to them with some certain ceremonies used in that case and not by the virtue of any Conjurations or Exorcisms nor by the power of him that carries them as 't is believed by some but they undergo this willingly or by the absolute order of the Prince of the Devils whom they blindly obey or lastly to deceive Men more easily When they are in those sorts of Prisons and have been carried through several places questions are put to them and sometimes they are forced to speak Then they discover to Men hidden Things and foretell those that are to come It is believed that in our days a great and victorious Prince carried one of these Spirits with him in his Ring and that he lost his sight in a Battle a little after the Stone that was in the Ring was broken into two pieces pag. 143. Sect. 19. Schottus and Dâ—â—â—io relate out of Meletius what is ordinarily said concerning Domestick Devils They withdraw into the most hidden places of the house upon piles of Wood where they are kept with the most delicious Meat because they carry to their Masters Corn that they have stolen from other People's Barns When those Spirits intend to settle in any House they make it known by leaping up sticks of Wood or throwing Dung into Pails of Milk If the Master of the House taking notice of it le ts alone those Sticks and the Dung in the Milk or even if he drinks of the Milk into which the Dung hat been thrown the Spirit appears to him and lives with him Those sorts of Spirits are called by the French Gobelins by the Dutch Guldelkens and Kabautermannekens and by the English Hobgoblins They appear in the shape of Men and Women as little as Dwarfs or such as Pigmies were formerly imagin'd to be Schottus says That it was usual in former times to see many of those Spirits in Houses where they did whatever was necessary They dr essed Horses they swept the House carried Wood and Water and did all sorts of Service pag. 145. he did well by saying 't was formerly done left he should be put to a proof in this curious Age. Sect. 20. He has taken from Georgius Agricola the description he makes of Mountanous Devils saying That they dwell in the Mines under the Mountains that they are cruel and frightful that they make uneasie and perpetually vex those that work in the Mines Some call them the little Hollanders because they ordinarily appear little scarce three foot high with an old wrinckled Face and in the same shape with the Miners clothed with a Wastecoat and Apron Nevertheless he says that they are not so wicked as they love to play Tricks and to be merrily Roguish especially when they will persuade that they do the greatest part of the work in the Mines When all 's done his Opinion comes at last to this that there are two sorts of that kind of Spirits some are good and the other bad The latter are feared and detested by the Workmen whereas they look with pleasure upon the former believing them to be of good Augury But Schottus being willing to grant that they are of a mean Order betwixt Men and Spirits holds them for bad Spirits what good soever they may do believing that when it happens so they are forced to it by God or that they do it Craftily to delude Men Pag. 114. and 149. Sect. 21. There is still more illusions made in relation to the shapes the Devils take on than in the other occasions above-mention'd I will not now speak of whole Armies that are believed frequently to appear in order of Battle of which Schottus treats at large in the addition to his second Book p. 336. but of those that are called Hobgoblins and Fairies Formally our People speak almost of nothing else Schottus writes thereupon p. 339. Delrio says That there is a sort of Spectres that appear as Women all in white in Woods and Meadows Some are seen in Stables with Wax Candles lighted some drops of which they let fall upon the Mains of Horses combing and twisting them very neatly those white Women are also call'd Sybils and 't is said that one of 'em named Haband is as the Queen of the others and commands them People believe their Apparitions to be of good Omen but the Doctors look on such presages as old Womens Tales acknowledging in the mean while that the thing is true or at least possible And Schottus relating p. 215. what Cornelius of Kempen says assures us that in the time of the Emperor Lotarius that is about 830. several of those Fairies were to be found in Friseland where they dwelt in Grotes or on the tops of Hills and Mountains whence they descended at night to carry away Shepherds from their Flocks Children from their Cradles and slip both into their Caverns CHAP. XX. What is the Doctrine of Popery concerning Apparitions of Spirits and how they torment Men either by themselves or by the Ministry of other Men. Sect. 1. IN speaking of this last kind of Demons we are descended by degrees even to Specters and Phantasms But First we have observed that there were yet two things to treat of touching Spirits that is their Apparitions to Men and their Operations in the same It is upon this subject of Apparitions that there is room to speak of
the 19th Ch. Sect. 8. That the Devils are divided into different orders and the History of the Devils of Loudun shews us that one Elizabeth Blancheard said to be possest by six Devils by Astaroh and the coal of uncleanness by the order of Angels by Belzebub and the Lion of Hell of the order of Archangels by Perou and Marou of the order of Cherubins p. 255. Second That all persons of what Sex Age Condition or Religion soever they may be whatsoever kind of life they lead either good or bad may be possest by Devils Third Althô the most part are possest without their consent and in spight of them by evil Spirits it is believed sometimes that there are some which consent to it there are those to whom are attributed Spirits of Pithon who divine by means of the Devil Schottus p. 550. Sect. 12. This Author explains to us more precisely in what manner the Devil enters into Men and how he works First Granting he can cloath all sorts of bodies as he pleases and according as God permits him he can sometimes go and come enter into Man and come out invisibly and sometimes also visibly and under the figures of small Beasts or insects as Ants Flies Spiders or under those little birds This is the common Opinions of Popish writers althô Schottus is not very much for it p. 539. But he is in the wrong for here 's a proof at least as to his invisible going in and coming out in the History of the Devils of Loudun where it is said that a Devil called Bihemot being gone out to seek a new Covenant the guardian Angel of the Nun that he possest seized upon him and bound him for a Month under the Picture of St. Joseph in the Church p. 405. And that this Religious fancyed as tho I know not what should have gone out from her head which removed from her as the Devil retired farther and afterwards the Devil himself declared that after having been tied in his body not to part from it he had at present as well as his companions the liberty of coming too and fro p. 408. Second Schottus howevever agrees that evil Spirits give to the possest the faculty of speaking strange languages that they never learned and of revealing secrets which they could not know of themselves p. 540. So it is that the Nun of Loudun spoke Latin the best he could assuring that she had never learned it History of the Devils of Loudun And so it is that the Demons discovered to the Jesuit surin secret matters in his thought or in his person p. 273. or that they went to kiss the right hand of one of the exorcists for that the Duke of Orleance had so desired it and had declared his desire to another exorcist p. 297. Upon which one of them hath writ that the Devils answered often to interrogatories made to them by the exorcists without expressing them otherwise then by the inferior direction of their thoughts p. 104. See there the last effort of Divination to divine thoughts hidden and in no ways expressed Third Schottus says in other places that the principal operations of the Devil are made in the body of the possest and that they art little or nothing upon the Soul and that for this reason they cannot make a Man loose his Faith nor Hope nor Charity p. 534. But the Devil Isaacarum who knew more of it then our Author says that Behemet had not only vex'd Job in his body but that he had also troubled his Soul and that it is for this reason that he sinned not in all that he said History of the Devils of Loudun Pag. 374. Sect. 13. See what the Devil can do and what he does very often according to the opinions of the Roman Catholicks be it that he makes use of the Ministry of Men in these occasions or that he uses them nor those that he imployes in his Ministry are called Sorcerers Enchanters and Magicians 'T is stedfastly believed that those People have given themselves to the Devil and have covenanted with him and signed it with their own Blood That the Devil on his part is observed to do all they desire during the course of their life and that the Magicians on their part give themselves to the Devil and put themselves into his possession all their days or for a certain time that they have mutually agreed together If you would see an example very particular of such a contract you need but read the History of the Devils of Loudun Pag. 271. but you cannot read it without being amazed The Magicians in consequence of their Covenants are to enjoy a great deal of pleasure which will be procured to them by the Devil to do a great deal of mischief to others and cause a great deal of damage to their Cattle and to their other Goods Their pleasure consists in solemn Assemblies which are held in the night in places the Devil appoints and where he appears in all sorts of Figures there they dance drink and eat in excess and the Men and Women mix themselves carnally together and with the Devil himself who for that purpose sometimes transforms himself into a Man sometimes into a Woman The Wizards and Witches are transported thro the' Windows to places where they assemble by virtue of a certain Ointment they anoint themselves with they ride mounted upon the Devil as upon a Horse for he is obliged to serve them and for this purpose he transforms himself into a Goat or some other Animal Sometimes there are in those Assemblies strange Sacrifices for the History of the Devils of Loudun writes Pag. 153. That they force the Devil Leviathan to surrender a Contract written upon the flesh of the Heart of an Infant taken in a Sabbat held at Orleans and of the Ashes of a burnt Host Sect. 14. The disorders that they cause to Men are to mischief their persons or their Cattle to stir up Tempests to spoil the Corn of the field to breed Disputes to disturb the Society of Men by a thousand means some times they do good with an eye to proper advantage for some Money they discover things lost they declare if one is bewitch'd or if not and by whom it has been they teach what must be done to cure them that are so or they cure them themselves Of this Bodin in his Book intituled Daemonamania shall fully instruct the reader that will take the pains to read him For no Authors are more large upon that subject than he and Delrio In the mean while we will look into their Sentiments related by Schotus more plainly than in their own Books Sect. 15. He defines this unlawful Magick upon which subject the Reader will not forget the distinction heretofore made Chap. 4. Sect 2. 7. A Power by which Man works certain wonders which surpass ordinary Vnderstanding which is done not by any Art nor by the force of his proper Faculties nor by
Great Brittain which is King James the Sixth King of Scotland and First King of England of that name and the other to one of his Scotch Subjects a Scot by birth as by name being call'd Reynard Scot the King held the affirmative as to the popular Opinion of Witchcraft and Apparition of Spirits which his subject had already confuted John Wierus who lived in the begining of the Reformation made by means of Luther and Calvin had from that time published his Opinion upon the delusion of Spirits and upon the impostures of Witches and he had taken a part which held in the middle between those two Opinions so King James in his Book of Demonology contested with these two Authors according to his express Declaration in the Preface Sect. 8. What is most important in his Book comes very near to this In the sixth Chapter of the first Book there are descriptions so exact of leagues that Magicians make with the Devil that it seems as if the King himself had seen the Original or that they had been reported in the Council In the fourth Chapter of the second Book the King puts for certain that evil Spirits may carry Men through the Air or assume divers forms to visit the Magicians when they are in Prison In the seventh Chapter he says that in the time of Popery and Paganism there was a great many more Apparitions but that it was observed that since this last Reformation of the Christian Church there have been fewer Apparitions and a great many more Witchcrafts Concerning the apparitions of Hobgoblins and Phantoms of which he treats in the Third Book there are scarce any kind to which this Prince gives not credit even to Incubusses and Succubusses which are Spirits who as Men mix themselves carnally with Women and as Women with Men. In reference to the possest the King agrees that the Popish Priest may drive out the Devil but upon the proofs that he has to convince one of the crime of Magick he only says there must be no less than twelve witnesses amongst which may be admitted Infants infamous People and even those that are taken to be Magicians Sect. 9. Now althô the learned as I have already said extol not so much all these things nor teach them so expresly and that by consequence they credit not so much what is ordinarily believed and said touching the power and Operations of the Devil upon Men and concerning that which they effect by the means of Men we must however observe that they give so much extent to his power and actions that not only they help not to destroy the general Opinion that is had of him but also maintain it by different expressions they make use of and by the instructions they give It is what is seen especially in the works of two English Authors who explain themselves more plainly and precisely than all others upon this matter which they treat from the foundation whereas others keep the same language only by occasion and when treating of other subjects they are obliged to speak of them The first of these Authors is William Gurnal in his great Book upon the Ephesians 6.11.18 entituled The Christian in compleat Armour the first Edition is in the Year 1655. And since there has been Printed at London in folio in 1679. the sixth Edition He says That the Devil being a spiritual being extreamly evil these two considerations ought to cause a great deal of fear to a Christian p. 94. Because he is a great Prince who surpasses Man very much in power and craft that his craft is observed by his marvelous knowledge first in spying proper occasions to tempt Men p. 36. Secondly in his subtle and artificial conduct and in all the vices he makes use of for this effect p. 37. Thirdly in the care he takes to make all the preparations necessary to attack us to his advantage every time he finds opportunity to do it p. 43. Fourthly In the trouble that he stirs up in our Consciences in reproaching us with our Sins and in the artifices that he uses and the ambushes he lays p. 44. As to what concerns the power and Virtue of the Devil the Author holds in the first place That he has power not only on the Elements and corporeal senses but also upon spiritual substances of the World and upon the Souls of Men p. 74. Afterwards he declares what is the time and place of his Empire over his subjects viz. the time in this life over people of Darkness the place in the World for as much as it is plung'd into impiety p. 79. Sect. 10. The other English Author is Joseph Glanvill the title of which Book is Saducismus Triumphatus Saducism defeated a Book wherein he imploys a great deal of Learning to prove that Witchcrafts Inchantments Apparitions and Phantoms are possible and afterwards that they are things practised and which actually happen The first Edition of it has been also in English at London in 1661. after the death of the Author He pretends that what he establishes as a certain Truth is grounded upon Reasons and Examples And I grant that as to the force of Reasoning I do not know any Writer who has better succeeded than he has Here are his supposed Truths That among other effects which are attributed to Magicians of both Sexes First Being anointed with certain Magical Ointments they pass through the Chimney and are transported into very distant places Secondly That they are turned into Cats Hares and divers other Creatures and Figures Thirdly That they feel in their own Bodies the same wounds that are made in the Bodies they borrow Fourthly That in muttering certain unintelligible Words and in making certain Gestures extraordinary and ridiculous they raise Tempests Fifthly That they are sucked by familiar Spirits in the most secret parts of their Bodies The Author believes that the more these things are incredible and ridiculous the more certain they are I shall examine his Reasons in my second and third Book and his Instances in my last with more exactness than what other Authors have written upon this Subject for the consideration I have already alledged that he carries it above all others as to the force of his Reasoning Sect. 11. All that has hitherto been saâ—d respects first the Devil and afterwards Men that are believed to have Commerce with him considered distinctly and separately from him But an union must be made betwixt them For which effect the Leagues already mention'd were invented Sect 5. of this Chapter and heretofore Chap. 20. Sect. 13. Moreover the Opinions which have been reported having passed from Popery amongst us and been admitted by many Doctors of our Communion yet I know not any who has taken their part so much as Daneus which is chiefly observed in two Points in his Description of the Leagues and in the effects he attributes to Sorcerers and Witches for these two things are found very amply treated of in his
under the Figure of Samuel They think that it cannot be deny'd but that he has power over the Air and Winds over Armies over the Goods of Men their Bodies and their Lives which is proved by the example of what happen'd to Job And by the effects that the Magicians of Egypt produc'd in the time of Moses which are as so many sure marks of the power of the Devil either to produce Insects as Frogs and Serpents and to make a Transmutation of the Elements either to represent with an inconceivable readiness things that are to be fetch'd from far or at least so to dazle the eyes of Men to see what is not Sect. 14. As to the means which Magicians Diviners and Inchanters make use of scarce is there a person of good Sense that believes they are efficacious of themselves but they will have it to be effected by the Devil who operates all that those miserable wretches imagine to act and that the Covenants made between him and them oblige him to execute that which they require of him provided only that they make use of Signs and that they imploy circumstances destin'd for that purpose such as he has taught them It is very prudently observed as is believed that those Leagues are made two ways which I shall express in the words of Sennertus taken from his Treatise upon this Question Whether one may be render'd invulnerable to the point of a Sword and to Musquets where he says That the Contract with the Devil is of two kinds mediate or immediate express or tacite The immediate or express Contract is when any makes use of means that he has been immediately furnished with by the Devil The mediate or tacite Contract is when one makes use of the means which in truth have been ordain'd by the Devil but not having been supply'd by the Devil himself comes to him by the hand of some other person which is directly contrary to the Law of God that forbids us to have other Gods but him For he says a little further The consent is not altogether excluded from the tacite agreement because whosoever is not as yet deprived of Reason as not to avoid the Precipices of Rocks or the mouth of a Pit he cannot but see that such Words and Characters have not in themselves any virtue and that by consequence before making use of them we are obliged to examin by what virtue they may produce such effects for if one neglects to do it it is certain a tacite Contract with the Devil who has promised to execute all the clauses and conditions of his writing in favour of those who make use of the Words and Characters therein contained in consequence of which he who makes use of it cannot pretend himself innocent of the crime of Magick Such is Sennertus's opinion and as I may judge from my own experience will not be confuted by our Doctors for I hear them generally hold speaking the same Language Doctor Wierius a famous Man who had very much meditated upon this matter and had studied it very much establishes all these things a little more confusedly but yet very near upon the same foot Sect. 15. I have something to add here concerning Dreams The common Language of our Divines is that there are four sorts Natural Civil or such as are occasion'd by the preceding conversation and actions without Nature or Temper having any share in them Lastly Divine or Diabolical They hold that these last proceed from the inspiration of the Devil who disturbs the imagination of Man and represents to him fearful Figures to disquiet or fright him or to transport him for some time into some place where he pleases as we have seen before that he transports the Witches to their several meetings In consequence of this Doctrine there are some of opinion that the Dream that Pilate's Wife suffered so much because of Christ was a Diabolick Dream Sect. 16. But I find not any of these Doctors who have heretofore ever attributed so little understanding and Power to the Devil as to the knowledge and effects already described as Reynold Schot has before quoted We have at this time Anthony Van Dalen who ascribes no more to him in his Book of Oracles these two Authors hold that there is no other efficient cause of all the things which are practised or which are operated but the impostures of Men the Devil having no part in them I learn also whilst I am taken up in this present Work that the most sensible among us attribute but very little power and knowledge to the Devil and that there are a great many more than I conceived who as to the actions of the possest and bewitched are of the same opinion with Mr. Daillon who in a French Book concerning Demons maintains all that which is contained in the Scripture touching evil and unclean Spirits is not otherwise to be understood than of certain Diseases to which the Jews used to give such names believing however that it might happen evil Spirits medl'd with them at the same time There 's lately come to my hands very conveniently a little Book of Mr. Orchard's an Englishman Preacher in the New-Netherlands as I am told in which the ancient and common opinion upon this subject is confuted as being directly opposite to the Doctrine and belief of the Protestant Churches Sect. 17. But let us leave off speaking of these People because that of one side there is no necessity here to handle them and because I intend to do it afterwards It is not necessary to speak of them here because my intention is not to set down here what is not said of the Devil and what is not attributed to him but my design is to relate that which is said of him and to examine whether it be true or no. 'T is sufficient for me to hold the last Negative with the English Writer because I am much averse from maintaining the opinion which ascribes so much power and virtue to Spirits and especially to the bad And further I shall be obliged to enter the List with Schot Van Dalen and many others who oppose the common belief that they had of this Power when I shall come afterwards to examine the reasons and proofs upon which it is founded However before I finish this First Part I shall rehearse all that has been said and compare the opinions of Infidels with those of the Christians CHAP. XXIII That of all these Opinions put together there result some certain propositions in which they differ and others in which they agree Sect. 1. I have from time to time conferr'd the Opinions that I have related first those of the Ancient and modern Pagans in the 11th Chapter and afterwards those of the Jews Mahometans and Christians of the six first Ages in the 17th Chapter There remains now to compare those of the Papists and Protestants after which we will confer them all together to that end we must