out of that Desart they fixed their eyes vpon three strange humane shapes of a fearefull and vnmeasurable stature in long loose gownes and habited after the manner of Mourners with blacke and grisly haire hanging ouer their shoulders but of countenance most terrible to behold Who calling and beckoning to them both with voice and gesture and they not daring to approch them they vsed such vndecent skipping and leaping with such brutish and immodest gestures that halfe dead with feare they were inforced to take them to their heeles and runne till at length they light vpon a poore countrey-mans cottage in which they were relieued and comforted Sabellicus deliuereth this discourse The father of Ludovicus Adolisius Lord of Immola not long after his decease appeared to a Secretarie of his in his journey whom he had sent vpon earnest businesse to Ferrara The Spectar or Sylvan Spirit being on horse-backe attyred like an huntsman with an Hawke vpon his fist who saluted him by his name and desired him to entreat his sonne Lodowicke to meet him in that very place the next day at the same houre to whom hee would discouer certaine things of no meane consequence which much concerned him and his estate The Secretarie returning and reuealing this to his Lord at first he would scarse giue credit to his report and jealous withall that it might be some traine laid to intrap his life he sent another in his stead to whom the same Spirit appeared in the shape aforesaid and seemed much to lament his sonnes diffidence to whom if hee had appeared in person hee would haue related strange things which threatned his estate and the means how to preuent them Yet desired him to commend him to his sonne and tel him That after two and twenty yeares one moneth and one day prefixed he should lose the gouernment of that City which he then possessed And so he vanished It happened iust at the same time which the Spectar had predicted notwithstanding his great care and prouidence That Philip Duke of Mediolanum the same night besieged the City and by the helpe of Ice it being then a great frost past the Moat and with ladders scaled the wall surprised the city and tooke Lodowicke prisoner Fincelius remembreth vnto vs That in the yeare 1532 a Nobleman of his country had commanded a countreyman a Tenant of his with whom he was much offended either to bring home to his Mannor house a mighty huge Oke which was newly felld betwixt that and Sun-set or he should forfeit his time and the next day be turned out of his cottage The poore husbandman bringeth his cart to the place but looking vpon the massie timber and finding it a thing vnpossible to be done he sits down wrings his hands and falls into great lamentation When presently appeared before him one of these Spirits in the shape of a laboring man and demanding him the cause of his sorrow he was no sooner resolued but If that be all saith the Diuell follow me and I will saue thee the forfeiture of thy Leafe Which he no sooner said but he tooke the huge Oke boughes branches and all and threw it vpon his shoulder as lightly as if it had beene a burthen of Firres or Broome and bearing it to the house cast it crosse the gate which was the common entrance into the house and there left it The Gentleman returning towards night with his friends from hawking spying the doore barricadoed commanded his seruants to remoue the tree But forcing themselues first to stir it then to hew it with axes and lastly to set it on fire and finding all to be in vaine the master of the Mannor was inforced to haue another doore cut out in the side of his house to let his Ghests in for at the backe gate hee had vowed not to enter hauing before made a rash Oath to the contrarie By the aid of these Spirits as Caspinianus giueth testimonie the Bulgarians gaue the Romans a great ouerthrow in the time of the Emperour Anastasius The like the Huns did to the French King Sigebert defeating him notwithstanding the oddes of his great and puissant Armie Of this kinde those were said to be who when the Poet Simonides was set at a great feast came like two yong men and desired to speake with him at the gate Who rising in haste from the table to know their businesse was no sooner out of the roome but the roofe of the hall fell suddenly and crushed all the rest to pieces he onely by this meanes escaping the ruin Those Spirits which the Greekes cal Paredrij are such as haunt yong men maids and pretend to be greatly in loue with them yet many times to their hurts and dammage Mengius speaketh of a Youth about sixteene yeares of age who was admitted into the Order of Saint Francis whom one of these Spirits did so assiduately haunt that hee scarce could forbeare his company one instant but visibly he appeared to him sometimes like one of the Friers belonging to the house sometimes one of the seruants and sometimes againe he would personate the Gouernour Neither was he onely seene of the Youth himselfe whom he pretended so much to loue but of diuers of the Domesticks also One time the Youth sent this Spirit with a Present of two Fishes vnto a certaine Monke who deliuered them to his own hands and brought him backe a commendatorie answer The same Mengius in the selfe same booke speaketh likewise of a faire yong Virgin that dwelt in a Noblemans house of Bonnonia and this saith he happened in the yere 1579. haunted with the like Spirit who whithersoeuer she went or came stirred not from her but attended on her as her Page or Lackey And if at any time vpon any occasion her Lord or Lady had either chid or strooke her he would reuenge that iniury done to her vpon them with some knauish tricke or other Vpon a time hee pretending to be extremely angry with her catched her by the gowne and tore it from head to heele which shee seeming to take ill at his hands hee in an instant sowed it vp so workeman-like that it was not possible to discerne in what place hee had torne it Againe she being sent downe into the cellar to draw wine he snatcht the candle out of her hand and cast it a great distance from her by which occasion much of the wine was spilt this he confest he did only to be reuenged on them who the same day before threatened her Neither could he by any exorcismes be forced to leaue her company till at length shee was persuaded to eat so often as she was forced to do the necessities of nature and thereby she was deliuered from him Another of these Paredrij haunted a Virgin of the same City who was about the age of fifteene yeares who would doe many trickes in the house sometimes merrily and as often vnhappily
prodigalitie was such His exhibition he exceeded much And when his money was exhausted cleane His credit flaw'd and there remain'd no meane Either to score or pawne he walks alone And fetching many a deepe suspire and grone His melanch'ly grew almost to despaire Now as we finde the Diuels ready are And prest at such occasions ev'n so than One of these Sp'rits in semblance of a man Appeares and of his sadnesse doth demand The cause Which when he seem'd to vnderstand He makes free protestation That with ease He can supply him with what Coine he please Then from his bosome drawes a Booke and it Presents the Youth and saith If all that 's writ Within these leaues thou giv'st beleefe to I Will furnish all thy wants and instantly Vpon condition thou shalt neuer looke On any page or once vnclaspe the booke The yong man 's pleas'd the contract he allowes And punctually to keepe it sweates and vowes Now saith the Spectar note and vnderstand What thou seest done Then holds in his left hand The fast-shut booke his right he casts about Then with his thumbe and finger stretched out Meaning the middle of that hand holds fast The charmed Volume speaking thus at last Natat as saliat Aurum and instantly Six hundred Crownes into his pocket fly This shew'd and done he stands himselfe aloofe Giues him the Booke and bids the Youth make proofe As he before did The same order kept The selfe same summe into his bosome leapt They part the youthfull Schollar is surpris'd With ioyes incredible and well advis'd Within himselfe thinks he How should I curse To lose this more than Fortunatus Purse Which to preuent the surest way I 'le chuse Transcribiug it lest I perchance might loose Th'originalll copy Then downe close he sits Shuts fast his dore and summons all his wits From hand to hand the Booke he moues and heaues Weighing and poising the inchanted leaues Then layes it ope But in the stead of Histories Or Poëms he spies nought saue Magicke mysteries First page by page he turnes it ouer all Saue Characters most diabolicall He nothing sees then pausing a good space His eye by chance insists vpon a place At which he wonders namely'a circle that Is fill'd with confus'd lines he knowes not what Their meaning is and from the Center riseth A Crucifix which the Crosse much disguiseth Clov'n through th' midst and quite throughout dissect Aboue an head of horrible aspect Resembling the great Diuels ougly foule Which seemes on his rash enterprise to scoule On the right side two Crosses more appeare That after a strange guise conioyned were And these are interchangeably commixt And vpon each a Caca-Damon fixt Vpon the left that part exposed wide Which modest women most desire to hide Oppos'd as ev'n as iust proportion can Was plac'd th' erected virile part of man At these much wondring and asham'd withall He feeles a sudden feare vpon him fall Which Feuer shakes him his eye 's dull and dead And a strange megrim toxicates his head Imagining behinde him one to reach Ready t' arrest him for his promise-breach He calls aloud his Tutor is by chance At hand beats ope the dore and halfe in â—â—ance He findes his Pupill and before him spies This booke of most abhorrid blasphemies And questions how it came there He tells truth Then he in stead of chiding cheares the Youth And hauing caus'd a great fire to be made Now sacrifice this cursed Booke he said The Pupill yeelds the flame about it flashes Yet scarce in a full houre 't is burnt to ashes Though it were writ in paper Thus we see Though these Familiar Spirits seeming bee Mans profest friends their loue 's but an induction Both to the Bodies and the Soules destruction Explicit Metrum Tractatus octavi Theologicall Philosphicall Poeticall Historicall Apothegmaticall Hierogliphicall and Emblematicall Obseruations touching the further illustration of the former Tractat. PRide was the first sinne and therefore the greatest It was the Fall of Angels and is that folly in Man to bring him to perdition It striueth to haue a hand in euery noble Vertue as it hath an interest in euerie detestable Vice The Valiant it swells with vain-glory the Learned with selfe-conceit Nay further it hath beene knowne That men of most submissiue spirits haue gloried That they could so far humble themselues as being proud that they haue not been more proud It hath made zealous men presume of their merit wretched men to boast of their misery Come to the Deadly sins It is Pride in the Enuious man to maligne the prosperitie of his neighbor in the Wrathfull man to triumph in the slaughter of his enemy in the Luxurious man to trick himselfe vp and glory in the spoile of his Mistresse in the Sloathfull to scorne labour and delight in his ease in the Auaritious to despise the Poore and trust in his aboundance According to that of Ovid in the fift booke of his Metamorph. Sum foelix quis enim neg at hoc foelixque manebo Hoc quoque quis dubitat tutum me copia fecit Happy I am for who can that deny And happy will remaine perpetually For who shall doubt it Plenty makes me such Bee'ng made so great that Fortune dares not touch Pride saith Isiodor est amor propriae excellentiae It is a loue of our proper excellencie Saint Augustine telleth vs That all other vices are to be feared in euill deeds but Pride is not to be trusted euen in good actions lest those things which be laudibly done and praise-worthy bee smothered and lost in too much desire of Praise Humilitie maketh men like Angels but Pride hath made Angels Diuels It is the beginning the end and cause of all other euills for it is not onely a sinne in it selfe but so great an one that no other sinne can subsist without it All other iniquities are exercised in bad deeds that they may be done but Pride in good deeds that they may be left vndone Pride saith Hieron was borne in heauen still striuing to possesse and infect the sublimest mindes and as if it coueted still to soare vp to the place from whence it fell it striues to make irruption and breake into the glory and power of men which first broke out from the glory and power of Angels that whom it found Copartners in nature it might leaue Companions in ruin From heauen it fell saith Hugo but by the suddennesse of the fall hauing forgot the way by which it fell though thither it aime it can neuer attaine All other Vices seek only to hinder those Vertues by which they are restrained and brideled as Wantonnesse Chastitie Wrath Patience and Avarice Bounty c. Pride onely aduanceth it selfe against all the Vertues of the minde and as a generall and pestiferous disease laboureth vniuersally to corrupt them Now the signes by which Pride is discouered and knowne are Loquacâ—ty and clamor in speech bitternes in silence
all praise to him is due The sev'rall Classes that are held Amongst the Angels that rebel'd Of Lucifer the principall And his strange figure since his Fall Of such as most in pow'r excell And of their gouernment in hell Their Order Offices and Names With what prioritie each claimes The list of those that fell from blisse The knowledge that in Daemons is And how far stretcht Next of their wrath Tow'rds Mankinde and what bounds it hath Discov'ry of those ginnes and snares They lay t' entrap men vnawares Of Compacts common in all Ages And of the Astrologomages The Argument of the eighth Booke MICHAEL OF Sathans Wiles and Feats prestigious Appearing wondrous and prodigious Confirm'd by histories far sought Of Nouels by bad Daemons wrought And first of such is made expression That still with Mankinde seeke congression To whose fall they themselues apply Call'd Succubae and Incubi To finde those further we desire Of Water Earth the Aire and Fire And what their workings be to know As well aboue as here below How Authors 'mongst themselues agree What Genij and Spectars bee Faunes Sylvans and Alastores Satyrs and others like to these With stories mixt that grace may win From such as are not verst therein The Argument of the ninth Booke GABRIEL OF Spirits call'd Lucifugi From flying light I next apply My neere-tyr'd Pen of which be store In Mines where workmen dig for oare Of Robin Good-fellow and of Fairies With many other strange vagaries Done by Hob-goblins I next write Of a Noone-Diuell and a Buttry-Sp'rite Of graue Philosophers who treat Of the Soules essence and her seat The strange and horrid deaths related Of learn'd Magitions animated By Sathan the knowne Trutht ' abjure And study Arts blacke and impure Of Curious Science last the vanitie Grounded on nothing but incertaintie And that no Knowledge can abide the Test Like that in sacred Scripture is exprest The Seraphim Ex sumptib Tho Mainwaringe Armig THE ARGVMENT OF the first Booke A Ioue Principium the Creator Of all that liue sole Animator Atheisme and Sadducisme disputed Their Tenents argued and refuted A Deitie approv'd by all Gods Creatures in generall Into the world how false gods came And first began t' vsurpe that Name A Quaere made the world throughout To finde this God of whom some doubt 2 Argument The blessed Seraph doth imply The loue we owe to the most High INspire my Purpose fauour mine Intent O thou All-knowing and Omnipotent And giue me leaue that from the first of daies I Dust and Ashes may resound thy praise Able me in thy quarrell to oppose And lend me Armor-proofe t' encounter those Who striue t' eclipse thy glory all they can The Atheist Sadduce and Mahumetan That there 's a God who doubts who dares dispute Be'ng in it selfe a maxime absolute Which fundamentall Truth as it is seen In all things Light or Darke Wither'd or Green In Length Bredth Height Depth what is done or said Or hath existence in this Fabricke made By the word Fiat so amongst the rest In mans owne Conscience it is deep'st exprest Who 's he looks vp and sees a glorious Star Be 't fixt or wandering to appeare from far In bright refulgence can so stupid be Not to acknowledge this great Deity Who shall the Sun 's vnwearied progresse view As at the first creation fresh and new In lustre warmth and power still giuing chere To Plants to Beasts to Mankinde euery where Wh'obserues the Moon a lower course to range Inconstant and yet constant in her Change Ty'd to her monthly vicissitude And doth not thinke she also doth include A soueraigne power Looke downe the earth suruey The Floures Herbs Shrubs and Trees and see how they Yearely product The store of Herds and Flocks Grasing on pastures medowes hills and rocks Some wilde beasts others to mans vse made tame And then consider whence these creatures came Ponder the Wels Ponds Riuers Brooks Fountains The lofty Hils and super eminent Mountains The humble Valley with the spatious Plaine The faire cloath'd Medowes and full fields of graine The Gardens Desarts Forrests Shelues and Sands Fertilitie and Barrennesse of Lands Th' vnbounded Sea and vastitie of Shore All these expresse a Godhead to adore Be not in thy stupiditie deluded Thinke but how all these in one bulke included And rounded in a ball plac'd in the meane Or middle hauing nought whereon to leane So huge and pond'rous and yet with facilitie Remain immov'd in their first knowne stabilitie How can such weight that on no Base doth stand Be sway'd by lesse than an Almighty hand Obserue the Sea when it doth rage and rore As menacing to swallow vp the Shore For all the Ebbs and Tydes and Deeps profound Yet can it not encroch beyond his bound What brain conceiues this but the Power respects Which these things made moues gouerns and directs Do but ô man into thy selfe descend And thine owne building fully apprehend Comprise in one thy Body and thy Mind And thou thy selfe a little World shalt find Thou hast a nimble body to all motion Pliant and apt thou hast at thy deuotion A soule too in the which no motion 's seene But from all eyes hid as behind a skreene Th' effects we may behold from whose command The gestures come yet see we not the hand By which Th' are mov'd nor the chiefe Master He Who is prime Guide in our agilitie Is not so great of these things th'admiration So excellent a Worke of power to fashion Atheists anew and bring them to the way Let 's heare but what their owne Philosophers say One thus affirmes There 's no capacious place In Mans Intelligence able to embrace Th'incomprehensible Godhead and yet trace His steps we may his potencie still seeing In euery thing that hath on earth a being Saith Auicen He reason wants and sence That to a sole God doth not reuerence A third Who so to heav'n directs his eies And but beholds the splendor of the skies Almost incredible and doth not find There must of force be an Intelligent mind To guide and gouerne all things A fourth thus and the most learned of them doth discusse Seeming amongst the Heathen most to know There is a God from whom all good things flow To sing to the great God let 's neuer cease Who gouerns Cities People and gown'd Peace He the dull Earth doth quicken or make tame The Tempests and the windy Seas reclaime He hath the gouernment of States can quell Both gods and men his pow'r is seene in Hell Whose magnitude all visible things display He gouerns them with an impartial sway Where e're thou mov'st where so thou turnst thine eie Ev'n there is God there Ioue thou may'st espie His immense pow'r doth beyond limit run It hath no bound for what he wills is done What so thou seest throughout the world by day
Potencie Protection Power to guide With all such things as are to these ally'de His Nosthrils by which he is said to smell Doth vnto vs his Acceptation tell Of Sacrifice and Prayer His Incenst Ire Againe it notes when thence fly sparks of fire His Eyes emblem to vs that choice Respect And Fauor which he beares to his Elect. Sometimes they'import his Prouidence Diuine Sometimes they wrathfully are said to shine Against the Wicked By his Feet are meant Stabilitie and Power Omnipotent By th' Apple of his Eye he would haue knowne Th'Indulgence that he beares vnto his Owne The Diuine Wisedome knowing how dull and weake Mans heart and braine is taught the Text to speake To our capacities The Prophets they Did not of this great Deity display The absolute perfection but so leaue it That by a glimpse we far off might conceiue it His Eyes being nam'd it must impresse in me That God doth euery thing at all times see Or if his Eare then must I presuppose That hearing all that 's spoke he all things knowes That hauing wings to mount himselfe on high In vaine can Man his incenst vengeance fly O whither from thy Sprite shall I depart Thou that in euery place at all times art Fly thee none can but vnto thee repaire All may in their humilitie and prayer Appealing to thy Goodnsse For What place Can shadow me when I shall fly thy face If soare to Heauen thy Presence doth appeare Or if to Hell diue Thou art likewise there There is no way an angry God to shun But to a God well pleas'd for refuge run Now to proceed The Scripture Phrase doth reach No farther than our stupid sence to teach That by corporeall things we may prepare Our hearts to know what things spirituall are And by Inuisible make demonstration Of what 's vnseene beyond mans weake narration And for this cause our passions and affects Are in the Scriptures for some knowne respects Confer'd on the Almighty when 't is said God did repent him that he man had made Or when hee 's wrathfull herein is not meant That He is angry or He can repent But 't is a Figure from th' effect arose And that the Greeks call Metanumikos The Names the Scriptures attribute to Him Sometimes Iehouah sometimes Elohim And when the glorious Trinitie's proclaim'd The Father Sonne and Holy-Ghost are nam'd More appellations the Text affords As The Great God of Heauen The Lord of Lords The Lord of Armies and of Hosts the God That in the Highest Heauen hath his aboad The God of Abraham Isaac Iacob and He that brought Israel from th' Egyptians land God of the Spirits of all Flesh and he Lord God of Israel is knowne to be Him by the name of th' Hebrewes God we praise God of our Fathers Th' Antient of all dayes And Dauids God Yet further denomination The God of gods of Iustice Ioy Saluation These titles it ascribes to Him alone Israels Redeemer Israels Holy one Protector Father Shepheard then we sing To Israels God to Iacobs the great King So to the Euerlasting King and than King of all Worlds before the World began Whose Power whose Goodnesse shewn to euery Nation c. Extracts from me this serious Contemplation Soueraigne and holy God Fountaine and Spring Of all true Vertue the Omnipotent King Of whom by subtill search in things to'acquire Is not in Mans conception a thing higher Than his weake faculties can comprehend Yet not to know this God he should offend For how can it with reason consonant be One Godhood should remaine in persons three And they in such a firme connexure linkt To be although in separat yet distinct Thou art without beginning and againe Thou shalt to all Eternitie remaine Knowing no end The Onely and the Same Whom Time cannot impaire nor Age reclaime The space of things Thou do'st in space exceed And art contain'd in none How shouldst thou need That which thy Selfe hast made Or how should Sence Allot thee place who only art Immense Nor is it in Mans frailtie to deuise How Thee in the least kinde to ' annatomise Or tell what thou art like thy Image being A thing excluded from all mortall seeing Vnlesse thou of thy most especiall Grace Wilt shew some shadow of thy glorious Face No part of thee thou hast presented here Saue what doth in thy maruellous Works appeare No Strength can moue Thee of the Land or Ocean By whom we are and in whom haue our motion Thou art the Mind and Substance of all pure And holy minds Thou art the Reason sure And stedfast whence all other Reasons flow That are from perfect Wisedome said to grow Thou art that Vertue of all Vertues head Thou art the Life it selfe and thou art read Father of Life as being knowne to giue Breath with their Being to all things that liue The Light it selfe and yeelding Light to all The Cause and Strength of things in generall Beginning it 's beginning had from thee And whatsoeuer first began to be Vpon the sudden out of Nothing shin'd Which fil'd with thy great Power were so refin'd That either strength of knowledge they retaine Or excellent shape such as doth still remaine The sacred Scriptures are sufficient warrant By many Texts to make the Trine apparant As from the first Creation we may proue God did Create God Said the Spirit did Moue Create imports the Father Said the Sonne The Spirit that Mov'd the Holy-Ghost This done Come to the Gospell to Saint Paul repaire Of him Through him and For him all things are To whom be euerlasting praise Amen In which it is observ'd by Origen Throughâ— and For three Persons to imply And the word Him the Godheads Vnitie Let Vs in Our owne Image Man create Saith God which Salomon doth thus explicate Remember the Creators in the dayes c. Which word those well verst in the Hebrew Phrase Reade in the plurall So when God did frowne On Babels Tower he said Let Vs go downe When Sodom was consum'd 't is said againe The Lord that fire did from the Lord downe raine So when Christs Glory Isay would declare To'expresse Three Persons in on Godhead are He Holy Holy Holy nam'd To show We might a Ternion in an Vnion know Come to Christs Baptisme you againe shall see In the same Trine the perfect Vnitie The Father the first Person is compris'd By sending downe a Voice The Son 's baptis'd By Iohn in Iorden and then from aboue The Third descends in figure of a Doue So likewise when Duke Moses went about To comment on the Law lest they should doubt Of this great Mysterie Hearke to my word O Israel
beginning Plato and Socrates sorted the prime procreation from Three God Idaea and Matter Zeno admitted but Two God and the Elements The Hebrewes held Matter Forme and Spirit Some of the Greeks and amongst them especially Hesiod and of the Latines Ovid they stood with a Chaos To reckon vp all their opinions and quarrelling arguments to confirme them would grow to as great an infinite as Democritus his Atomes which were an vpossible thing to number for as in the maine they differ one from another so they are at great distance and contrarietie among themselues S. Augustâ— contra Manich. vseth these words Compescat sâ— humanatemeritas id quod non est non quaerat â—e illud quod est non inveniat i. Let mans rashnesse bridle it selfe That which is noâ— let him by no means seeke lest that which is he can no way find And in another place Multo facilius inveniaâ— syderum conditorem Humilis pietâ—s quam siderum ordinem superba curiositas i. The Maker of the Stars is more easily found by humble pietie than the order of the Stars by proud curiositie Euclides the Philosopher being demanded by one What kinde of things the gods were and what manner of workes they most delighted themselues in made him this answere That he was not very familiar with their persons nor much acquainted with their purposes onely so much he vnderstood from them That aboue all things they hated such polupragmaticall Inquisitors Demonax when one solicited him to know Whether the World were animated And had Spirit and Life And againe Whether it were fashioned round after the maner of a Sphere or Globe cut him off with this short answere Why dost thou friend thus trouble thy selfe to enquire so much after the World who oughtst rather to apply thy diligence to liue vprightly in the World Seneca in his Epistles speakes to this purpose Why dost thou trouble thy selfe about questions which were better for thee to be ignorant of than to be resolued in What tends it to Vertue or good Life to studie perfectnesse in the enarration of Syllables to labour Words trauell in the strict lawes of a Verse or to keepe fabulous Histories in memory Which of all these can take away from thy feares or bridle thy irregular desires Musicke can shew vs which are the lacrymable notes but can it demonstrate vnto vs in our misery how not to vtter a lamenting voice Geometry teacheth how to measure spatious grounds and fields when it should rather instruct vs how to take measure of our graues and how much quantitie of earth would serue for our bodies how we ought not to spend or wast any part of our Inheritance and not how to measure much and purchase little No Artificer but can tell which things are triangle which round which square with the quantitie and dimention thereof but can he search into the depth or secrets of the heart or into the minde of a man to know how streight or capatious it is Thou knowest a line if it be right and direct but what doth that profit thee if in what should guide the perfect and vpright line of thy life thou beest ignorant In another place he saith Sophismata nec ignorantem nocent nec scientem iuvant i. These sophismes and impertinent riddles neither hurt the Ignorant nor benefit the Knowing c. Many of these vnnecessarie curiosities being deliuered to Spiridion and diuers other Bishops in the Nicene Councell to be resolued and amongst others That it was absurd to conceiue that God in his infinite eternitie before foure or fiue thousand yeares past should now at length make this world and to endure so short a season what did he then before it or what could he finde himselfe to doe after it To whom Spiridion as the mouth of the rest gaue this answer That lest hee should be said to doe nothing in that Vacuum he was then making a place of eternall torments for all such ouer-curious Inquisitors c. And therefore all Orthodoxall Doctors and Diuines with the whole Catholike Church against these former exploded opinions conclude out of Genesis That there is one world made by God in the beginning of Time and that all the generations of Mankind were propagated proceeded from the Protoplasti Adam and Eue our first great Grandfather and Grandmother and whoso shall presume to search further are not onely guilty of vnprofitable curiositie but worthily branded with irreligious impietie Moreouer Temporum quorundam cognitionem Deus sibi ipsi reservavit i. The knowledge of some times and seasons God reserues to himselfe for we know that the time in which the Messias was to come into the World was concealed from the Patriarchs and Prophets though with many prayers and teares they besought it Besides our Lord and Sauiour would not shew his Disciples of the last day when he was to come to iudge the world though they vehemently entreated it in these words Tell vs when these things shall be and what signe of thy comming and consummation of the world Moreouer to shew what a great secret it was Of that day saith he and that houre no man knowes no not the Angels of heauen but the Father onely So likewise after he was risen from the Dead being asked by his Apostles When the kingdome of Israel should be restored he told them That the eternall Father had reserued the knowledge of that time vnto himselfe For saith he It is not for you to know the times and the moments which the Father hath put in his owne power c. Pius pulsator plerumque invenit quod temerarius scrutator invenire non potest saith a learned Father The godly knocker doth oftentimes light vpon that which the curious inquisitor by much search can neuer finde Therefore as Socrates aduised all men most especially to beware of those viands and delicacies which persuade and prouoke them to eat when they haue no appetite or stomacke and to abstaine from all such wines as tempt them to drink when they are no whit athirst so ought we in all our discourse labour to auoid all such vaine and vnprofitable questions which resolued help not and vndecided hinder not But as the AEgles when they rest and the Lions when they walke the one pluckes in his tallons the other his clawes to keepe them sharpe as loath to dull them til they meet with their prey so it is not fit that we should trouble our heads or exercise our wits vpon things impertinent but rather reserue them for things onely behoofull and necessarie Plautus in Sticho saith Curiosus nemo est qui non sit malevolus There is none that is curious but is euilly disposed And againe in Haecyra Tua quid nihil refert percontari desinesâ— i. That which concerneth thee not enquire not after I conclude with that of S. Bernard in one of his Sermons Curiosus foras engreditur exterius omnia
Man within moderate bounds and keepe in awe Th' Irregular that would transgresse the Law Else to our dull capacities conuey By naming such things that our weakenesse may The better vnderstand Therefore they blame Plato who Spirits doth so often name And Socrates with all the Stoicke Crew Who to foole men and make them thinke they knew Things hid from others in ambitious pride Deuis'd such â—oyes neuer exemplify'de Besides if there be Spirits it implies They must be either Friends or Enemies If Friends they would continue vs in health Bestow vpon vs Wisedome Empire Wealth But these we see are otherwise obtain'd Knowledge and Arts by Industry are gain'd Empire by Vertue Riches purchac'd are By Labour Health by keeping temperate Fâ—â—e If Enemies they hourely would extend Their Powers malevolent Mankinde to'offend Especially those that themselues assure There are none such and that 's the Epicure And Sadduce yet these they hate in vaine None are from Rocks precipitate few slaine But they with others in like safety stand As well secur'd by water as by land But in opinion contrary to these Plato Plotinus Proclus Socrates Iamblicus Porphirius Biton were The first of whom thinke you thus speaking heare The Nature that 's Intelligible growes To nine distinct degrees which he thus showes The first is God Idea's haue next place Soules of Coelestiall Bodies haue the grace To be third nam'd Intelligences they Are styl'd Arch-Angels in the fourth beare sway The fift the Angels the sixt Daemons claime Heroes the seuenth the Principates haue name In the eighth forme to Princes doth belong The ninth and lastâ— Mens Soules are not among This Catalogue for these as they incline To Vertue or to Vice he doth confine Either vnto those Angels that be good Or the bad Daemons so hee 's vnderstood Being accordingly in that regard Subiect to sence of torment or reward I'insist on these too long and now proceed To proofes more pregnant such as we shall need As God's eternall void of all dimension Not subiect vnto humane apprehension And as of all things th' Vniuersall Cause Them gouerning not gouern'd by the Lawes Of ought which is aboue him And we finde Men Beasts and Plants each Creature in his kinde Is gouern'd but it selfe doth beare no sway Reason to Truth thus points vs out the way That in so distant and remote a state Needs must be Creatures intermediate And as we see in Nature bodies be As Mettals Stones and of like qualitie Which haue no life others againe there are As Men and Brutes that haue in either share So betwixt these must be by consequence Vnbodied things that haue both life and sence And these the Spirits Dreames will teach vs plaine By their euents that such about vs raine To warne vs of the future Thus we read Simonides finding a body dead Gaue it due rights of buriall with intent Next day to take leaue of the Continent And to be shipt to sea But the same night This body without terror or affright Appear'd to him and warn'd him to refraine His purpos'd voyage for if he the Maine Prov'd the next day in that Barke he did hire He should by Shipwracke perish and expire Forewarn'd he left his passage and 't was found The Ship was that day sunke the people drown'd Now whence can any guesse this Vision came Vnlesse't were from a Spirit for what name Can they else giue it Sylla in a dreame Was told his death was neere in feare extreame He wakes he rises calls his friends his state In order sets yet all this while no Fate Did seeme to threat him neither sence of paine Had he that time either in breast or braine Which his Friends seeing did his dreame deride Yet he that day was apoplext and dy'de Brutus and Cassius in a battell set With great Augustus at Philippi met The night before the conflict Caesar cras'd Kept both his tent and bed which much amas'd The generall Host. Marcus Aâ—torius then His chiefe Physition of all other men Most chary of his person in his sleepe Was by Minerva warn'd The Prince should keepe His bed no longer but in any case Be in the battels front the Foe t' outface For of this done or not done was ensuing His future safety or his present ruin Augustus was persuaded left his tent And mounted on his steed Obserue th' euent The toile and labour that he tooke that day Did not alone his Feuer driue away Restoring him to health but as it hap'd Was cause that he a greater danger scap'd For Brutus souldiers thinking him still weake Did with maine force into the Battell breake Seising his Tent his Bed away they beare Presuming still they had Augustus there 'T is noted how Calphurnia did complaine The very night before her Lord was slaine Beseeching him with sighs and many a teare That he the next dayes Senat would forbeare Because of her sad dreame which told his fate But he in his ambition obstinate Holding such vaine predictions of no force With poniards stab'd was made a liuelesse Corse Nay he himselfe not many dayes before Dream'd He was snatcht away from earth and bore Aboue the Clouds where with Majesticke looke To welcome him Iove by the hand him tooke Amilcar who the Carthaginians led Besieging Syracusa in his bed Him thought That in his depth of sleepe he saw A souldier arm'd inuiting him to draw His Army neerer for his fame to crowne He the next night should sup within the Towne Encourag'd thus he early rose next day His Carthaginian Ensignes to display And gaue a braue assault and yet he found But a false Omen being tooke and bound Was to the City led Fate to fulfill Where he both supp'd and lodg'd against his will Wise Socrates the night which did precode The day that Plato came to heare him reade Dream'd That he saw into his bosome fly A milke-white Swan that sung sweet melody This at the instant though he did neglect Yet on the morrow pleas'd with his aspect He tooke him in his armes and with extreame Rapture of ioy he call'd to minde his dreame And though the childe was then of tender age Th' euent did aptly fiâ— with his presage Nor do I these from prophane Authors cull As if the sacred Scriptures were not full Of like examples Stories manifold Are in the Testaments both New and Old Ioseph from his owne Visions did diuine And so from Pharaoh's of the Eares and Kine The Baker and the Butler dreamd it fell To both of them as Ioseph did foretell Nabuchadnezzars Image and his Tree Were of such things predictions as should bee God call'd to Samuel in his sleepe and told What should betide to Ely being old Like Visions too haue been conferr'd vpon Good David and his sonne King Salomon And in the Gospell Ioseph in his rest Was bid to take to wife the euer-blest and holy Virgin
in most familiar phrase And that it takes not from my paines or praise If any one to me so bluntly com I hold he loues me best that calls me Tom. Heare but the learned Buchanan complaine In a most passionate Elegiacke straine And what emphaticall phrases he doth vse To waile the wants that wait vpon the Muse. The Pouertie saith he adde vnto these Which still attends on the Aönides As if that Poenia were their Queene and Guide And vow'd amongst them euer to reside Whether thou do'st of Turkish battels sing Or tunc thy low Muse to a softer string Or whether thou the gentle Socke dost weare Tickling with pleasure the Spectators eare Whether thou in the lofty Buskin rage When the long Tragicke Robe doth brush the Stage Thou Pouertie along with thee shalt bring Whether thou Poëms write or Poëms sing Seuen Cities warr'd for Homer being dead Who liuing had no roofe to Shrowd his head Poore Tityrus deplores his fathers fields Rome to the hungry Statius scarce bread yeelds Naso who many in that kinde surpast Beyond the Hyperborean Pole was cast Nor could shew cause for being thither chaâ—'d But That he lov'd the Sisters They him grac'd Nor hath the Poets Patron 's selfe been free From the strict lawes of dire necessitie But forc'd through want amidst the fields and groues To keepe and feed th' AEmonian Herds and Droues Wherefore Calliope who sung so well Did liue so long a Maid Can any tell She had not been a Virgin to this houre But that to marry her she wanted dower Meane time we spend our fruitlesse houres in vaine And Age of Want and Hunger doth complaine It grieues vs now although too late at last Our Youth in idle Studies to haue past And what a folly 't is we now haue found To cast our Seed in an vnfaithfull Ground That in our Youth we haue layd vp no store Which might maintaine vs when our heads be hore And that our shaken Vessell torne and thin Can finde no easie Port to harbor in Then Barren Muses seeke some other Friend For I henceforth a Thriuing Course intend None with fresh Violets my Ashes grace Or strow sweet fragrant Roses in the place If any loues me and intends to giue I wish to taste his bounty whilest I liue What care I when the Fates my Thread haue spun Though Briers and Thornes my Graue shall ouer-run Thou Tragicke Buskin and thou Comicke Socke Prime Muses of the Novenary stocke At length awake from your long bedded sloath And giue me but one answer from you both Whence growes this Innovation How comes it Some dare to measure mouthes for euery bit The Muse shall tast And those Approv'd Tongues call Which haue pleas'd Court and City indeed All An vntun'd Kennell When the populous Throng Of Auditors haue thought the Muses sung When they but spake How comes it ere he know it A Puny shall assume the name of Poet And in a Tympa'nous and Thrasonicke stile Words at which th' Ignorant laugh but the Learn'd smile Because Adulterate and Vndenizen'd he Should taske such Artists as haue tooke Degree Before he was a Fresh-man and because No good Practitioner in the Stage Lawes He miss'd th' applause he aim'd at hee 'l deuise Another course his fame to'immortalise Imploring diuers Pens failing in 's owne To support that which others haue cry'd downe It was not so of old Virgil the best Of Epicke Poets neuer did contest 'Gainst Homer Ovid was so far from hate That he did rather striue to imitate Than maligne others for of him we reade That he did honour all who did precede To loue those that came after present all Indeed the Muses friends in generall I spare to speake of those that liue I'embrace Their loues and make them Vmpires in this case Who would to curbe such insolence I know Bid such yong boyes to stay in Iericho Vntill their Beards were growne their wits more staid And not to censure others till they'aue made Works to exceed theirs to abide the test Of rough censorious Browes Better the Best To attract the eares and eyes of Princes When They haue done this as some they enuy then They may be admitted Free-men and so striue By Industry how in that way to thriue These at the Bench aime but mistaken far For they must first be brought vnto the Bar. Perhaps too there 's some other matter in 't These so ambitious are to be in print And fearing their owne Weakenesse therefore raile Hoping to get their Bookes the better sale But 't is a foolish pride to'awake those Muses Which otherwise had slept at their abuses Of this neglect or rather grosse despight Will you the reason As these Rabbins write In Learned men or Morall or Diuine There gouerne Spirits they call Saturnine That only dote on pouerty and which Will not endure that such men should be rich But still against those Ioviall Spirits that ar ' About Great men they be at mortall war Who though these Magnates be of generous mind And in themselues to Bounty well inclin'd With euery other Goodnesse thus inuade The Noble Patriot th' Author to vpbrade This Pamphlet borrow'd is perhaps or stolne Either the stile too pinching or too swolne Else by the mouthes of others they complaine 'T was done in flatterie or hope of gaine And so diuert them from their good opinion I hope such Spirits haue not still dominion Now those whom they Mercuriall Spirits call Possessing Them of no desert at all Of whom I speake aptly their humors bend To sooth vp such as Great men stil attend And as by a conspiracie so apply Their mutuall paines and common industry That by the Saturnines not bee'ng offended What er'e they do is fauour'd and commended I write not this in a persuasiue way To giue faith to but tell you what such say As were great Iewish Doctors make expression Of what they writ Excuse then my digression Yet all this while we haue not gon so far As to define to you what Angels ar ' It is a question difficult and hard And hath been in the holy Text much spar'd Much more perspicuous 't is to signifie The nature of th' eternall Deitie Than th'Angels Essence because that relation Is much more neerer vnto our saluation Yet notwithstanding Mans industrious reach As far as probabilitie can stretch Hath sought to plumbe that Depth with Reasons Line Much better 't is saith One of things Diuine Coelestiall and Superior to enquire Something although but little and admire Than of the things Inferior and Below Be able to demonstrate much and know Now the word Angelus doth not imply His proper essence but doth signifie His Place and Office as Gods Messenger It is a name to no Philosopher Was knowne of old Spirits and Minds they knew But not the Angels they to them were new All that aboue the Moone haue their aboads And residence the
Platonists call gods All those sublunary they Daemons styl'd As Apuleius in his booke compyl'd De deo Socratis makes ample mention According to his humane apprehension We know their Places and their Offices But of their Natures and their Substances Onely so far no farther we dare skan Than that they are more excellent than man Thus by the Psalmist warranted who sayes When our Nobilitie he semees to praise And what Man was before he did transgresse Thou mad'st him than the Angels little lesse Some would allow them Bodies and of them Tertullian one another Origen From Genesis The Sonnes of God 't is there Seeing Mens Daughters and how faire they were Tooke them to be their Wiues Now both agree That these no other could than Angels be Who if they married must haue Bodies those Compos'd of Forme and Matter to dispose Else how should they haue Issue And againe How are bad Sprites sensible of paine In Hells eternall torments if there faile That Substance on the which Fire may preuaile So diuers of the Fathers were of minde For in Saint Austines Comment you may finde The subtile essence of the Angels pure At first that they more fully might endure The sence of Fire was grossed in their Fall Of courser temper than th' Originall Moreouer Damascenus is thus heard Each thing created if with God compar'd Who onely incorruptible is shall finde Them Grosse and all materiall in their kinde For He alone 't is we may truly call Vnbodied and Immateriall Ambrose Lactantius and Basilius Rupertus Atlas Athanasius With Firmianus did beleeue no lesse As more at large their publique Workes expresse To these oppos'd in censure others are Who in their best of judgements not once dare Allow them Bodies but meere Spirits to bee Void of all matter and in this agree Nazianzen Gregorie Thomas Aquine Saint Chrisostome and Thomas Argentine Alexander Alexandri and Marselius Bonaventura Augustinus Niphus Hugo de S. Victore Scotus men Gen'erally approv'd and with these Damascen Who saith That in respect of God on hye His Pewer and most inserutable Qualitie They may be said to haue Bodies yet he wou'd Not haue it be so simply vnderstood But that they are not all so exquisite As mutable confin'd to place finite When as his Nature more Diuine by farre Is subiect to no Change as Angels ar ' An Infinite a Majestie so Immence No place can circumscribe his Eminence To leaue Authorities yet make this plaine Let 's see what grounds from Reason we can gaine If they haue bodies they must needs be linkt Of members as Mans is Organs distinct And like composure else they must be fram'd Confus'd and without those which we haue nam'd If Limbs and Organs consequently then They must haue Sence if Sence Passions as men And therefore capable of Perturbation So of Corruption and of Alteration As bee'ng compos'd of Contraries If we say Th' are from Corruption free t' infer that they Their bodies neuer can put off and so Into a grosse absurditie they grow To make them in worse state than Man for he Puts off all Cares with his Mortalitie But on their perpetuitie doth depend Trouble and Toiles sence which can neuer end Againe if Bodies they must either be Hard to be felt and of soliditie Or else Liquid and soft If stand vpon The last th' are signes of imperfection Subiect to be diuided and to take Strange shapes vpon them and the first forsake As to be chang'd to Water or to Aire Which doth not stand with sence for if we dare Allow them hard and sollid we' are deluded Since such from other Bodies are excluded As in dimention limited and space Because two Bodies cannot haue one place Nor can they with that quicke celeritie Moue in one Sphere then in another be 'T must likewise follow That such as are sent Downe to the Earth cannot incontinent But with much difficultie or'ecome the way First in one Heav'n then in another stay Haue time to penetrate as needs it is Now that Coelestiall Body and then this When as if Alphraganius we may trust Or Thebit Arabs both of force it must Be a great distance For these Authors write If that an Angell in his swiftest flight Should from the eighth Heauen to the Earth descend A thousand miles in threescore minutes to spend So far remote they are if truly told Six yeares six moneths his journey would him hold But now what difficult to some may'appeare To reconcile and all those doubts to cleare Ev'n as Mans wisdome being lustly way'd With Gods to be meere Foolishnesse is said Not that it is in its owne nature so And that than Brutes he doth no further know But in respect of God's so pure and holy It in that sence may be reputed Folly So th'vncorporeall Spirits Bodies claime Which if we with th' Almighties Essence name In that regard 't is palpable and grosse No better to be styl'd than Dung and Drosse Now by the Sonnes of God who beheld then The Daughters which were said to be of Men Is meant the Sonnes of Seth to make it plaine Seeing those Daughters which were come of Cain Of them tooke wiues each where he liked best Heare in a Lateran Councell what 's exprest Touching Spirituall and Corporeall Creatures Distinguisht thus The great God of all Features The sole Creator Visible and Vnseene Spirituall and those which Bodied beene Who from Times first beginning hath both fram'd Spirituall and those Corporeall nam'd By which we vnderstand Angelicall And Mundane here below He after all Did then create Man in his blest estate Both Soule and Body to participate The Phrase of Scripture doth confirme as much As oft as it doth on the Spirit touch A Substance without Body it approoues The Spirit is God saith Iohn and it behooues All such as will in worship fall before him Meerely in Spirit and in Truth t'addore him Besides Saint Luke doth witnesse One mans brest At once of a whole Legion was possest Of vncleane Spirits Which had they Bodies How Could it sufficient place to them allow To'inhabit when each Legion doth by List Of six thousand six hundred sixty six consist If there be any of Saint Gregories mind To thinke that Angels are to Place design'd All such must vnderstand it is not meant According to the limited extent Of their Angel-like Substances but rather Which from their great employments we may gather Of their owne vertues the determination In the determin'd place of operation Nor is 't of force That Angels by their Fall Should gaine a Substance more materiall On which th' infernall Fire it selfe might feed Of such a spissed Substance there 's no need Since of their lasting torments without pause The Fire is not the sole and principall cause But as an Instrument a power it hath From Gods owne hand and iust incensed wrath To the three Ternions I returne againe Linkt fast
be assembled he told them the whole circumstance before related Who vpon no other euidence summoned the party to make his appearance who after strict examination confessed the fact and made restitution of the Vessell For which discouery the Temple was euer after called Templum Herculis Indicis Alexander the Philosopher a man knowne to be free from all superstition reporteth of himselfe That sleeping one night hee saw his mothers funeralls solemnised being then a dayes journey distant thence and waking in great sorrow and many teares hee told this apparition to diuers of his Familiars and Friends The time being punctually obserued certaine word was brought him the next day after That at the same houre of his Dreame his mother expired Iovius reporteth That Sfortia Anno 1525 in a mornings slumber dreamed That falling into a Riuer he was in great danger of drowning and calling for succour to a man of extraordinary stature and presence such as Saint Christopher is pourtrayed who was on the farther shore he was by him sleighted and neglected This Dreame he told to his wife and seruants but no farther regarded it The same day spying a child fall into the water neere vnto the Castle Pescara thinking to saue the childe leaped into the Riuer but ouer-burthened with the weight of his Armor he was choked in the mud and so perished The like Fulgentius lib. 1. cap. 5. reporteth of Marcus Antonius Torellus Earle of Cynastall who admonished of the like danger in his sleep but contemning it the next day swimming in which exercise he much delighted though many were neere him yet he sunke in the midst of them and was drowned not any one being at that time able to helpe him Alcibiades Probus Iustine and Plutarch relate of him That a little before his death which happened by the immanitie of Tismenius and Bagâ—as sent from Critia dreamed That he was cloathed in his mistresses Petticoat or Kirtle Whose body after his murther being throwne out of the city naked and denied both buriall and couerture his Mistresse in the silence of the night stole out of the gates and couered him with her garment as well as she was able to shadow his dead Corps from the derision and scorne of his barbarous enemie No lesse strange was the Dreame of Croesus remembred by Herodotus and Valerius Max. Lib. 1. Cap. 7. Who of Atis the eldest and most excellent of his two sonnes dreamed That he saw him wounded and trans-pierced with steele And therefore with a fatherly indulgence sought to preuent all things that might haue the least reflection vpon so bad a disaster And thereupon where the youthfull Prince was before employed in the wars hee is now altogether detained at home in peace He had of his owne a rich and faire Arcenall or Armorie furnished with all manner of weapons in which hee much delighted which is shut vp and hee quite debarred both the pleasure and vse thereof His Seruants and Attendants are admitted into his presence but they are first vnarmed Yet could not all this care preuent Destiny for when a Bore of extraordinarie stature and fiercenesse had made great spoile and slaughter in the adiacent Region insomuch that the king was petitioned to take some order how he might be destroied the noble Prince by much importunitie and intercession obtained leaue of his father to haue the honour of this aduenture but with a strict imposition that he should expose his person vnto no seeming danger But whilst all the Gallantry that day assembled were intentiue on the pursuit of the Beast one Adrastus aiming his Bore-speare at him by an vnfortunate glance it turned vpon the Prince and slew him Valerius Maximus telleth vs of one Aterius Ruffus a Knight of Rome who when a great Sword-play was to be performed by the Gladiators of Syracusa dreamed the night before That one of those kinde of Fencers called Rhetiarij which vsed to bring Nets into the Theatre and by cunning cast them so to intangle their aduersaries to disable them either for offence or defence gaue him a mortal wound Which dream he told to such of his friends as fate next him It happened presently after That one of those Rhetiarij was brought by a certaine Gladiator being then Challenger into a Gallery next vnto the place where Aterius and his friends were seated as spectator Whose face hee no sooner beheld but hee started and told his Friends that hee was the man from whose hands he dream'd he had receiued his deadly wound When suddenly rising with his Friends to depart thence as not willing to tempt that Omen in thrusting hastily to get out of the throng there grew a sudden quarrell in which tumult Aterius was transpierced by the same mans sword and was taken vp dead in the place being by no euasion able to preuent his fate Cambyses King of Persia saw in a Vision his brother Smerdis sitting vpon an Imperiall Throne and his head touching the clouds And taking this as a forewarning that his brother had an aspiring purpose to supplant him and vsurpe the Crowne he wrought so far with Praxaspes a Nobleman and then the most potent in the Kingdome that by his practise he was murthered Yet did not all this avert the fate before threatned for another Smerdis a Magition and base fellow pretending to be the former Smerdis and the sonne of Cyrus after enioyed the Kingdome and Cambyses mounting his Steed was wounded with a knife in his hip or thigh of which hurt he miserably died Many Histories to the like purpose I could cite from Aristotle Plato Hippocrates Galen Pliny Socrates Diogines Laertius Themistocles Alexander Aphrodiensis Livy AElianus and others As of Ptolomeus besieging Alexandria Of Galen himselfe Lib. de venae Sectione Of two Arcadians trauelling to Megara Of Aspatia the daughter of Hermilinus Phocensis who after was the Wife of two mighty Kings Cyrus of Persia and Artaxes whose history Elianus de Varia Historia lib. 12. writeth at large As also that of Titus Atimius remembred by Cicero Lib. de Divinat 1. By Valer. Maxim Lib. 1. Cap. 7. By Livy lib. 2. By Macrâ—b Saturn 1. with infinite others To the further confirmation that there are Spirits I hold it not amisse to introduce some few Histories concerning Predictions The Emperor Nero asking counsel of the Diuell How long his empire and dominion should last Answer was returned him from that crafty and equivocating Pannurgist To beware of 64. Nero being then in youth and strength was wondrous ioyful in his heart to heare so desired a solution of his doubt and demand presuming that his principalitie should vndoubtedly continue to that prefixed yeare if not longer But soone after â—alba who was threescore and foure yeares of age being chosen to the Imperiall Purple deposed and depriued him both of his Crowne and life The like we reade of Philip King of Macedon and Father to
of issue the Saturnine to dissuade from all things that be euill Such was that Socraticum Daemonium or Genius of Socrates which still continued and encouraged him in the studie an practise of Vertue whose condition was to dissuade him from many things but to persuade him to nothing Of this Daemonium strange things are reported in Historie as that it was euer at his elbow to diuert him from doing euill and to aduise him to shun and auoid danger to remember him of things past to explaine vnto him things present and reueale vnto him things future Socrates himselfe confessed that hee saw it sometimes but seldome yet heard it often He dissuaded Charmiades the sonne of Glaucus from going to the Groues of Nemaea and to excuse himselfe from that journey who despising his counsell perished in the aduenture Vpon a time sitting at the table of Timarchus where a great banquet was serued in Timarchus offered twice to rise from the boord but was held by Socrates Yet watching his opportunitie while the other was in serious discourse hee stole away priuately and met with Nyceus whom he slew For which fact being condemned and led to death he confessed vnto his brother Clitimachus That if he had been swayed by the double aduertisement of Socrates hee had not vndergone so sad a disaster The same Socrates in a great defeate which the Athenians had flying from the victorious Enemie with Lachetes the Praetor and comming to a place where three wayes met he chose one path to himselfe contrarie to the aduice and counsell of all the rest And being demanded the reason wherefore he did so he made answer That his Genius so persuaded him Which they deriding tooke a contrarie course and left him abandoned to himselfe Now when the Horsemen of the Enemie made hot pursuit after them they tooke that path which Lachetes and all his people had taken who were all put to the sword and onely those few which followed Socrates escaped He presaged the great strage and messacre which after hapned in Sicilia As also of the deaths of Neon and Thrasillus in their Expedition against those of Ionia and Ephesus Saint Augustine in his booke De Cognitione verae vitae is persuaded That Spirits by Gods permission can raise stormes and tempests and command raine haile snow thunder and lightning at their pleasures As also That by the instigation of Spirits wild Beasts become either rebellious or seruiceable to mans vse In another place hee ascribeth the operation of all things seasonable or vnseasonable vnto them but not as Authors and Makers but Ministers and Seruants to the Diuine Will and command According with that in Ecclesiasticus Cap. 39. vers 28. There be Spirits that are created for vengeance which in their rigour lay on sure strokes in the time of destruction they shew forth their power and accomplish the wrath of him that made them Fire Haile Famine and Death all these are created for vengeance the teeth of the wilde Beasts and the Scorpions and the Serpents and the Sword execute vengeance for the destruction of the Wicked They shall be glad to do his commandements and when need is they shall be ready vpon earth and when their houre is come they shall not ouerpasse the commandements c. To this strict rule of Gods commandement both the good and bad Spirits are limited and beyond that they haue power or abilitie to do nothing Otherwise those that are malignant euill would in their rabies and fury destroy all Gods creatures in a moment Moreouer as the same Author affirmeth the Diuell hath power to tempt and entice man to sinne and wickednesse but he cannot compell him These be his words Serm. de Temp. Potest Diabolus ad malum invitare non potest trahere Delectationem infert non potestatem c. Rabbi Avot Nathan a learned Iew affirmeth That Spirits haue three things common with men namely Procreation Food and Death Porphirius as Proclus witnesseth of him held all Spirits to be mortall and that he amongst them who was the longest liued did not exceed the number of a thousand yeares Plutarch in his booke De Oraculorum defectu reciteth a story That about the Islands called Echinades newes was brought to one Thamus being then a ship boord that god Pan was dead and this happened iust at the birth of our Sauiour Christ. But because I haue made vse of this Historie heretofore in a booke commonly entituled The History of Women to insert the same here likewise might be tasted as Cibus bis coctus But to answer that learned Rabbi and Porphyrius like him opinionated Not possible it is That Spirits created by God immortall and incorporeall should be any way obnoxious to extinction or death More credible it is that these were meere phantasies and illusions of the Diuell by such prestigious sorceries persuading vs that Spirits are mortall to make man distrust the immorralitie of the Soule and so possesse him with an heresie grosse impious and damnable Here likewise a most necessarie consideration may be inserted to giue answer to the Sadduces and others who obstinately affirme That Moses in his Booke of the Creation made no mention at all of Spirits or Angels When as Saint Augustine contrarie to them in beleefe saith That vnder the words of Heauen aud Light though not by their proper and peculiar names they were specified and intended And that Moses writing to a People whose obstinacie and stupidity was such that they were not capable of their incorporeall Essence he was the more chary to giue them plaine and manifest expression Moreouer it may be supposed That if the discreet Law-giuer had told them of their Diuine nature it might haue opened a wide gap to their idolatry to which he knew they were too prone of themselues For if they were so easily induced to worship a golden Calfe and a brasen Serpent both of them molten and made with hands how could so excellent and diuine a Nature haue escaped their adoration Yet doe the words of Moses allow of Spirits though couertly where it is said Genes 3.1 Now the Serpent was more subtill than any Beast of the field which the Lord God had made c. By whom was meant the Diuell as appears Wisd. 2.24 As Satan can change himselfe into an Angell of light so did he vse the wisedome of the Serpent to abuse Man c. I had occasion to speake in my discourse of Dreames of the one brother Sleepe something shall not be amisse to be discoursed of the other Death and to amplifie that in the Prose which in the Verse was onely mentioned Cicero calleth Death the yonger brother of Sleepe which being a thing that cannot be auoided it ought therefore the lesse to be feated One demanding of a noble Sea Captaine Why hauing meanes sufficient to liue on land hee would endanger his person to the perills and frequent casualties of the Ocean
quae Caeptis conscia nostris Adnutrixque c. Thou three-shap'd Hecate with me take part Who guilty of my vndertakings art Teaching what spels we Witches ought to vse And what rare Herbs out of the earth to chuse Thou Aire you Winds Hils Lakes and Riuers cleare Gods of the Winds gods of the night appeare By whose strong aid I when I please can make The fearefull and astonisht bankes to quake To see the streames backe to their heads retyre If on the seas a tempest I desire The troubled waues in mighty mountaines rise Threatning to spit their brine-drops in the eyes Of the bright Stars and when th' are most in rage I with a word their fury can asswage Blacke threatning clouds if I but speake appeare And with a becke I make the Welkin cleare The Windes I from their brasen dens can call To blow downe hills or not to breathe at all The Vipers jawes I with my spels can breake The stedfast rockes remoue whâ—n I but speake The grounded Okes I by the roots vp rend Woods I can shift and mountaines that transcend My Charmes can shake The groaning Earth help craues From me whilest Ghosts I summon from their graues And thee ô Moone my Incantations can Draw this or that way make thee pale and wan Through feare or red with rage Aurora knowes I from her blushing cheeke can teare the Rose c. Here I might introduce many to the like purpose but I return where I left and thus proceed That this swift transportation of Bodies though it seeme strange is not altogether impossible Which will the better appeare if either wee aduisedly consider the velocitie of Spirits or the admirable celerity of the Spheres from whence it comes that Magitions haue such speedy intelligence almost in an instant of things done in the farthest and remotest places of the world To approue which if wee shall but examine Historie there be many examples extant When Antonius the great Captaine made an insurrection in Germany against the Emperor Domitian and was slain in the battel the death of that Revolter was confidently reported the same day in Rome with the manner of his Armies ouerthrow though the places were distant as some account it little lesse than fifteene hundred miles And Cedrenus writeth That when Adrianus Patricius was sent by the Emperour Basilius to war against the Carthaginians before he had ouercome halfe his way and whilest hee yet stayed in Peloponnesus with the greatest part of his Nauy by the help of such Spirits as it seemed he was certainly informed That Syracusa was taken and destroyed by fire the very selfe same day and houre that the disaster hapned Panlus Diaconus and Nicephorus haue left to memorie That one Calligraphus of Alexandria walking late in the night by certaine Statues erected without the city they called vnto him aloud and told him That the Emperour Martianus with his Queene and princely Issue were all at that very instant murthered in Constantinople Which when he came to his house he told to some of his Familiars and Friends who seemed to deride his report as a thing not possible but beyond Nature But nine dayes after came a Post with certaine newes of that barbarous and inhumane act which by true computation happened the very same houre that it was deliuered to Calligraphus Platina in Dono telleth vs That Partharus sonne to the King of the Longobards being expelled from his Countrey by the vsurpation of Grinnaldas shipt himselfe for England to be secured from the sword of the Tyrant and hauing beene a few dayes at sea hee was sensible of a loud voice which admonished him to change the course of his intended journey and instantly to return backe into his owne Countrey for the Tyrant hauing been troubled with the Plurisie and aduised by his Physitions to haue a Veine opened in the left arme the flux of bloud could not by any art be stopped but that he bled to death Vpon this warning the Prince Partharus returned and finding it to be true within three months after his arriuall he was inaugurated and freely instated in his proper inheritance Zonarus and Cedrenius affirme That the same day in which the arch-Traitor and Regicide Andraea slew the Emperour Constantine bathing himselfe in Syracusa his death by voices in the aire which could be no other than Spirits was not onely noised but proclaimed openly in Rome the same day Zephilinus in Domiti and Fulgâ—t lib. 1. cap. 6. haue left remembred vnto vs That Apollonius Tianaeus being in a publique Schoole in the city of Ephesus and disputing at that time with diuers Philosophers in the midst of his serious discourse was on the sudden mute and fixing his eyes stedfastly vpon the ground remained for a space in a still silence but at length erecting his head and casting vp his eyes hee suddenly broke forth into this loud acclamation Stephanus hath slaine an vniust man And after hauing better recollected himselfe he told vnto those which were there present That at that instant the Emperor Domitian fell by the hand of one Stephanus The circumstance being after examined it proued true according to his relation Olaus Magnus lib. 3. cap. 16. of his Gothicke History writeth That Govarus King of Norway being resident in his owne Court knew in the same houre of all the machinations and plots intended against him in Normandy though he was distant by land and sea many hundred miles Fulgotius relateth That in the wars betwixt the Locrenses and the Crotoniatae two spirits appeared like two yong men in white vesture who when the Locrenses had woon the battaile left the field and vanished and in the selfe same houre were seene both in Athens and Corinth in both which places they proclaimed the newes of that great victory though these places were distant many leagues one from another And so much for the Velocitie of Spirits The Emblem IT figureth an Hedge-hog who insidiates the silly field-Mice playing about her den and fearelesse of any present danger who the better to compasse her prey wrappeth her selfe into a round globe-like compasse appearing onely a ball of pricks contracting her head within her skinne where nothing is seene saue a small hole for such a little creature to shroud her selfe in and thus she lieth confusedly vpon the ground without any seeming motion The apprehension thereof is borrowed from Greg. lib. 13. Moralium from whence this Motto is deriued Abiecta movent The words of the reuerend Father be these Prius complexionem vnius cuiusque Adversarius perspicit tunc tentationis laqueos exponit alius namque laetis alius tristibus alius timidis alius elat is moribus existit c. i. Our Aduersarie the Diuell first looketh into the complexion and disposition of euery man and then he layes the snares of tentation for one is of a merry and pleasant constitution another sad and melancholy
mature in a true conformation And with a â—ollid industrie desire Things that are hidden and abstruse to enquire And as the Thrones each in his office knowes How of all sacred Wisedome to dispose As Dei formes call'd so Saturne he Ianus Bifrons from all antiquitie Is styl'd and Wisedomes Father held to be The Golden World beneath his Scepter was Before the Silver or the third of Brasse Or this Iron Age in which th'vnlabor'd ground Not forc'd by man with plenty did abound The Earth of her free-will gaue all encrease Springs flow'd with milke the Wolfe and Lambe had peace And therefore we by congruent reason finde That the seuenth day to Saturne was assign'd As the seuenth Planet and agreeing best With the Coelestiall Thrones which imply Rest. Besides in Saturne there is one thing rare As sole vnto him peculiar Which he may iustly aboue others claime For none of all the Planets we can name But are in mixture and conjunction Hee Ioyns nor is joyn'd with any but still free And as a Prince vnrival'd keepes his state In which none can with him participate So Moses Law since it was first recited Was with no other coupled or vnited But doth immediatly on God depend Yet many other Lawes from that descend As borrow'd thence And in like mysterie The Chorases of the whole Hierarchie Reflect with all the seruice on the Throne But He his Power communicates to none The Seraph's Loue to Iudgement doth adhere The Cherubs Wisedome placeth it selfe neere The Dominations which some haue defin'd To be Th'vnyoked libertie of minde Assist the Iudgement Seat They Vertues they Vpon the high Tribunall wait and stay And so the rest with all their seuerall Graces But them the Thrones assist not in their places The Dominations we must next confer And fashion to the Star of Iupiter And by comparing them together see How in their semblant Vertues they agree First at Coelestiall things they solely aime Them no tyrannicke seruitude can tame A free Lord they must serue and beare a minde Vncheckt to nothing base or vile enclin'd All difficulties ready to disclose That shall their faithfull seruice interpose On none saue their Creator they rely To his sole pleasure they themselues apply Others to their obedience they persuade Their contemplations being fixt and stayd On the Diuine Light which rare pulchritude To'enioy in a more ample plenitude They stil conforme themselues vnto the Throne If possibly to be with it all one All these if Astrologians we may trust Fall on Ioves Star in number ev'n and iust In Noble bloud this Planet takes delight To'illustrous thoughts it doth the minde accite Prudence to gouerne science how to know His libe'rall influence doth on man bestow Plac'd in his Horoscope he doth inspire Our eleuated soules with a desire To attaine to Fame to Empire and High things Th'vncurbed and irregular minde it brings Not onely to deuise but keepe good Lawes And Iupiter is for that onely cause In Hebrew Zedek call'd which imports Iust. In Goodnesse and in Iustice such as trust Them he spurres on to spend their houres and time To aime at things superior and sublime By the reflex of Iustice and true Piety It drawes to contemplation of a Diety It doth not onely Man himselfe impell To charitable acts and do things well But to stirre others to good workes And styl'd Iove for his Faith and Trust hauing exyl'd All Incredulitie Last by the hand He leadeth others with him till they stand In the like state of Goodnesse Knowledge Faith Pythagoras more of this Planet saith That he is the Mindes Vertue Temperament Health and Disposer of all Ornament That doth belong to Man Now let vs find How those call'd Vertues are to Mars inclin'd And that too may be done with much facilitie If we consider but what true Virilitie And Fortitude in this Star doth consist In one place we thus reade th' Evangelist The Vertues of the Heav'ns are mov'd or ar ' Arm'd on their side who in Gods cause shall war These their Coelestiall operations take Immediatly from Him and for His sake Disperse them to His Glory and great Praise Note what the Psalmist of the Planets sayes Praise Him you Sun and Moone praise Him the Light Praise him yee Stars c. The Vertues by foresight As Captaines ouer the Church Militant Know which amongst them is best Combattant Guide and direct him to the Place aboue To receiue there the Crowne for which he stroue Ev'n so this Mars by th' influence of his Star Styl'd by th' antient Poets God of War Makes men of generous Spirits elate and hye Ambitious after Palme and Victorie The Vertues in their Pow'r finde no defect Nor is this Planet any way deiect Weary'd or faint Those of authentique skill Write His Fires force is indeficient still The Diuine Vertues study to enlarge Their courage who are giv'n to them in charge To make them like spirituall Souldiers stand 'Gainst Lucifer and his reuolted Band Then bring them off to safety and securitie Making them like themselues in God-like puritie So this Stars Fire to shew their true proximitie Burnes vpward as still aiming at sublimitie And in his feruour catching at things neere To turne each Substance to a Nature cleere As it selfe is in lustre like to shine Yet to this Planet many learn'd assigne Malevolent aspects Wars prouocations Home-bred Seditions Discord amongst Nations Broiles Garboiles Tumults and combustious Rage Depopulation Murthers Slaughter Strage Call it The worst of Planets whose reflect Contaminates and poysons with th' aspect But Tresmegistus was not of that minde Saith he The seuerall Planets in their kinde Their vertues being truly vnderstood Are vnto men beneficent and good This great Philosopher would haue vs know Of bad Effects the Cause is here below Stars influences in themselues are pure No putrid stuffe their natures can endure And if from their aspects ought chance amisse They are not to be blam'd for the fault is In our fraile weakenesse for who but hath read That nothing bad aboue the Moon is bred Now as the Potestates to worke are said Both by the Vertues strength and the co-aid of the Dominions Iustice so the Sunne When he his beames transfusiuely shall run Through Mars his Sphere or Ioves benigner Star All his effects Power Strength and Honour ar ' Legions of Fiends the Potestates expell And with them all blinde errors driue to hell So when the Sunne doth his bright beames display The tenebrous Night flies and giues place to day And as those Mindes and Essences Diuine By nature with miraculous fulgor shine So the bright Sunne instated all alone Amidst the Planets in his Regall Throne Casts an incredible lustre and to all Doth honour in his seat Majesticall Distributing abroad in large extent Vnto the Stars both Light and Ornament By whom th' are gouern'd and their motions sway'd Their splendor at his will dark't or
display'd From whom they receiue names as Day-Stars some Nocturnal others but the most part come Styl'd by his course Orientall those we call That moue from his Vp-rise they from his Fall Are Occidental Other Stars put on Names from the South and the Septentrion The Potestates their pow'r or'e things Inferior To mannage and dispose from the Superior Of all aboue 's immediately receiue Ev'n so the Sun shines only by his leaue The light it giues is but a shadow meere Of His that is so ' vnspeakeably cleere In Glory that all Glory doth transcend Which Humane Eye can no way comprehend And so his borrow'd lustre doth disperse To Men to Beasts and the whole Vniuerse The Potestates with things below dispense Without all tyrannie or violence The Sunne doth shine with amitie and loue On all alike and with the Starre of Iove Bee'ng in conjunction Mans minde it inflames With honour and to purchase glorious names Inspires with magnitude and claritie And these without all force or tyrannie By speculation in the Sun we see The glorious Trinity in Vnitie We from the Body or the Substance gather The Diuine Essence of th' Almighty Father In his bright Splendor we the Sonne include Who is the sole and onely Pulchritude The third proceeding persons God as great We see it plainly figured in his Heat Our Sauiour when he would exemplifie To vs his Fathers Power and Majestie Did it by this bright Planet Perfect be As is your Father that 's in Heav'n saith he Who causeth that his Sonne alike doth rise Vpon the Good and Bad. We must deuise In the next place how we may mak 't appeare The Principates with Venus Star cohere As she from all antiquitie hath been Styl'd by th' imagin'd name of Beauties Queene Because by obseruation euerie creature Borne vnder her she doth endow with feature Faire shape Good-grace and Amabilitie All which to her disposures best agree Ev'n so the Principates striue to bring neare To God himselfe whose Image they do beare All Soules beneath their charge make them to be Partakers of his Diuine Claritie For than Gods Image nothing is more bright Or more to ougly darkenesse opposite As the Platonicks vnder Venus name Including Loue make him the cause this Frame Was first by God built which from Chaos rude Was brought by him to this rare pulchritude Than which nothing more louely can be thought Whose gouernment 's as rare as comely wrought And that there 's nothing can more ougly be Than is Confusion and Deformitie So by the Principates as many hold Empires and States are gouern'd and controll'd Kingdomes well mannag'd They are like a border To guard without and what 's within to order Lest Fire or Sword or any mutinous storme Where they preserue should study to deforme 'T is to their office pertinent by right To keepe all things in Beauty and good plight These Principates are Dukes and Captaines styl'dâ— Yet are they not alone listed and fyl'd Vnder these Titles The Dominion claimes And Potestates the honour of these names The Principate for his rare Pulchritude The Domination for his Magnitude And for his Claritie the Potestate Antesignani writers nominate And vnto them these great names hauing shar'd Iupiter Sol and Venus are compar'd Iove because his infusion doth assure The most compleat and perfect temperature Venus because from her coelestiall place She doth dispose of beauty and good grace The Sun set 'gainst the Potestates so bright Because he is the Lord that gouernes Light The concordance that the Arch-Angels haue With Mercury doth now by order craue The place succeeding Intermediate Th' are 'twixt the Angell and the Principate From the superior Classes these receiue Their Diuine Mandates which beeng done they leaue The execution of his sacred will Vnto the Angels their Attendants still Moreouer as th' Arch-Angels eminent In place are seldome in Embassage sent Vnlesse some weighty matter to declare But by their ordination th' Angels are More frequently employ'd 'twixt God and Man Ev'n so who Mercury shall truly skan Will finde That Them he in that kinde comes neere For to what Star or Planet whatsoe're He doth apply himselfe their strength their state Their force he doth so liuely imitate As if he alter'd nature to the end That his owne influence might on theirs depend Therefore the Poets did on him confer The name of Hermes or Interpreter Vnto the gods Of him one Author writes Bee'ng in conjunction with the Sun he'accites To heate and drowth he in the Moone breeds cold With Saturne he makes wise with Mars Men bold And when he doth to Venus rise or set They 'twixt them two Hermophrodites beget Besides this Star as wisely one relates Seldome to Man himselfe communicates As by the eyes of Mortals rarely seene The Poets tell vs That he oft hath been Sent to the gods on embassy as when To Somnus in his darke Cimerian den To call thence Morpheus and to Maia ' his mother And often betwixt one god and another But to Man seldome Now we must deuise To know what apt coherences may rise 'Twixt Angels and the Moone Th' are lowe'st and least And in their later ranke conclude the rest Next they the true proprietie retaine Belonging to all Spirits And againe That sacred name is fitly to them giuen Because they are more often sent from heauen Than others of more eminent degree Hauing conuerst with men familiarly Besides all mundane businesse and affaires Committed are vnto their charge and cares All these conditions plainly't doth appeare Miraculously vnto the Moone adhere For she of all the Planets is the last In a degree below the others plac't As bringing vp the Number She is then An errant Star next Planet to vs Men. Thirdly the neerer that she hath her station The more her influence and operation Hath power on earth and the more various she Is in her change the more effects there be Proceeding from her Nauigators steere Their course by her as she or fills her Spheere Or empties it Astrologers enqueere From her in their conjectures sicke and craz'd Are as she works either cast downe or rais'd By her the spacious Ocean ebbs and flowes By her the skilfull Gard'ner plants and fowes So of the rest and in this sympathee The Moone thus with the Angels doth agree That when from the superior Stars she'hath ta'ne Her influ'ence she deliuers it againe Into Mans seuerall parts there reignes as Queene Such a faire correspondence haue the prime And chiefe of Angels with the Heav'ns sublime Or those which we call highest Like condition The middle Ternion hath and disposition With the mid Heav'ns for so at first 't was cast And the third Chorus with the third and last For as the first and supreme Heav'ns are sway'd By one sole motion so it may be sayd The supreme Angels of the highest Throne Haue their
Commissions sign'd from God alone And as the middle Heav'ns are without doubt By the same agitation wheel'd about With that which Primum Mobile we call So by their owne Intelligences all Are by particular motion hurried round A way contrarie as by proofe is found Likewise the intermediate Ternion tho They be by God illumin'd and much know Yet in the executing of their places And do'ing His Will there are such diffrent spaces They from the Highest Chorus take their charge So 'twixt the last Diuision to enlarge This point more fully what is most Diuine And in it's Greatnesse neerest to the Trine In Number is much lesse as Doctors write But greater far in Potencie and Might Againe What farthest we from God diuide Of That the Number is most multiply'de But is of much lesse Vertue Thus saith one Alwayes the Best thing from it Selfe alone Hath his Perfection That which in degree Is next to It guided and sway'd must be By one sole Motiue What is far remov'd Is subiect vnto Many we finde prov'd To giue more lustre to this Argument The like 's in euery Kingdomes mannagement We see a King in power most absolute With whose prerogatiue none dare dispute Who with a Breath can mighty Armies raise Hath a huge Nauy prest at all essayes By Land to forrage and by Sea to'inuade And these too without forreine Princes aid Who can giue life and take it when he please In his owne Person doth not do all these But by his Ministers his Lords and Peers And they by their inferior Officers His awfull word as by transmission still Passing degrees ev'n from the first vntill It ceaseth in the last So 't may be guest 'T is in the Ternions of the Angels blest God is an absolute Monarch and next Him Daniel doth place the holy Cherubim As knowing best His Counsels and Intent And such are seldome on his message sent Th' inferior Angels with their Charge or'e-joy'd 'Twixt God and Man haue often been employ'd And as the intermediate Spirits be More oft commanded than the first Degree Yet not so frequently as those below This therefore I would haue you learne to know The Primum Mobile doth first begin To chime vnto the holy Seraphim The Cherubim doth make concordance euen With the eighth Sphere namely The Starry Heauen The Thrones with Saturne The like modulations Hath Iupiter with the high Dominations The Vertues haue with Mars a consonance sweet The Potestates with Sol in symptores meet The Principates with Venus best agree Th' Arch-Angels with the Planet Mercurie The Angels with the Moone which melody Hosanna sings to Him that sits on high Besides the Sects the Schismes and Heresies Vaine Adorations and Idolatries There haue been three Religions ' boue the rest More frequent in the World and most profest And those ev'n to these later Times exist The Iew the Christian and Mahumetist Now which of all these three should be inuested In highest honour hath been long contested As well by Armes as Arguments To assure Our selues of these which is the onely pure And without error 't will not be in vaine To separate the Cockle from the Graine Comparing them it may be easi'ly guest Whether Iew Turke or Christian beleeues best The Iewes thus quarrell with our Faith We draw Say they what we professe from Moses Law And ev'n the Christians our chiefe Tenents hold We likewise in this one thing may be bold Aboue all other Nations That by none God's truly worship'd but by Vs alone Let all th' authentique Chronicles be sought Neuer haue such great Miracles been wrought As amongst vs. What people can there be That dares in Noblesse or Antiquitie With our blest Hebrew Nation to contend For who 's so dull that knowes not we descend From Prophets Kings and Patriarchs who pretend That this our Off-spring lineally came From our great Predecessor Abraham And though our Monarchy be quite transverst And we as slaues through the wide world disperst 'T is not because we put to heauy doome The great Messias who is yet to come But that so many Prophets of our Nation Who preach'd to them Repentance and Saluation Were by them slaine and butcher'd Thus they can Plead for themselues Now the Mahumetan He cavills with the Christian and thus sayes None like to vs the great Creator praise We onely vnto One make adoration When as the Christian Sect build their saluation Vpon a Sonne this God should haue and He Equall to Him from all eternitie Proceeding further Should there be two gods They of necessitie should fall at odds Since supreme Pow'rs Equalitie abhor And are impatient of Competitor Nor can that Kingdome without discord be Where Two or more haue joint supremacie Besides God bee'ng omnipotent and thrice-great For vs to'aduance a Riuall to his Seat Were sacriledge one like Him to adjoine Were but his Diuine Honors to purloine They say We Christians more on Him conferre Than He would willing haue and therefore erre Inforcing too The Roman Church doth ill When they adore within their Churches still Saints Images and Pictures much vnfitting As thereby great idolatry committing They likewise boast of great atchieuements done And mighty conquests from vs Christians won In sundry conflicts Whereupon they'infer Because they are in Zeale so singular That for their just obedience and true Faith Their enterprising such successes hath Fast Prayers and Purenesse of Diuine ado'ration They wondrously extoll through all their Nation Their zeale vnto their Prophet and his Shrine Their Temperance and Abstinence from Wine And as for Miracles they further say That such are wrought amongst them euery day For some they haue that many weekes abstaine From meat some wound their flesh sencelesse of paine Handle hot coles some without scorching can And Maids beare Children without helpe of Man They haue their Saints too Sedichasis hee Is call'd vpon in War for Victorie Ascicus hath of Wedlocke free dispose Mirtscinus hath of Cattell charge And those That trauell vnto Mecha by the way To a new Saint call'd Chiderille pray They haue a Relique held amongst them deare Which in his life one of their Saints did weare Who as they feigne so cleare was without spot That throwne into a Furnace seuen times hot He walk'd vnscorch'd amidst the flames ev'n so As Sedrach Misack and Abednego But vnto all these brain-sicke superstitions As likewise to the Hebrewes vaine Traditions Th'infallid testimonie we oppose Of the most sacred Scriptures and ev'n those Howeuer craft'ly he his engines frame Afford not Mahomet so much as name Or giue him a knowne Character Againe It might be held most impiously prophane Christs Miracles should we compare i' th least With the most damn'd impostures of that Beast Of whose delirements further I proceed Not doubting but the Graue and Wise may reade And search through all Religions of what kind And nature how soe're thereby to finde Their
Emerald the Carbuncle with Gold The Timbrel and the Pipe were celebrated For thee in the first day thou wert created Thou art th' anointed Cherub made to couer Thee I haue set in honour aboue other Vpon Gods holy Mountaine placed higher Thou walked hast amidst the stones of fire At first of thy wayes perfect was the ground Vntill iniquitie in thee was found Thy heart was lifted vp by thy great beauty Therein tow'rds God forgetfull of thy duty By reason of thy Brightnesse being plac't ' Boue them thy Wisedome thou corrupted hast But to the ground I 'le cast thee flat and cold Lay thee where Kings thy ruin may behold In thy selfe-wisedome thou hast been beguild And by thy multitude of sinnes defil'd Thy Holinesse A Spirit still peruerse Stain'd by th' iniquitie of thy commerse Therefore from midst of thee a fire I 'le bring Which shall deuour thee into ashes fling Thee from thy height that all the earth may see thee This I haue spoke and who is he can free thee Their terror who did know thee heretofore Most Wretched thou shalt be yet be no more In this the Prophet as these would allude Striues in this first-borne Angell to include All Wisedome Pow'r Gifts Ornaments and Graces Which all the rest had in their seuerall Places God this precelling Creature hauing made With all the Host of Angels some haue said He then began the Vniuersall Frame The Heav'ns Sun Moon and Stars and gaue them name Then Earth and Sea his Diuine Will ordain'd With all the Creatures in them both contain'd His last great Workemanship in high respect Of Reason capable and Intellect But to the Angels natures much inferior Who with th' Almighty dwell in th' Heav'ns superior To all Eternity sounding his praise Man whom from Dust he did so lately raise Subsists of Soule and Body That which still Doth comprehend the Vnderstanding Will And Memorie namely the Soule Partaker Of those great Gifts is th' Image of the Maker The nature of the Body though it be Common with Beasts yet doth it disagree In shape and figure for with Eyes erected It beholds Heav'n whilest Brutes haue Looks deiected This compos'd Man is as a ligament And folding vp in a small continent Some part of all things which before were made For in this Microcosme are stor'd and layd Connexiuely as things made vp and bound Corporeall things with incorporeall Found There likewise are in his admired quality Things fraile and mortall mixt with Immortality Betweene those Creatures that haue Reason and Th' Irrationall who cannot vnderstand There is a Nature intermediate That 'twixt them doth of both participate For with the blessed Angels in a kinde Man doth partake of an intelligent Minde A Body with the Beasts with Appetite It to preserue feed cherish and delight And procreate it 's like in shapes and features Besides Man hath aboue all other Creatures That whereas they their Appetites pursue As solely sencible of what 's in view And gouern'd by instinct Mans eminence Hath pow'r to sway his Will from common Sence And besides Earthly things himselfe apply To contemplate things mysticall and hye And though his Excellence doth not extend To those miraculous Gifts which did commend Great Lucifer at first in his Majoritie Yet in one honour he hath iust prioritie Before all Angels to aduance his Seed Since God from all eternitie decreed That his owne Sonne the euerlasting Word Who to all Creatures Being doth afford By which they first were made should Heav'n forsake And in his Mercy humane Nature take Not that he by so doing should depresse The Diuine Majestie and make it lesse But Humane frailtie to exalt and raise From corrupt earth his glorious Name to praise Therefore he did insep'rably vnite His Goodhood to our Nature vs t' excite To magnifie his Goodnesse This Grace showne Vnto Mankinde was to the Angels knowne That such a thing should be they all expected Not knowing how or when 't would be effected Thus Paul th' Apostle testates 'Mongst the rest Without all opposition be 't confest Of Godlinesse the mysterie is high Namely That God himselfe apparantly Is manifest in Flesh is iustify'd In Spirit by the Angels clearely ' espy'd Preacht to the Gentiles by the World beleev'd Into eternall Glory last receiv'd With Pride and Enuy Lucifer now swelling Against Mankinde whom from his heav'nly Dwelling He seemes in supernaturall Gifts t' out-shine Man being but Terrene and himselfe Diuine Ambitiously his Hate encreasing still Dares to oppose the great Creators Will As holding it against his Iustice done That th' Almighties sole begotten Sonne Mans nature to assume purpos'd and meant And not the Angels much more excellent Therefore he to that height of madnesse came A stratagem within himselfe to frame To hinder this irrevocable Deed Which God from all eternitie decreed And that which most seem'd to inflame his spleene And arrogance was That he had foreseene That many Men by God should be created And in an higher eminence instated Of place and Glory than himselfe or those His Angels that this great Worke ' gant t' oppose Disdaining and repining that of Men One should be God Omnipotent and then That others his Inferiors in degree Should out-shine him in his sublimitie In this puft Insolence and timp'anous Pride He many Angels drew vnto his side Swell'd with the like thoughts Ioyntly these prepare To raise in Heav'n a most seditious Warre He will be the Trines Equall and maintaine Ouer the Hierarchies at least to raigne 'T is thus in Esay read I will ascend Into the Heav'ns and there my Pow'r extend Exalt my Throne aboue and my aboad Shall be made equall with the Stars of God Aboue the Clouds I will my selfe apply Because I will be like to the Most-Hye To this great Pride doth the Arch-Angell rise In boldest opposition and replies Whose name is Michael Why what is he That like the Lord our God aspires to be In vaine ô Lucifer thou striv'st t' assay That we thine innovations should obey Who know As God doth purpose be it must He cannot will but what is good and iust Therefore with vs That God and Man adore Or in this place thou shalt be found no more This strooke the Prince of Pride into an heate In which a Conflict terrible and great Began in Heav'n the Rebell Spirits giue way And the victorious Michael winnes the day Thus Iohn writes of the Battell Michael Fought and his Angels with the Dragon fel The Dragon and his Angels likewise fought But in the Conflict they preuailed nought Nor was their Place in Heav'n thence-forward found But the great Dragon that old Serpent bound They Diuell call'd and Sathan was cast out He that deceiueth the whole World about Ev'n to the lowest earth being tumbled downe And with him all his Angels headlong throwne This victorie thus got and he subverted Th' Arch-Angell with his holy Troupes directed
he joine the heate of Zeale with the light of Knowledge as in the Sacrifices Fire and Salt were euer coupled The fift dayes worke was of Fishes to play in the Seas and the Fowles to fly and soare towards Heauen So the fift step in a New Creature is To liue and reioyce in a sea of Troubles and fly by Prayer and Contemplation towards Heauen On the sixth day God made Man now all those things before named being performed by him Man is a new Creature They are thus like a golden Chaine concatinated into seuerall links by Saint Peter Adde to your light of Knowledge the firmament of Faith to your Faith seas of repentant Teares to your Teares the fruitfull Trees of good Workes to your good Workes the hot Sun-shine of Zeale to your Zeale the winged Fowles of Prayer and Contemplation And so Ecce omnia facta sunt nova Behold all things are made new c. Further concerning the Angels Basil Hom. sup Psal. 44. saith The Angels are subject to no change for amongst them there is neither Child Yong-man nor old but in the same state in which they were created in the beginning in that they euerlastingly remaine the substance of their proper nature being permanent in Simplicitie and Immutabilitie And againe vpon Psal. 33. There is an Angel of God assistant to euery one that beleeues in Christ vnlesse by our impious actions wee expell him from vs. For as Smoke driueth away Bees and an euill sauour expelleth Doues so our stinking and vnsauory sinnes remoue from vs the good Angell who is appointed to be the Keeper and Guardian of our life Hier. sup Mat. 13. Magna dignitas fidelium Animarum c. Great is the dignitie of faithfull Soules which euery one from his birth hath an Angell deputed for his Keeper Bernard in his Sermon super Psalm 12.19 vseth these words Woe be vnto vs if at any time the Angels by our sinnes and negligences be so prouoked that they hold vs vnworthy their presence and visitation by which they might protect vs from the old Aduersarie of Mankinde the Diuell If therefore wee hold their familiarities necessarie to our preseruations wee must beware how wee offend them but rather study to exercise our selues in such things in which they are most delighted as Sobrietie Chastitie Voluntarie Pouertie Charitie c. but aboue all things they expect from vs Peace and Veritie Againe hee saith How mercifull art thou ô Lord that thinkest vs not safe enough in our weake and slender walls but thou sendest thine Angels to be our Keepers and Guardians Isidor de Sum. Bon. It is supposed that all Nations haue Angels set ouer them to be their Rulers but it is approued That all men haue Angels to be their Directors He saith in another place By Nature they were created mutable but by Contemplation they are made immutable in Minde passible in Conception rationall in Stocke eternall in blessednesse perpetuall Greg. in Homil Novem esse Ordines Angelorum testante sacro eloquio scimus c. i. We know by the witnesse of the holy Word That there are nine degrees of Angels namely Angels Arch-Angels Vertues Potestates Principates Dominations Thrones Cherubim and Seraphim And proceedeth thus The name of Angell is a word of Office not of Nature For these holy Spirits of the Coelestiall Countrey are euer termed Spirits but cannot be alwayes called Angels for they are then onely to be stiled Angels when any message is deliuered them to be published abroad According to that of the Psalmist Qui fecit Angelos suos Spiritus Those therefore that deliuer the least things haue the title of Angels but those that are imployed in the greatest Arch-Angels for Angeli in the Greeke tongue signifieth Messengers and Arch-Angeli Chiefe Messengers And therefore they are character'd by particular names as Michael Gabriel Raphael c. We likewise reade Nazianzen thus Orat. 38. Atque ita secundi Splendores procreati sunt primi splendoris Administri c. i. So the second Splendors were procreated as the Ministers of the first Light whether of Fire quite void of matter and incorporeall or whether of some other nature comming neere vnto that matter yet my minde prompteth me to say thus much That these spirits are no way to be impelled vnto any euill but they are stil apt and ready to do any good thing whatsoeuer as alwaies shining in that first splendor wherein they were created c. The same Nazianzen Carmine de Laude Virginitatis writeth thus At talis Triadis naturae est vndique purae Ex illo puro certissima lucis origo Coetibus Angelicis mortali lumine cerni Qui nequeunt c. Such is the nature of the purest Trine In whom th' originall Light began to shine From whence the Host of Angels we deriue Such Lights as can be seene by none aliue The Seat of God and his most blessed Throne They alwayes compasse and on him alone Th' attend meere Spirits If from the Most Hy Sent through the pure aire they like Lightning fly And vndisturb'd be the winde rough or still They in a moment act their Makers Will They marry not in them 's no care exprest No griefe no troubled motions of the brest Neither are they compos'd of limbes as wee Nor dwell in houses but they all agree In a miraculous concord Euery one Is to himselfe the same for there are none Of diffrent nature of like soule like minde And equally to Gods great loue inclin'd In daughters sonnes or wiues they take no pleasure Nor are their hearts bent vpon Gold or Treasure All earthy Glories they hold vile and vaine Nor furrow they the spatious Seas for gaine Nor for the bellies sake plow they or sow Or study when to reape the fruits that grow The care of which hath vnto Mankinde brought All the mortiferous Ills that can be thought Their best and onely food is to behold God in his Light and Graces manifold Hauing discoursed sufficiently of the Creation of Angels it followeth in the next place to speake something of the forming and fashioning of Man The sixt day God created the four-footed Beasts male and female wilde and tame The same day also he made Man which day some are of opinion was the tenth day of the Calends of Aprill For it was necessarie saith Adam arch-Bishop of Vienna in his Chronicle That the second Adam sleeping in a vivifying death onely for the saluation of Mankinde should sanctifie his Spouse the Church by those Sacraments which were deriued out of his side euen vpon the selfe same day not onely of the weeke but of the moneth also wherein hee created Adam our first Father and out of his side brought forth Evah his wife that by her helpe the whole race of Mankinde might be propagated God made Man after his owne Image to the end that knowing the dignitie of his Creation he might be the rather incited to loue
potest res i. Nothing is sensible either to touch or to be touched but that which may be called a Body God created three liuing Spirits saith Gregor lib. Dialog The first such as are not couered with flesh the second that are couered with flesh but doth not die with the flesh the third both with flesh couered and with the flesh perisheth The first Angels the second Men the third Brutes The wise Socrates was accustomed to say That the whole Man was the Minde or Soule and the Body nothing else but the couer or rather the prison thereof from whence being once freed it attained to it 's proper jurisdiction and then onely began to liue blessedly Erasm. in Declamat de Morte and learned Seneca saith That as he which liueth in another mans house is troubled with many discommodities and still complaining of the inconuenience of this room or that euen so the Diuine part of Man which is the Soule is grieued now in the head now in the foot now in the stomacke or in one place or other Signifying thereby That he liueth not in a Mansion of his owne but rather as a Tenant who expecteth euerie houre to be remoued from thence The Soule of Man saith Saint Augustine aut regitur à Deo aut Diabolo It is either gouerned by God or by the Diuell The Eye of the Soule is the Minde it is a Substance created inuisible incorporeall immortall like vnto God and being the Image of the Creator Lib. de Definition Anim. Et sup Genes addit Omnis Anima est Christis Sponsa aut Diaboli Adultera Euery Soule is either the Spouse of Christ or the Strumpet of the Diuell Saint Bernard Serm. 107 vseth these words Haue you not obserued That of holy Soules there are three seuerall states the first in the corruptible Body the second without the Body the third in the Body glorified The first in War the second in Rest the third in Blessednesse And againe in his Meditat. O thou Soule stamped in the Image of God beautified with his Similitude contracted to him in Faith endowed in Spirit redeemed in Bloud deputed with the Angels made capable of his Blessednesse heire of Goodnesse participating Reason What hast thou to do with Flesh than which no dung-hill is more vile and contemptible Saint Chrisostome likewise De Reparat Laps If wee neglect the Soule neither can we saue the Body for the Soule was not made for the Body but the Body for the Soule He therefore that neglecteth the Superior and respecteth the Inferior destroyes both but hee that doth obserue order and giueth that preheminence which is in the first place though he neglect the second yet by the health of the first he shall saue the second also Isiod Etymol 11. The Soule whilest it abideth in the Body to giue it life and motion is called the Soule when it purposeth any thing it is the Will when it knoweth it is the Minde when it recollecteth it is the Memorie when it judgeth truly it is the Reason when it breatheth the Spirit when passionate it is the Sence And againe Lib. 1. de Summo Bono O thou Man Why dost thou admire the height of the Planets and wonder at the depth of the Seas and canst not search into the depth of thine owne Soule We haue heard the Fathers let vs now enquire what the Philosophers haue thought concerning the Soule There is nothing great in Humane actions saith Seneca in Prouerb but a Minde o◠Soule that disposeth great things Thus saith Plato in Timaeo To this purpose was the Soule ioyned to the Body that it should furnish it with Vertues and Sciences which if it doe it shall be gently welcommed of the Creator but if otherwise it shall bee confined to the inferior parts of the earth Aristotle lib. 2. de Animal saith The Soule is more noble than the Body the Animal than that which is Inanimate the Liuing than the Dead the Being than the Not being Three things saith Macrob. lib. 7. Saturnal there be which the Body receiueth from the prouidence of the Soule That it liueth That it liueth decently and That it is capable of Immortalitie Of Soules saith Cicero 1. Tuscul. Quast there can be found no originall vpon the earth for in them there is nothing mixt or concrete or that is bred from the earth or framed of it for there is nothing in them of substance humor or sollid or fiery For in such natures there is nothing that can comprehend the strength of Memorie the Minde or Thought which can record what is past or foresee things future which do altogether participate of a Diuine nature Neither can it euer be proued that these Gifts euer descended vnto Man but from God himselfe And in another place There is nothing admixt nothing concrete nothing co-augmented nothing doubled in these Minds or Soules Which being granted they can neither be discerned or diuided nor discerpted nor distracted And therefore they cannot perish for perishing is a departure or surcease or diuorce of those parts which before their consumption were ioyned together in a mutuall connexion Phocillides in his Precepts writeth thus Anima est immortalis vivitque perpetuò nec senescit vnquam i. The Soule is immortall liueth euer neither doth it grow old by Time And Philistrio The Soule of a wise man is ioyned with God neither is it death but an euill life that destroyeth it And Egiptius Minacus when one brought him word that his father was dead made the Messenger this answer Forbeare ô Man to blaspheme and speake so impiously for how can my father be dead who is immortall Nicephorus ex Evagrio Panorm lib. de Alphons Reg. gestis relates That the King Alphonsus was wont to say That he found no greater argument to confirme the immortalitie of the Soule than when he obserued the bodies of men hauing attained to their full strength begin to decrease and wax weake through infirmities For all the Members haue the limits and bounds of their perfection which they cannot exceed but arriuing to their height decline and decay But the Mindes and Intellects as they grow in time so they encrease in the abilitie of vnderstanding Vertue and Wisedome Elian. lib. 11. de Varia Historia reporteth of Cercitas Megala Politanus who falling into a most dangerous disease and being asked by such friends as were then about him whether hee were willing to dye O yes said he by any meanes for I desire to depart this world and trauell to the other where I shall be sure to meet with men famous in all kindes of Learning of the Philosophers with Pythagoras of the Historiographers with Hecataeus of the Poets Homerus of Musitions Olympius who by the Monuments of their judgments learning haue purchased to themselues perpetuitie AEneas Sylvius reporteth of the Emperour Fredericke That sojourning in Austria it hapned that one of his principall Noblemen expired who had liued ninety yeares in all
themselues contend To which of them preeedence shall be given The strife sad Minos vndertakes to end So the great odds betwixt them is made even The Speakers be Alexander Minos Hanibal and Scipio The Dialogue Alex. THou Lybian I before thee am in fame And therefore iustly a precedence claime Hanib To which I 'le neuer yeeld Alex. Minos the Wise And most iust Iudge this Quarrell comprimise Minos What are you speake Alex. This Hanibal I son To mightie Philip King of Macedon Call'd Alexander Minos Glorious by my life Both of you are now tell me what 's your strife Alex. 'T is for prioritie for he auerres Himselfe the better Captaine but he erres For I as all report not him alone In prowesse haue exceeded but Times gone And scarce remembred cannot speake that name Able to equall my vnlimited fame Minos Speake interchangeably your best and worst And freely too but thou ô Lybian first Hanib Yet one thing I am proud of To haue got The Greeke tongue here and my Antagonist not In that before me Next I am of minde The worthier place should be to him assign'd Who bee'ng at first but low and meanly stated Hath ev'n from thence great glories propagated Making himselfe most potent in state hye And capable of Principalitie I with an hand-full Spaine did first inuade A bare sub-Consull to assist and aid My Brothers in those Puny dayes yet fir'd T' attaine the height to which I since aspir'd Ere long I tooke the Celtiberians and Subdu'd the Gaules with this all-conquering hand Huge mountaines and vnpassable before I cut and those I led my Armies o're The Floud Eridanus swift aboue measure I did command and crost it at my pleasure Vpon which many Cities I ore'threw And did in time all Italy subdue Through which I made my Sommers Progresse still And visited Romes suburbs at my will Nay more in one pitcht battell I fought there So many warlike Romans slaughter'd were And these too of the valiantest and most stout Their very rings in bushels were mete out Made of their bodies bridges to passe flouds And lakes on land grew from their reaking blouds All these did I yet neuer had the pride To be call'd Ammons sonne or deify'de I feign'd my selfe no god nor had th' impietie To make my mother strumpet though to'a Dietie I still profest my selfe a man and fought 'Gainst Princes of ripe iudgement such as thought Themselues no more than mortall Souldiers too Both bold and valiant I had not to doo With Medes and cold Armenians a base Crew Such as still fled before he could pursue And if a man but set a face and dare Poore wretches they his easie conquest are This Alexander was a Prince borne hye And his dead fathers kingdome did supply Fortune his large demaines encreasing still With force impetuous almost 'gainst his will Who when the Wretch Darius was o'rethrowne At Issa and Arbela as his owne He'appropriated all was not content To keepe within his fathers competent And moderat bounds but must be needs ador'd The Medes lost loosenesse he againe restor'd Nay more profest it in his lauish boules Of his best subiects rending out the Soules From their torne bodies paying Natures debt He after such as slew them did abet I was my Countries Father and when aid They claim'd of me I instantly obey'd Encountring an huge Nauy all prepar'd To inuade Carthage hauing all this dat'd Most willingly the word they had but sed And I my selfe soone gaue both lost and dead This did I a Barbarian and thought rude Vnexpert of your Greekish plenitude I neuer read his Homer nor was sutor The Sophist Aristotle should become Tutor To Hannibal such helps I counted vaine What came from me was mine owne brest and braine And these are they by which I still prefer My selfe before the Greeke King Alexander But if you thinke this yong man ought take place Before me cause a Diadem doth grace His temples This I'am sure It might shew well In Macedonia but not here in Hell Nor therefore now should be before me chus'd Who haue my selfe and mine owne fortunes vs'd Minos He neither hath like one ingenerous sayd Nor hath a Lybian barbarisme betrayd His smoother stile his eloquence flies hye Now Macedonian what canst thou reply Alex. Silence ô Minos would become me best Rather than I at this time should contest 'Gainst one so impudent and rash my griefe Is That this Hanibal so great a Theefe Against so great a Conqueror should hold This difference But grow he ne're so bold O thou most just of Iudges note me well And thou shalt know how much I antecell Who being but a yong man tooke on mee The mannage of a mighty soueraigntie As my first justice ' reaving those of breath Who had been actors in my fathers death Hauing subuerted Thebes I then became To whole Greece such a terror and my name 'Mongst them so famous that the Princes all Chose me with vnite voice their Generall Nor did I hold it fit to be confin'd Within one kingdomes bounds my'vnlimited mind Aspir'd vnto more amplitude the rather Because in all things to exceed my father A World was my ambition not content Till I had made my knowne name eminent In ev'ry part Asia by force I entred And by the riuer Granicus aduent'red A mighty battell vanquisht and pursu'd In that one fight whole Lydia I subdu'd Iönia and Phrygia then I tooke And passing thence by Iove I could not looke On any durst oppose me conquering euer Where e're my Army mov'd ev'n to the riuer Of Issa where the King Darius then Attended me with infinites of men What there I did thou Minos canst tell best How many in one day I lent to rest Charon well knowes his Barge that time vnable And Styx scarce for such numbers nauigable Forc'd was he then strange Ferry boats to hire And all too little This out of the fire Of mine owne spirit I did my dauntlesse breath Still daring wounds and boldly out during death I passe great acts by me in person done What I at Tyrus and Arebela woon India till then vnknowne I did inuade And of my Empire the vast Ocean made Th' vnbounded limits The Elephants most rude I tam'd King Porus hauing first subdu'd The Scythians souldiers not to be despis'd A Mars-starr'd people no way ill advis'd Hauing past Tanais I did soone subdue And with my troupes of horsemen ouerthrew And as my rage vnto my foes extends So still my loue and bounty grac'd my friends That me a Man those gaue what was diuine And call'd a god none justly can repine For by the greatnesse of my deeds amaz'd In others neuer knowne their wonders rais'd Me to that glory yet no helpe it can For I a god and King dy'de like a man This Hannibal was left a Wretch confin'd To Lybia and Bithynia of a mind Barb'rous and meerely inhumane puft with pride Who as he basely liv'd he poorely
For diuers Authors are in this agreeing Mans generation hath been multiply'de Aboue all other Animals beside Saith Daniel Thousand thousands Him before Stand and 'bout him ten thousand thousands more Which Thousand he thus duplicates to show Their countlesse number which our dull and slow Nature wants facultie to aphrehend As likewise when he further would extend Their Legions Miriads he to Miriads layes Noting to vs of those that sound his praise The infinite Armies like a Circle round The number ending where it first was found In Iohn 't is read A mighty voice I heard Of many Angels and their Troupes appear'd To be of thousand thousands Iob said well The number of his Souldiers who can tell 'Mongst others one much daring his bold Pen Seem'd to out-strip his Vnderstanding when He would confine each Chorus to containe The meere Chimaera of an idle braine Saying To each belongs in these blest Regions Six thousand six hundred sixty and six Legions Each Legion too doth bee'ng exactly told Six thousand six hundred sixty six Angels hold But of their number let no man discusse Further than sacred Scripture warrants vs. It followes that I next make inquisition Into the Angels motion a Position Needfull to be examin'd Know then He Is not contain'd in place as Brutes and we But Place it selfe he in Himself containes Bee'ng said to be still where his Pow'r remaines And though it passe our weake ingeniositie Yet He is knowne to be of strange velocitie And without passing places can with ease Or go or come at all times when he please From heav'n to earth He can descend and bee Aboue and here in space vnmomentarie Hence thence He vndisturb'd hath passage faire Through both the elements of Fire and Aire Without incumbrance or the least molest And though it sinke not into th' Ethnycks brest Hee 's without circumscription vnconfin'd For if these Spirits Places had assign'd And so from one into another shifted How could they then so suddenly be lifted Into the vpper Heav'ns or thence apply Themselues to th' earth in twinkling of an eye It is agreed vpon the Good and Euill The blessed Angell as the cursed Diuell Haue all those faculties and without aine Or passing intermediat things can gaine To what they purpose in one instant round The spatious world and where they please be found Those that the Mathematicke Art prosesse Tell vs That 'twixt th' eight Heav'n and earth's no lesse Than one hundred and sev'nty millions 100 and three Of spacious miles mete by Geometrie By which account the mighty space extending Is from the watry and tenth Heav'n descending Ten times so much at least for if a stone Should from the starry and eight Heav'n be throwne And ev'ry houre passe without intermission One thousand miles in it's swift expedition In motion still without stay or re-calling It must be sixty fiue yeares in it's falling To amplifie what hath before been said Some Sectifts haue their ignorance betray'd Affirming Angels are not If they were They with the Soule of force must likewise beare Bodies about them too and so to bee Subiect vnto our visibilitie How vaine this is it may be eas'ly ghest When none that hath Philosophy profest But hold That there are Substances Diuine Intelligence call'd which neuer did incline Into commixtion or knowne to require Substance from th' Earth the Water Aire or Fire A second thing th' object That if so great Their number be as that the Aire 's repleat With infinit Armies 't must be needs confest That they should hourely whole Mankinde molest But these consider not He that created All things out of meere Nothing hath instated Them in such order distance and consent One to another's no impediment Neither is any of his great Works found That hath the pow'r to passe beyond his Bound As in the Waters element though far It'exceeds the Earth yet keepes within it's baâ— And though the proud waues with curl'd billowes rore Threatning as if to swallow vp the shore Yet by th' Almighties hand their pow'r is stay'd No Inundation or great Deluge made Vnlesse his Wrath some sudden vengeance brings Opening Heav'ns spouts and letting loose the Springs No maruell then that Spirits be in number So many that the very Aire they comber And they to vs and we to them so odious They neither hurtfull are nor discommodious Their Malice not bee'ng able to withstand Those bounds prefixt by the Almighties hand For so much in Iobs Historie is found When Sathan saith he hath compast the earth round He doth not say In his large progresse hee Hath done to Man least discommoditie Or harme at all not that he wanted Will But in himselfe the Pow'r to hurt or kill Nor durst he touching Ioâ— make inquisition Till he from God himselfe had free permission Who gaue him limit and his fury sâ—aid Vpon his outward Fortunes when he said Lo all he hath now at thy â—â—â—cy stand Onely against his person 〈◊〉 hand Againe when He 〈◊〉 Body to him gaue Captiue his Life he did command him saue Whence we may ground Though this rebellious Prince Great Lucifer with his Adherents since Their Fall retaine th' abilitie and pow'r To measure th' Earth in least part of an houre Yet without leaue they neither dare nor can Vse the least violence on Gods creature Man Next touching the rare knowledge which insists In them by nature Some Theologists Affirme them pregnant in Theologie Philosophie Mathematicks Astrologie In Musicke they are skill'd expert in Physicke In Grammer Logicke and Arithmeticke Nay he that is among them the most low Contemn'd and vile more than weake Man doth know Nor are their reasons vaine for in respect A Spirit is but a meere Intellect Not burden'd with a body of agilitie Nimble and quicke therefore with much facilitie In all materials he acquainted is From the Earths superficies to th' Abisse He knowes such vertues as in Stones abide Gems Minerals creeping Wormes and Beasts for hide From him you nothing can for he doth vant Still in the Marble Porphyre Adamant The Corall Pumice and the Chrysolit The Smarage Topaz and the Margarit The Onyx Carbuncle Gold Siluer Lead Brasse Iron and Sulphur He is likewise read In the proprieties of Creeping things Ants Toads Snakes Serpents all that the earth brings Of all the sev'rall Fishes he hath notion Bred in fresh waters or the briny Ocean Of Beasts the sundry qualities he findes Lions Beares Tygres Camels Horses Hindes The Elephant the Fox Ape Asse Mule Cat Sheepe Wolfe Hare Hedge-hog with each other that The Earth produceth So in Herbs and Trees Plants Leaues Fruits Roots Seeds juices Liquors these No Artist hath like skill in He can tell The sev'rall qualities of Fowles and well Distinguish them as such and such belong To the Earth Aire or Water He is strong In further knowledge of the Elements As in their pow'r their natures and extents
Of Thunder Tempest Meteors Lightning Snow Chasemates Trajections of Haile Raine And so With piercing eyes he hath a deepe inspection Into the Sunne Moone Stars the true direction Of all Stars fixt or wandring Zodiacke Lines Articke and the Antarticke Poles and Signes The courses of the Heav'ns the qualities Their influence their effects and properties And as they haue a vertuall pow'r to know All our inferior bodies here below So of the Sp'rits of Glory or Perdition The Orders Offices and the Condition Briefely There is no Creature God hath made From the first Chaos but it may be said Whether it be abortiue or full growne That to the Angels nature it is knowne Since then so great and so profound 's their skill Infus'd into them by the Makers Will No wonder 't is that they such strange things can Beyond the weake capacitie of Man We onely by things sensible attaine To a small knowledge and with mighty paine And into error we may quickly fall For in it is no certaintie at all Sp'rits cannot erre and be deceiv'd as we Seeing and knowing all things perfectly In their true reall Essence which is meant Onely of Naturall things and hath extent No further For as Angels Creatures bee Th' are limited in their capacitie In all such things as on Gods Pow'r depend Or Mans Free-will their skill is at an end And vnderstand no further than reueal'd By the Creator else 't is shut and seal'd Hence comes it that the euill Angels are So oft deceiv'd when as they proudly dare To pry into Gods Counsels and make show By strange predictions future things to know This makes their words so full of craft and guile Either in doubts they cannot reconcile Or else for cettainties false things obtruding So in their Oracles the World deluding Whose answers either were so doubtfull and So intricate that none could vnderstand Or meerely toyes and lies for their words were By interpointing so dispos'd to beare A double sence and seeming truth to tell Whether or this or that way the chance fell But the good Angels they can no way erre The reason is That they themselues referre Wholly to Gods good pleasure from which Square And perfect Rule they neuer wandring are They iudge not rashly hid things they desire not And after future chances they enquire not Nor further of ought else to vnderstand Than they are limited by his command How many thousand traines hath Sathan layd By which he dayly doth fraile man inuade By entring Contract as a seeming friend Thereby to draw him to more fearefull end Of which the Fathers witnesse for one saith The Diuell with Magitions compact hath Another That all Magicke cov'nants bee Meere superstition and Idolatrie Which growes from a societie combin'd Betwixt the euill Daemons and Mankind If these were not Why should the Ciuill Law Firm'd by th' Imperiall sanction keepe in awe Such damn'd Impostors For the words thus run Many we know abstruse Arts haue begun To put in practise to disturbe the Aire Vpon the innocent Soules these likewise dare Vomit their malice and from the graues call Spirits from rest by Diabolicall And cursed Spells All such as shall rely On things preposterous and contrary To Natures course Gods people to annoy The Churches Curse them and their Arts destroy The like against these selfe-opinion'd fooles Is Articled in the Parisian Schooles Of such like Miscreants 't is in Esay said We haue strooke hands to league with Death and made Cov'nant with Hell How can Man be exempt From this Seducer he that dar'd to tempt The Sonne of God All these will I giue thee If thou wilt prostrat fall and worship mee Of these Compacts and Couenants we finde Two sorts and both blasphemous in their kinde The first When willingly we seeke inspection Into that Art and labour our direction From Magicke bookes or vse their Circles Lines Their superstitious Characters and Signes The second when without maleuolence We search into that art with no pretence Of Curiositie onely we vse it Knowledge to gaine and got not to abuse it And that is dangerous too all Such compact League with the Diuell as in word or act Breathe words vnknowne obscure inserted vainly Or such things as are holy vse prophanely As by obseruing certaine Characters Signes Figures Angles Squares Diameters c. Certaine Dayes Houres Stars Planets Constellations Graines Numbers Instruments of antique fashions And these beyond their naturall operations When Sacraments or any thing that 's holy Shall be abus'd by their ridiculous folly When Images of Wax or such like matter Are cast into a pot and boyl'd in water When certaine Numbers vnknowne Markes or Notes Writ in strange coloured paper he deuotes To superstitious vse When as to Coine Of gold or siluer or of brasse they ioyne Stamps of new Characters and this to bee When such a Planet is in such degree Such Pieces did Pasetis vse to weare What e're he bought he neuer payd too deare Who parting from the Merchant did but name The sum he payd and backe to him it came When holy Ceremonies through the Malicious Are made idolatrous and superstitious When Linnen neuer washt is vs'd and hee Must hold a Wand that 's cut from such a Tree With which he strikes the East and then the West The North or South as to his purpose best That all his Haire shaues off by night or day Thinking thereby to driue the Div'll away That takes dust from a Sepulchre to vse Or from the Graue the Deads bones to abuse Or ought besides that shall seeme retrograde To Reasons course or what 's by Nature made Further Vnto this Cov'nant doth belongâ— All such as stand in their opinions strong To meditate those fond Bookes bearing name From Ada Abelus Enoch Abraham Cyprian Albertus Magnus or Honorius Paulus with those in Magicke still held glorious Who boast ambitiously with great ostent This Art had both it's birth and ornament Either from Adams Custos Razael Or else from Tobits Keeper Raphael Another strange Booke they produce and say 'T was Salomons call'd his Clavicula These Magi by old Sathan thus misguided Another Volume in sev'n parts diuided Stuft with Spels Charmes Oblations all Confusions Of Non-sence and the Diuels meere obtrusions As a Worke learn'd and sacred still prefer To ev'ry curious yong Practitioner All these are but his subtill traines to draw Men from Gods Feare and honour of his Law For in this Art whoeuer striues t' excell He strikes a lasting Couenant with Hell And as in these so likewise in past Ages He wanted not his Astrologomages For most of this prognosticating Tribe Mettals vnto each Planet can ascribe Siluer vnto the Moone to the Sunne was Gold sacred vnto Iove Copper and Brasse To Venus white Lead vnto Saturne Blacke Iron and Steele to Mars nor doth there lacke Amber to Mercury To each of them They
giueth vs to know That excellent Spirits are not by Death extinguished or neglected but are rather transmigrated from the earth to reigne with the Powers aboue The second fore-shewes the calamitie of a People new left destitute of a Prince or Gouernor thereby fore-warning them to preuent and prepare themselues against all imminent perils The third giues vs warning that the time of the last expiration being come his friends and Allyes should take notice of the Diuine fauour that his body dying his Soule still suruiueth and that hee is not lost to his friends and familiars This was the opinion of some Philosophers Iamblic de Myster saith That as God oftentimes from the mouth of Fooles produceth wisedome declaring thereby that Man speaketh not but God himselfe so by euery sleight and vile thing hee portendeth what is to ensue keeping still his owne super-eminence and thereby instructing our weake vnderstanding And Guliel Pachimer Hist. lib. 6. saith Prodigium est Divinae irae signum c. A Prodegy is a signe of the wrath of God but whether it portendeth or looketh vpon things past or present is beyond our apprehension But this is an argument which I desire not too long to insist vpon c. In the discourse of Lucifer and his Adherents newly fallen from grace it will not be impertinent to speake something of his first and greatest master-piece in tempting our first Parents to sinne by which came death For Death was not made by God being nothing els as Saint Augustine against the Pelagians saith but a priuation of life hauing a name and no essence as Hunger is said to be a defect of food Thirst a want of moisture and Darknesse the priuation of light It therefore hauing a name and no Being God was neither the Creator nor Cause thereof Salomon saith God hath not made Death neither hath he any pleasure in the destruction of the Liuing for he created all things that they might haue their Being and the generations of the world are preserued And in an other place Through enuy of the Diuell came Death into the world He then being the author of Sin is likewise the author of Death And yet though he had power to tempt man to Sinne Man hauing Free-will he could not constraine him to giue consent This proud Angell by his owne insolence being cast from heauen began to enuy mans felicity vpon earth and to that purpose entred the Serpent which is said to be more subtill than any beast of the field And as Rupertus super Genesis saith Before the Serpent was made the Diuels Organ hee might haue beene termed most wise and prudent for it is said in Mathew Be ye therefore wise as Serpents Him as Saint Chrisostome writes the Diuell found best sitting for his hellish enterprise and in his spirituall malice by meanes of his Angelicall presence and excellent nature abusing both as instruments of his falsehood and treacherie hee wrought with to speake to the woman being the weaker Bodie and therefore the lesse able to resist temptation Neither did the Serpent speake vnto her but the Diuell in him as the good Angell did in Balaams Asse for the good Angels and euill work like operations but to diuers effects Petrus Commestor in his Scholasticall Historie writeth That at the time when the Serpent tempted the woman hee was straight and went upright like a man but after the Curse he was doomd to crawle vpon the face of the earth And Venerable Bede saith That the Diuell chose a Serpent which had the face of a woman Quod similia similibus applaudant That Like might be pleasing to Like The Holy Historie doth recite three distinct punishments of the Serpent the Woman and the Man the Serpent was cursed beyond any other beast or creature to crawle vpon his belly and eat dust all his life time enuy being put betweene the woman and her race on the one side and the Serpent and his race on the other so that Man should breake the head of the Serpent and the Serpent bruise the heele of Man The Woman was punished by pluralitie of paines in her conception and to bring forth her children with teares and lamentations c. In the next place comes Man who hauing heard and giuen consent to the words of his wife and eaten the fruit of the forbidden Tree hee must also be punished God said vnto him That the earth should be accursed for his sake in trauel and pain should he till it all his life time it should bring forth thornes and thistles vnto him he should feed on the herbs of the field and eat his bread in the sweat of his browes vntill he was returned vnto that earth from whence he had been taken Of this great Tempter the Diuell by whom sinne death and damnation first entred Saint Augustine in one of his Meditations vseth words to this purpose The Tempter was present neither wanted there time or place but thou keptst me ô Lord that I gaue not consent vnto him The Tempter came in Darknesse but thou didst comfort mee with thy Light The Tempter came armed and strong but thou didst strengthen mee and weaken him that he should not ouercome The Tempter came transfigured into an Angell of Light but thou didst illuminate mee to discouer him and curbe him that he could not preuaile against me He is the Great and Red Dragon the old Serpent called the Diuell and Sathan hauing seuen heads and ten hornes whom thou didst create a derider and mocker in the great and spacious sea in which creepe Creatures without number small and great These are the seuerall sorts of Diuels who night and day trauell from place to place seeking whom they may deuoure which doubtlesse they would do didst not thou preserue them This is the old Dragon who was borne in the Paradise of pleasure that with his taile sweepes away the third part of the Stars of heauen and casts them on the earth who with his poyson infects the waters of the earth that such men as drinke thereof may die who prostitutes gold before him as dust who thinkes hee can drinke Iordan dry at one draught and is made so that he doth not feare any And who shall defend vs from his bitings and plucke vs ou◠of his jawes but thou ô Lord who hast broken the head of the great Dragon Do thou helpe vs spread thy wings ouer vs that vnder them we may fly from this Dragon who pursueth vs and with thy shield and buckler defend vs from his hornes It is his sole desire and continuall study to destroy those Soules whom thou hast created And therefore ô God we call vnto thee to free vs from our deadly Aduersarie who whether we wake or sleepe whether we eat or drinke or whatsoeuer else wee doe is alwayes at hand night and day with his craft and fraud now openly then secretly directing his impoysoned
make the meat disgest The good old man perceiuing by his looke And change of cheare he Gospell could not brooke Rose at the table and cry'd out amaine Auaunt thou Fiend with thy infernall traine Thou hast no pow'r howeuer thus disguis'd O're them who in Christs name haue beene baptis'd The roaring Lion shall not vs deuour That in his bloud are ransom'd from thy pow'r These words with such like were no sooner spoke But he with all his traine vanisht like smoke And of his people they no more could finde Sauing three ougly bodies left behinde With a foule stench and they were knowne to bee Felons before-time strangled on a tree Now of those Sp'rits whom Succubae we call I reade what in Sicilia did befall Rogero reigning there a yong man much Practis'd in swimming for his skill was such That few could equall him one night bee'ng late Sporting i' th sea and thinking then his Mate Had been before him catcht him by the haire To drag him to the shore when one most faire Appear'd to him of a most sweet aspect Such a censorious Cynicke might affect Though he had promis'd abstinence Her head Seem'd as in golden wires apparelled And lo quite naked shee 's before him found Saue that her modest haire doth cloath her round Astonisht first to see so rare a Creature Richly accomplisht both in face and feature He viewes her still and is surpris'd at last And ouer her his vpper garment cast So closely brought her home and then conueyd Her to his priuat chamber where she stayd So long with him that he with her had won Such grace she was deliuer'd of a Son Within some forty weekes But all this while Though she had lent him many a pleasant smile Not making anything betwixt them strange That wife might with her husband interchange She neuer spake nor one word could he heare Proceed from her which did â—o him appeare Something prodigious Besides it being knowne How this faire seaâ— borne Venus first was growne In his acquaintance Next how his strange sute Came first and that she still continu'd mute A friend of his that had a seeming care Both of his bodie and his soules welfare Told him in plaine termes he was much mis-led To entertaine a Spectar in his bed At which words both affrighted and inrag'd To thinke how desp'ratly he had ingag'd Both soule and body home he posts with speed And hauing something in himselfe decreed First mildely treats with her and after breakes Into loud termes yet still she nothing speakes At this more angry to haue no reply He takes his sword and sonne then standing by And vowes by all the oathes a man can sweare Vnlesse she instantly deliuer there Both what she is how bred and whence she came And vnto these particular answer frame His purpose is receiue it how she will The pretty Babe betwixt them got to kill After some pause the Succubus reply'd Thou onely seek'st to know what I would hide Neuer did Husband to himselfe more wrong Than thou in this to make me vse my tongue After which words she vanisht and no more Was thenceforth seene The childe threatned before Some few yeares after swimming in the place Where first the father saw the mothers face Was from his fellowes snatcht away and drown'd By the same Sp'rit his body no where found Besides these Marcus vpon Psellius findes To be of maligne Spirits sundry kindes That beare in the foure elements chiefe sway Some Fiery and AEtherial are and they Haue the first place Next Spectars of the Aire Water and Earth but none of them that dare Beyond their bounds Others that all light fly And call'd Subterren or Lucifugi Vnto the first those prodigies of Fire Falling from heav'n which men so much admire The Learn'd ascribe As when a burning stone Dropt from the Sky into swiâ—t AEgion A Floud in Persia in Darius dayes As when three Moones at once in splendant rayes With a huge bearded Comet did appeare To all mens wonder in the selfe same yeare Pope Iohn the two and twentieth by his pow'r Curst Lewis Bavarus then Emperour Because he cherishr in litigious hope Petrus Carbariensis Anti-Pope As when three Sunnes at once shoâ— in the Sky Of equall sise to all apparantly Neere to the Village cal'd Taurometane In Sicily a Merchant bred in Spaine Coasting that way sees where before him stand Ten Smiths and each a hammer in his hand About them leatherne aprons and before He can aduise well he espies ten more And one aboue them all like Vulcan lame So shapt that you would take him for the same Describ'd in Homer Him the Merchant asks To what place they were bound About out tasks Vulcan replies Is it to thee vnknowne How famous we are late in AEtna growne Which if it be lag but a while behinde And see what thou with thousands more shalt finde To whom the Merchant What worke can there bee For men of your profession where we see Nothing but drifts of snow the mountaines clad In Winters cold where no fire can be had That shall be try'd said Vulcan once againe And with that word he vanisht with his traine At which the Merchant with such feare was strooke That all his limbes and joints were Ague-shooke To the next house his faint steps he applies And had no sooner told this but he dies His life set with the Sun E're mid-night came The vast Sicilian Mount was all on flame Belching forth fire and cinders and withall Such horrid cracks as if the rocks would fall And tumble from their height into the Plaine Mixt with such tempests both of Haile and Raine Such bellowing shriekes and such a sulphur smell As had it been the locall place of Hell This dismall night so dreadfull did appeare Vnto all such as did inhabit neere They left their houses to seeke dens and caues Thinking no place so safe then as their graues And of this nature are those fires oft seene Neere Sepulchres by which many haue beene Deluded much in Church-yards and such places Where the faint-hearted scarce dare shew their faces Such are the Ignes Fatui that appeare To skip and dance before vs ev'ry where Some call them Ambulones for they walke Sometimes before vs and then after stalke Some call them leaping Goats and these we finde All to be most malicious in their kinde By leading Trauellers out of their way Else causing them mongst theeues or pit-falls stray And such are Sulphur-colour'd others white And these haunt ships and Sea-men in the night And that most frequent when a tempest 's past And then they cleaue and cling close to the mast They call it Helena if one appeare And then presage there 's some disaster neere If they spie two they iudge good shall befall them And these thus seene Castor and Pollux call them And from that kinde of Sp'rits the Diuination Held in fore-times
in such great adoration Okumanteia call'd seemes to haue sprung As likewise those by th' antient Magi sung Onichomanteia Libonomantia Capnomantia Piromantia And Thurifumia But I cannot dwell On circumstance their sev'rall Rites to tell Spirits of th' Aire are bold proud and ambitious Envious tow'rd Mankinde Spleenfull and malicious And these by Gods permission not alone Haue the cleare subtill aire to worke vpon By causing thunders and tempestuous showr's With harmefull windes 't is also in their pow'rs T' affright the earth with strange prodigious things And what 's our hurt to them great pleasure brings Of their so rare effects Stories are full Amongst the Attribates it rained wooll In good Saint Ambrose time two armies â—ought In the aires Region and great terror brought Vnto all France Hugh Capet making claime Vnto the Crowne if we may credit Fame And Histories which are not writ in vaine There fell from heav'n great store of Fish and Graine Philostratus in whom was found no flaw Writes Apollonius 'mongst the Brachmans saw Two Tombes which opened windes disturb'd the aire But shut the sky was calme the season faire Eunapius and Suidas both record How Sepater could with one Magicke word Command the Windes and was adiudg'd to dye Because he kept them fast when as supplye Of corne vnto Byzantium should be brought But to spare these had we no further sought Than sacred Historie In Iob we finde How Sathan did stir vp a mighty winde Which where his sonnes and daughters feasting were Did the whole house demolish rend and teare The Finnes and Laplands are acquainted well With such like Sp'rits and Windes to Merchants fell Making their cov'nant When and how they please They may with prosp'rous weather crosse the feas As thus They in an hand-kerchiefe fast ty Three knots vnloose the first and by and by You finde a gentle gale blow from the shore Open the second it encreaseth more Fo fill your sailes When you the third vntye Th' intemperat gusts grow vehement and hye Of Ericus the King of Goths 't is said That as he turn'd his hat the winde he stayd Nor did there euer any neere him know The piercing aire vpon his face to blow It is reported of learn'd Zoroaster Who of art Magicke was the first Art-master That by such Spirits in a stormy day And mighte whirle-winde he was borne away And from this kinde that diuination springs Call'd AEromantia by which thousand things Haue been conjectur'd from the conjur'd Aire When mustring Armies in the clouds repaire Chariots and such to iudge what shall befall From them they Terotoscopeia call A third there is I almost had forgot Ornithomanteia when by Birds they wot Spirits that haue o're Water gouernment Are to Mankinde alike maleuolent They trouble Seas Flouds Riuers Brookes and Wels Meeres Lakes and loue t' enhabit watry Cels Thence noisome and pestiferous vapors raise Besides they Man encounter diuers wayes At wrackes some present are another sort Ready to crampe their joints that swim for sport One kinde of these th' Italians Fatae name Feé the French We Sibils and the same Others White Nymphs and those that haue them seen Night-Ladies some of which Habundia Queene And of this sort are those of which discusse Plutarch and out of him Sabellicus Numa Pompilius who did oft inuite The best of Rome to feast with him by night Neuer made vse of market to afford Rich choice of dainties to his sumptuous bord Each tastefull Delicat that could be thought Without all cat'ring or prouiding ought Did of their owne accord themselues present To giue th' invited ghests their full content To all their admiration Which is said Was onely by the Nymph Egeria's aid With whom he had conuerse and she we finde Of force must be a Spirit of this kinde Scotus Parmensis but few yeares ago As some report his Magicke Art to show Practis'd the like inuited mighty States And feasted them with princely Delicates And yet these seeming viands were of all That tasted them merely phantasticall Though they rose sated yet no sooner thence Departed but they had no feeling sence Of feeding Hunger or of quenching thirst But found themselues more empty than at first And with such banquets as Philostratus Writes was Apollonius Tyanaeus Receiued by the Brachmans With like cheare Petrus Albanus and Pasaetis were Custom'd to feast their Ghests And of this sort Namely White Nymphs Boëthius makes report In his Scotch Historie Two Noblemen Mackbeth and Banco-Stuart passing then Vnto the Pallace where King Duncan lay Riding alone encountred on the way In a darke Groue three Virgins wondrous faire As well in habit as in feature rare The first of them did curtsie low her vaile Vnpinn'd and with obeisance said All haile Mackbeth Thane Glâ—vius The next said All haile Caldarius Thane The third Maid Not the least honor vnto thee I bring Mackbeth all haile that shortly must be King These spake no more When Banco thus reply'de Ill haue ye done faire Ladies to diuide Me from all honors How comes he thus growne In your great grace to promise him a Crowne And I his sole companion as you see Yet you in nothing daigne to guerdon mee To whom the first made answer Yes we bring To thee much happier Fate for though a King Mackbeth shall be yet shall he reigne alone And leaue no issue to succeed his Throne But thou ô Banco though thou dost not sway Thy selfe a Scepter yet thine Issue may And so it shall thine Issue do not feare Shall gouerne Scotland many an happy yeare This spoke all vanisht They at first amas'd At the strange Nouell each on other gas'd Then on they road accounting all meere fictions And they vaine Spectars false in their predictions And sporting by the way one jeasted thus Haile King of Scotland that must gouerne vs. To whom the other Like salutes to thee Who must of many Kings the Grandsire bee Yet thus it happen'd after Duncan slaine By Mackbeth he vsurpt and 'gan to raigne Though the dead King had left two sonnes behinde More seriously then pondring in his minde The former apparition casts about How Banco of the Scotch Peeres the most stout Might be cut off doth solemnely inuite Him and his sonne Fleanchus one sad night Vnto a banquet where the Father dies But shadow'd by the darknesse the Sonne flies Now the small sand of Mackbeths glasse bee'ng run For he was slaine by Malcolme Duncans son In processe the Crowne lineally descended To Banco's Issue and is yet extended In ample genealogie remaining In most renowned CHARLES amongst vs reigning My promis'd brevitie be mine excuse Else many stories I could here produce Of the like nature purport and condition For we may reade Ollarus the Magition Commanded like Familiars who 't is sed With his inchanted
them there Where seemes no want of welcome or of cheare The table drawne and their discourse now free Iohn asks of them if they could wish to see Their fathers present they desire him too 't Prouing to finde if he by Art can doo 't He bids them to sit silent all are mute When suddenly one enters in a suâ—e Greasie before him a white apron ty'de His linnen sleeues tuckt vp both elbowes hide He stands and eyes them round and by his looke None there but needs must guesse him for a Cooke Which of you know this fellow now saith Iohn What say you Sir whom he so gaseth on He soone reply'de on whom he fixt his eye Aske you who knowes him Mary that do I Hee 's of my fathers kitchen Nay Siâ— rather Iohn answer'd him this is your owne deare father For when that noble Sir whose name you beare Was trauel'd on some great affaire else-where This well fed Groome to whom you ought to kneele Begot you then all ouer head to heele It seemes your mother knew not drosse from Bullion That in a great Lords stead embrac'd a Scullion He chases the Sp'rit doth vanish in the while The rest seeme pleas'd and in the interim smile When suddenly in middle of the roome Is seene a tall and lusty stable-Groome A frocke vpon him and in his left hand A Curri-combe the other grasps a wand And lookes vpon a second Here I show him Amongst you all saith Iohn doth any know him I must saith one acknowledge him of force His name is Ralfe and keepes my fathers horse And kept your mother warme too doubt it not The very morning that you were begot Her husband bee'ng a hunting The Youth blusht The rest afraid now were with silence husht Then to the third he brought a Butler in And prov'd him guilty of his mothers sin A Tailor to the fourth So of the rest Till all of them were with like shame opprest Teutonicus this seeing Nay quoth hee Since I am likewise stain'd with bastardie You shall behold my father Soone appeares A well-flesht man aged some forty yeares Of graue aspect in a long Church-man's gowne Red cheekt and shauen both his beard and crowne By his formalities it might be guest He must be a Lord Abbot at the least Who disappearing This man I confesse Begot me of his smooth fac'd Landeresse Saith Iohn and somewhat to abate your pride Iudge now who 's best man by the fathers side Some vext and other turn'd the jest to laughter But with his birth did neuer taunt him after Of many such like things Authors discusse Not only sportiue but miraculous We reade of one in Creucemacon dwelling In this prestigious kinde of Art excelling Who by such Spirits helpe could in the aire Appeare an Huntsman and there chase the Hare With a full packe of dogs Meaning to dine A teeme of horse and cart laden with wine He eat vp at one meale and hauing fed With a sharpe sword cut off his seruants head Then set it on his shoulders firme and so As he was no whit dammag'd by the blow In Saxonie not from Torgauia far A Nobleman for raising ciuill war Had been confin'd and forfeiting his wealth Was forc'd to liue by rapine and by stealth He riding on the way doth meet by chance One of these Sp'rits submisse in countenance In habit of a Groome who much desires T' attend his Lordship Who againe requires What seruice he can do I can quoth he Keepe an horse well nothing doth want in me Belonging to a stable I for need Can play the Farrier too So both agreed And as they rode together ' boue the rest His Lord giues him great charge of one choice beast To tender him as th'apple of his eye He vowes to doo 't or else bids let him dye Next day his Lord rides forth on some affaire His new-come seruant then to shew his care This much lov'd Iennet from the stable shifts And to a roome foure stories high him lifts There leaues him safe The Lord comes home at night The Horse of his knowne Master hauing sight Neighs from aboue The Owner much amas'd Knowing the sound vp tow'rd the casement gas'd Calls his new seruant and with lookes austere Asks him by what means his good Steed came there Who answers Bee'ng your seruant I at large Desirous was to execute your charge Touching your horse for since you so well like him Loth any of the rest should kicke or strike him I yonder lodg'd him safe But little said The Nobleman and by his neighbours aid For to his house he now must ioyne the towne With cords and pullies he conuey'd him downe This Lord for some direptions being cast Into close prison and with gyues bound fast In vnexpected comes his Groome to see him And on condition promiseth to free him If he forbeare to signe him with the Crosse Which can saith he be to you no great losse Likewise refraine t' inuoke the name of God And you shall here no longer make aboad This bee'ng agreed he takes vpon his backe Gyv'd as he was and chain'd nothing doth lacke His noble master beares him through the aire Who terrify'de and almost in despaire Cries out Good God ô whether am I bound Which spoke he dropt the pris'ner to the ground Ev'n in an instant but by Gods good grace He light vpon a soft and sedgy place And broke no limbe Home straight the seruant hyes And tells them in what place his Master lies They to his Castle beare him thence forth-right Which done this seruant bids them all Good night Arlunus a more serious tale relates Two noble Merchants both of great estates From Italy tow'rd France riding in post Obserue a sterne blacke man them to accost Of more than common stature who thus spake If to Mediolanum you your journey take Vnto my brother Lewis Sforza go And vnto him from me this Letter show They terror'd with these words demand his name Both what to call him and from whence he came I Galeatius Sforza am saith hee And to the Duke deliuer this from mee So vanisht They accordingly present The Letter to the Prince The argument Was this O Lewis of thy selfe haue care The French and the Venetian both prepare T' inuade thy Dukedome and within short space From Millan to extirpe thee and thy Race But to my charge deliuer truly told Three thousand Florens of good currant gold I 'le try if I the Spirits can attone To keepe thee still invested in thy Throne Farewell The Letter was subscribed thus The Ghost of'thy brother Galcatius This though it seem'd a phantasie vnminded With selfe-conceit Prince Lewis Sforza blinded Soone after was by all his friends forsaken His City spoil'd himselfe surpris'd and taken One other to your patience I commend And with the close thereof this Tractat end A Youth of Lotharinge not meanly bred Who was by too much liberty mis-led His boundlesse
As Mice in walls the Diuell so Into our brest doth venter Where either he findes hidden paths Or makes new wayes to enter Notwithstanding which I propose one Distich more for our generall comfort Si Sathanas Christi sine nutu invadere Porcam Non potis est Christi quomodo laedat Ovem If Sathan without leaue of Christ A Swine could not inuade How can a Sheepe of Christs owne flocke By Sathan be betray'd But as a remedy for these and the like temptations let vs heare that worthy and learned Author Gregorie Nazianzen in Tetrasc Vinum Libido Liuor Daemon pares Hos mente privant quos tenent hos tu prece Medere fusis lachrimis jejunio Medela morbis haec enim certa est meis Wine Enuy Lust the Diuell are alike These where they rule the minde with madnesse strike Therefore to pray to fast to weepe be sure For These of my Diseases are the cure Concerning those Daemons wee call Lucifugi or flying light we may reade Prudentius Cathemerinon Him 1. thus Ferunt vagantes Daemones Laetos tenebris noctium Gallo canente exterritos Sparsim timere caedere c. They say The loose and wandring Sp'rits Take pleasure in the shade of nights But when they heare the Cocke to crow Th' are frighted and away they go The neerenesse of the light they feare And dare not stay till day appeare Before the rising Sun they spye They into close darke cauerns flye Which is a signe they know the scope And crowne of our re-promis'd hope That when sleepe hath our eyes forsooke We for Christs comming wait and looke Additions to the Premisses OF the Sylvans Faunes Satyrs Folletti Paredrij c. all included within the number of such as wee call Familiar Spirits there are diuers stories extant as That they can assume the shapes and figures of men and eat drinke sit at table talke and discourse after the manner of our fellowes so that they may be easily tooke for some friend or acquaintance Macrobius writeth That in the mountaine of Pernassus these Sylvans and Satyrs yearely keepe their Bacchanalian feasts where they meet in great companies singing and dancing to rurall musicke which may be easily heard at the foot of the mountaine and their trouping and skipping together easily discerned In Silesia a Nobleman man hauing inuited many Ghests to dinner and prepared a liberall and costly feast for their entertainment when all things were in great forwardnesse in stead of his friends whom he expected he onely receiued excuses from them that they could not come euery one pretending some businesse or other occasion that he could not keep appointment Whereat the Inuitor being horribly vexed broke out into these words saying Since all these men haue thus failed me I wish that so many Diuels of hell would feast with me to day and eat vp the victuals prouided for them And so in a great rage left the house and went to Church where was that day a Sermon His attention to which hauing tooke away the greatest part of his choler in the interim there arriued at his house a great troupe of horsmen very blacke and of extraordinarie aspect and stature who alighting in the Court called to a Groome to take their horses and bade another of the seruants run presently to his master and tell him his Ghests were come The seruant amased runneth to Church and with that short breath and little sence he had left deliuers to his master What had happened The Lord calls to the Preacher and desiring him for that time to breake off his Sermon and aduise him by his Ghostly counsel what was best to doe in so strict an exigent hee persuades him That all his seruants should with what speed they could depart the house In the meane time they with the whole congregation came within view of the Mansion Of which all his seruants as well men as maids had with great affright cleared themselues and for haste forgot and left behinde a yong childe the Noblemans sonne sleeping in the cradle By this the Diuels were reuelling in the dining chamber making a great noise as if they had saluted and welcommed one another and looked through the casements one with the head of a Beare another a Wolfe a third a Cat a fourth a Tygre c. taking bowles and quaffing as if they had drunke to the Master of the house By this time the Nobleman seeing all his seruants safe began to remember his sonne and asked them What was become of the childe Those words were scarce spoke when one of the Diuels had him in his armes and shewed him out of the window The good-man of the house at this sight being almost without life spying an old faithfull seruant of his fetcht a deep sigh and said O me what shall become of the Infant The seruant seeing his master in that sad extasie replyed Sir by Gods helpe I will enter the house and fetch the childe out of the power of yon Diuell or perish with him To whom the master said God prosper thy attempt and strengthen thee in thy purpose When hauing taken a blessing from the Priest he enters the house and comming into the next roome where the Diuels were then rioting hee fell vpon his knees and commended himselfe to the protection of Heauen Then pressing in amongst them he beheld them in their horrible shapes some sitting some walking some standing Then they all came about him at once and asked him what busines he had there He in a great sweat and agonie yet resolued in his purpose came to that Spirit which held the Infant and said In the name of God deliuer this childe to mee Who answered No but let thy master come and fetch him who hath most interest in him The seruant replied I am come now to doe that office and seruice to which God hath called me by vertue of which and by his power loe I seise vpon the Innocent And snatching him from the Diuell tooke him in his armes and carried him out of the roome At which they clamored and called aloud after Ho thou Knaue ho thou Knaue leaue the childe to vs or we wil teare thee in pieces But he vnterrified with their diabolicall menaces brought away the Infant and deliuered it safe to the father After some few dayes the Spirits left the house and the Lord re-entred into his antient possession In this discourse is to be obserued With what familiaritie these Familiar Spirits are ready to come being inuited Of the Sylvans Alexander de Alexandro makes this relation A Friend of mine of approued fidelitie saith he called Gordianus trauelling with a Neighbour of his towards A retium they lost their way and fell into desarts and vninhabited places insomuch that the very solitude bred no small feare The Sunne being set and darknesse growing on they imagin they heare men talking and hasting that way to enquire of them the readiest path to bring them
Christians who in that point doubted Somwhat like this is that which Paulus Diaconus writeth That in the vtmost parts of Germany towards the North and neere to the sea side there is a great mountaine and beneath it a darke and obscure Cauerne in which fiue men were found sleeping their bodies and garments in no part consumed but sound and whole as at the first who by their habits appeared to be antient Romans Certaine of the inhabitants had often made attempt to waken them but could not Vpon a time a wicked fellow purposing to dispoile and rob one of them of his garment he no sooner toucht it but his hand withered and dried vp Olaus Magnus was of opinion That they were confined thither to some strange purpose that when their trance was expired they might either discouer strange Visions reuealed vnto them or else they were to teach and preach the Christian Faith to Infidels who neuer knew the Euangelicall Doctrine I spake before of certaine notes or indubitable marks by which the good Spirits or Angels might be distinguished from the bad Genij or euill Daemons It shall not be amisse to amplifie that point somewhat more by Circumstance and illustrate it by Historie The good Angels are imployed in nothing saue the honour of God and the profit and preseruation of good men When on the contrarie the Caca-Daemons aime all their enterprises and endeauours to derogate from Gods worship and assume it to themselues and by their flattering deceptions and oily insinuations with man to worke the vtter subuersion both of soule and body For as Sathan hath the power to transforme himselfe from an ougly Diuel to an Angell of Light therefore ought we to haue the greater care both to distinguish him in his shape and discouer him in his nature For all apparitions whatsoeuer which persuade to blasphemie superstition lying man-slaughter luxurie or any other thing execrable doe infallibly proceed onely from the Diuell Againe that Spirit that coueteth to be adored or that prompts vs to desire knowledge in things curious and vnnecessarie or that counterfeits it selfe to become a subiect or seruant to man by the vertue of any herbe stone mettall wood or other creature he is a Diuell Those also that put themselues vnder any certain constellations by which to beget rare and prodigious effects whereby the worke is taken from the Creator and attributed vnto his creatures the Starres those are Diuels In briefe all those operations Conjurations Incantations Abjurations Murmurations all those Conuenticles and nightly assemblies in places desart and remote of Witches Sorcerers Magitions Conjurers and such like haue the great Diuell himselfe for their Authour and Abettor In a Chronicle belouging to the House of the Frier Minors in Auergne this historie is related This Couent hauing liued long in contented pouerty and peace of minde as Saint Francis their Founder had left them the Diuell enuying theit abstinence and strictnesse of life takes vpon him the shape of a seruant and insinuateth himselfe into a Noblemans family whose house was not far from the Monasterie to whom he was so diligent and appeared so obseruant in all things that hee made him his Steward committed all his affaires vnto his charge and gaue him the gouernment of his whole house and family Hauing crept into this great credit and fauour and obseruing that his Lord and Master was of a penurious and gripple condition and although this poore religious Brotherhood was placed neere him yet he neuer at any necessitie relieued them with any charitable largesse or almes Of whom when mention was made in any discourse betwixt his Lord and him this subtill Impostor began exceedingly to commend their sanctitie and asperitie of life and persuaded his master That he could performe no one act so acceptable vnto God and profitable for his soules health as to relieue this Fraternitie with a free and boâ—ntifull hand His words proued so effectuall with his Lord that thinking to do a meritorious act hee sent them dayly full dishes from his table vpon the open dayes flesh of all sorts and vpon their dayes of fast of fish the most curious and delicate that could be prouided so that in a short time the good Friers had left the care of their bookes to take charge of their bellies and neglected their deuotions to feed high and drinke hard Which being obserued by one of the Seniors of the Societie who much grieued that they had fotsakeu their former austeritie to embrace such a dissolute life and perceiuing whence they grew to be such Libertines he tooke with him one of the same Fellowship a man of his own strict conuersation with purpose to giue the Nobleman a visit Who making them friendly and courteous entertainment this Frier amongst other discourse demanded of the Lord the reason why he being so many yeares together so sparing and close-handed toward his Brethten was of late grown so profusely bountifull Who answered That it was at the great intercession of his iust and faithfull Steward whom he much loued and no lesse trusted The Religious man desired that he might be acquainted with this good seruanr To which motion the Nobleman was very willing and caused him to be enquired for and called into his presence Who after much delay being forced to shew himselfe the Deuout man by some secret marke or other before spoken of knowing him to be a wicked Spirit hee instantly disappeared and was no more seene Thus the Impostor being discouered to the great wonder of the Nobleman the good Frier returning backe to the Monasterie told to the Brotherhood what had happened by which hee reduced them to their former deuotion and austeritie of life Against these subtill temptations of this crafty and deceitfull Pannurgust there are no such profitable and wholsome preuentions as fasting and prayer as appeareth by that of Antonius Laverinus the vnblemished authoritie of whose name we haue vsed before the better to countenance some former Histories He comming by godly meditations to heale a Daemoniacke or one possessed with a Diuell after he had vsed certaine holy and deuout prayers such as are vsed in the like Exorcismes the obstinat Diuell began to menace him and told him that hee would be with him that night to his great terror and affright and therefore wished him to prepare himselfe against his expected comming To whom he againe as confidently answered that if he failed of his word and kept not his promise he would hold him for one of the basest and most abject Diuels that fell with their arch-Captaine Lucifer That night Anthon. Laver. heard him knocke three seuerall times at his chamber doore and suspecting him to be the Diuell betooke himselfe to his deuotions and prayers commending his safetie to the protection of God and his good Angells and made no other answer The Diuell went then to the top of the house and began to vntile the roofe as if hee purposed there
to euery sundry Planet 445. The vainnesse of these superstitions discovered 446 All Magicke condemned at Paris 447. Of wilfull ignorance 448. Salomon of wilfull Ignorance 449. The excellencie of Knowledge 450. Of the Knowledge of our selues 451. The Poets of Selfe-knowledge 452. The difference betwixt knowledge and wisdom 453. The etymologie of Wisedome ibid The excellencie of Wisedome 454. The wisedome of the Iust ibid. The Poets of Wisedome 455. Wise and witty sayings 457. Ianus Vitalis of antient Rome 459. Sundry Apothegmes of Orators Captaines and Emperors 460. Of things prodigious 462. Of Prodegies hapning before the death of Princes 463. God made not death 464. Adam Eve and the Serpent 465. Of Spirits that challenge to themselues Diuine worship 466. The Sarronides of Gaul 467. Humane Sacrifices performed at Rome 468. The antiquitie of Magicke as being before the Floud 469. The seuerall sorts of Magicke ibid. Of the Witch Hercyra and the Magition Artesius 470. All Magicke includes a compact with the diuell 471. A strange historie of one Theophilus ibid The manner of homage done to the Diuell 472 Of Pythagoras and the Magition Iamnes 473 A story of the Count of Vestravia 474. The Witch Oenoponte and others 475. Of Spirits called Paredrij inclosed in Rings and of such as vsed them 476. Of women that haue changed their sex 477. Histories to that purpose 478. The history of Machates and Philemium 479. Spirits that haue possessed dead bodies 480. A discourse of Astrologie 481. Philosophers concerning it 482. Against Iudicatorie Astrologie 483. Of Mathesis or Mathema 484. An Emblem 485. A Meditation 488. THE CONTENTS OF THE EIGHTH TRACTAT OF Daemons in generall 495 Homer Tresmegistus and others of Daemons 496 Their power and practise 497. Powers and Potestates of the aire 499. Spirits called Incubi and Succubae 500. A story of an Incubus and a Succubus 501. Spirits of the foure Elements 502. Spirits of fire and strange prodegies 503. Of Ignes fatui Ambulones c. 505. Spirits of the aire strange prodegies wrought by them 506. Spirits of the water 507. A strange historie of two Scottish noblemen 508 Of diuers great Magitions 509. Spirits of the earth Genij Lares Larvae Lemures c. 510. Discourse of Spectars 511. Further of Paredrij or Familiar Spirits 512. A pleasant story of Iohn Teutonicus ibid. A strange story of a familiar Spirit 514. Of Galeatius Sforza and others 515 c. Of Pride 519. The effects of Pride 520. Of Pambo and the pride of Domitian Caesar 522. Of Sapor King of Persia and others 523. Of Ingratitude 525 c. Of Michael Traulus and others 528. Scripture and the Poets of Ingratitude 529. Of Humilitie 530. The Fathers of Humilitie 531. The Poets of Humilitie 532. Of Gratitude 534. Histories of Gratitude 535. An Hierogliphycke 536. An Emblem 537. The Poets extolling Gratitude 538. The story of a Votaresse called Christian 539. Of the Mahumetan Neffesoglij 540. A strange accident hapning in the Diocesse of Cullein 541. A strange and miraculous Birth ibid. Diuers other strange relations ibid c. Spirits haue no power of the heauens nor starres 543. A strange tale of Spectars 544. Stories of the Spirits of the aire and of the Indian Magi 545. Strange prodigious things in the aire 546. Of Bruno Bishop of Herbipol 547. The manner how the Duke of Venice yearly marieth the Ocean ibid. A strange story of Hotherus king of Suetia and Daciae 548. Strange things of watry Spirits 549. Diuers sorts of Spirits of the earth 550. A strange disease as strangely cured 551. Of Spectra Meridiana or Noone-Diuels ibid. Discourse of Alastores 552. The Lamiae or Larvae and stories concerning them 553. A desperat aduenture of two Bohemian knights 554. An Emblem 555. A Meditation 558. THE CONTENTS OF THE NINTH TRACTAT THe power and strength of Wine 564. Of the King ibid. Of Women 565. Of Truth 566. Of Zijm Ohim Satyrs Ostriches c. 567. Of Subterren Spirits called Cobali 568 Spirits the cause of earth-quakes 569. Of treasure kept by Spirits 570. A strange attempt of a Botcher 571. A strange story of Cabades King of Persia 573. Of Spirits called Luci-fugi Hob-goblins Robin Good-fellowes Fairies c. 574. A strange story reported by Fincelius 575. Of Dacius Bishop of Mediolanum ibid. A strange story of one recouered to life 576. A pleasant story of a Spirit of the Buttry 577. Certaine marks to know good Spirits from bad 580. What shape Diuels may assume and what not ibid. How euill Spirits may be knowne 581 Of Musicke and the velocitie of the heauens and Planets 582. The ambition of man to search into hidden secrets 583. Seueral opinions of Philosophers touching God ibid. Their opinions of the Soule 585. And the immortalitie thereof 586. Of Couetousnesse 589. The Poets of Couetousnesse 590. The sordidnesse thereof 591. The power of Gold 592. The Fathers of Auarice 594. Historicall examples of Auarice 595. Couetous Emperors 596. An Hierogliphycke Emblem c. of Couetousnesse 597. The Witches of Warboys 598. Of seuerall kindes of Spirits 599. A strange story of a Nobleman of Silesia 600. Diuers stories of Sylvan Spirits 601 c. The seuen Sleepers 606. A strange story of a Spirit 607. Anton. Laverinus and the Diuell 609. Miserable ends of sundry Magitions 610. Empedocles Michael Sidecita and others 613 614. The miserable end of Cornel. Agrippa 615. An Emblem 616. A Meditation 619. FINIS Errata PAg. 9 Lin. 21. reade effect p 12 l. 4. r. one p. 14. l 13. r. Theognis p. 30. l. 4. r. summus p. 51 l. 18. adde puella p. 61 l. 20. a mistake in the star p. 148. l. 16. r. tenent p. 188. l. 1 r. Vrbem p. 190 l. 30. r. blessed p. 200 l. 7. for two r. three p. 203. l. 26 r. the other p. 212 l. 20 r. or p. 242 l. 1. then r when p. 263 l. 35. r globus p. 264 larco r. lurco nique r inque ni r. in p. 283 l. 28. r. symptoms p. 297 lâ— 31. r. flouds p. 349 l. 22 r. tye p. 382 l. 18. r. terram p. 400. l. 30. r. Acherontis p. 433 l. 10. alasâ—e r. a losse p. 439 l. 19. aine r. paine p. 485 l. vlt. r. cupessas p. 506 l. 11. r. tunnes p. 538 l. 17. r. rependere l. 24. r. medullis p. 557 l. 4. r. meus p. 574 l. 3 adde sends God in the Conscience In the Stars The Sun The Moon The Earth The Beasts Riuers Fields Seas The globe of the Earth Man Homo microcosmus Hermes Tresmâ—gist Cicer. de Nat. Deor. lib. 2. Arist. Metaph. The Poets concerning God Tit. Calphur. Eglog 4. Hor. lib. 3. Od. 4. Lucan lib 3. de Bel. Ciuil Metamor lib. 8 Petron. Arbit in Fragm Stat. Sylv. ti 5. Meaning the Angels Arist. ad Antip. AEneas Numa Pompil Virg. AEnead Epirus Brennus Sacriledge punished Religion from the beginning The multiplicitie of gods among the Gentiles * As twice borne Priap god of
Philosophy In Magick Lucius Apul. de Deo sacrat ex Beat Thom. part 1. G. 41. Art 1. Homer Arnob. in Ps. 36 Hermes Thermegistus Cipr. de Idoler vanitat Div. Thom. 3. Met. lib. 12. Tex 10. Dr. Strozâ— l. de Spir. lucant Iob. cap. 1. Meaning his Wife whom some Rabbies thinkâ— to be Dinab the Daughter of Iacob rauished by Sychem c Acts. Apost Eustr â— 1. moral 1. Cor. c. 2. v. 7 8 Ambr. sup Cor. cap. 2. Meaning the Daemons or Potestats of the Aire Simplicis ergo viae Dux est Deus Ille per vnum Ire jubet mortale genus quam dirigit Ipse c. Lib. 2. Cont Symach Spirits called Incubi Succubae Scotus These were Henricus Iustitor Iacobus Sprangerus Rottemb a Towne in vpper Germanyâ— A History of an Incubus Vincent lib. 3. Hist. An History of a Succubus Of that kind of Spirits you shall read in the Sequell Seuerall kinds of Spirits according to Marc. sup Psel Spirits of Fire Three Moones seene at once with a bearded Comet This appeared Annâ— 1514. A strange History of fiery Spirits Anno 1536. Mar. 21. This hapned after the mouÌ„taine had lest burning Ignes Fatui or Ambulones Helena Castor and Pollux Okumantâ—ia Onichomanteia Libonomantia Capnomantia Pyromantia Thurifumia Of the Spirits of the Aire Wooll tained This hapned Anno 931. Fish Graine fel froÌ„ the aire Two straunge Tombes Of Sepater the Magitian Iob cap. 1. Of the Finnes and Laplands Ericus King of the Goathes Of the Archimage Zoâ—oaster AEromantia Terotoscopeia OrnithomaÌ„tea Of the Spirits of the Water Fatae Feé Sybils white Nymphs Night-Ladies The Feasts of Numa Pompil The Nymphe AEgaerea The Feasts of Scotus Parmensis The Feast of the Brackmana and of Pet Albanus Pasaetis two famous Magitians A strange hist. of two Scotch Noblemen Mackbeth and Banco Stuart These were Names of Honor which Mackbeth had afore receiued Banco Stuart slain by Makb Ollarus the Magitian Othim Magus Oddo Magus Spirits the cause of Deluges Alex. the 7 This hapned anno 1515. Of the Spirits of the Earth The Spirits called Genij Lares Familiars Larvae or Lemures The Hist. of an euill Genius Spirits called Spectars Origen apud Celsum The History of a Spectar Card. ex Boeth Spiritus familiores Macr. de satur Olaus Magu A pleasant History of Iohn Teutonicus A place in high Germany Iobus Reply This was done Anno 1612. A strange History of one of these familiar Spirits Barn Arlun sec. 1. Hist. Med. The Letter Gilbert Cogn lib. 8. Narrat Of Pride Isiod l. Etimolâ— Epist. ad Diosâ— Aug in Reg. Hug. lib. â— de Anim. Cass. supr Ps. 18. Philosophicall Sentences Artabanus to Xerxes Apothegmes Pambo The Pride of Domitian Caesar Of Sabor K. of Persia. Lib. 2. cap. 1. de devin Institut advers gentes Prov. 17. Psal. 102. Valer. lib. 5. de Iâ—gratis Of Humility Cap. 5. Math. 18.19 Aug. ad Diosc. Lib 3. Similitudines Of Gratitude Lib. 7. cap. 3. Apothegmes Lib. 12. cap. 24. De vâ—ria Hist. lib. 4. Sabell Exemp lib. 7. cap. 1. Hierogliphick Emblem D. Strozza In vitis Patr. A Woman of Constance Miraculous Stories A strange and miraculous Birth Alcippe Hist. Scotia l. 8. A strange History of a Scotch Lady Anno 1586. A straunge thing of a woman at Sea Of the Spirits call'd Succubi A strange thiÌ„g of a French Gentleman Bonfinâ—us Iordan Gothus Of the Spirits of Fire Aug. Cont. Manichees de Agon Christ. Deuination from Thunder Lightning Cardanus A strange tale of Spectars The maner of Deuination by Pyromancy Diuination by the sacrificing Fire Of the Spirits of the Aire Iob. 1. Remigius Delrius Of a countrey Maid Gasp. Spitellus The Indian Magi. Hier. Mengius A prodigious noise in the Aire Diod. Sicul. Olaus Magnus Their power in the CirciuÌ„ sea Vestrabor Norway Boâ—hnia Bonauentum and Narbon Vincentius Vincentius Auentinus Bruno Bishop of Herbipol Of the Spirits of the Water Villamont l. 1. Peregrin c. 34. Sabel Dec. â— l. 7. A strange History of Hotheruâ— K. of Suetia and Dacia The Emperor Pertinax Sâ—heâ— lib. â— Zonarus Isaaccius Comnenes A strange Water in Finland A Lake neere Cracouia Alex. ab Alex. Sabell lib. 7. Of the Spirits of the earth Man consisting of 3 parts The Genius of Constantine Emperor A strange History of a Melancholy man A strange Disease as straÌ„gely cured Noon-Diuâ—ls S. Bartholmew Simon Iude. Alastores Pet. Diac. lib. 9. rerum Romanarum Egob in Chronic. An Alaster like an old Woman Apparitions before Henry the 7. emperor Cassius Parm. The Lamiae or Laruae Dion of Syracusa Drusus Consul of Rome Iacobus Donatus Venetus Stephanus Hubnerus Nider lib. vltim Formic The desperat aduenture of two Knights of Bohemia Nature hath giuen to man no better thing than Death Pliny Degeneres Animos timor arguit Virg. AEnead lib. 4. Quantumquisque timet tantum fâ—git Petr. Arbit Satyr Tunc plurima versat Pessimus in dubijs Augur Timor Stat. lib. 3. Theban Miserimâ—m est timere cum Speres nihil Seneca in Troad * The Houres 1. Esdr. c. 3. v. 10. The Power Strength of Wine The Power and Strength of the King The Power and Strength of Women The Power Strength of Truth aboue all things Esay 13.21 Cap. 34.11 This is a Marginall note in the Geneua translation Zijm Iijm Okim c. Subterren Spirits Olaus Magnus lib. â— cap. 10. Cobali The diuel called Anneberg The Diuel Snebergius Spirits the cause of earthquakes Strange earthquakes In Constant. In DyrrachiuÌ„ In Rome Anno 361. In the Eastern parts In Antioch In Illiria Pannonia Dalmatia Morauia Bauaria Dacia Auentinus reports this of Bauaria superior Conrad Medenb Philos. Mathem Of Treasure hid in the Earth kept by Spirits As Psellius As Laureat Ananias This is the opinion of D. Vlatius Treuirensis A strange attempt of a Botcher This place is called Angusta Raura Cora. Peke-hils in Darby-shire Ouky hole in Summerset shire So reported by Luciginus and Philostratus And. Theuerus A strange History of Cabades King of Persia. D. Faustus and Cornel. Agrip. Of spirits called Lucifugi Iohn Milesius Pugs Hobgoblins Robin good-fellow Fairies Reported by Sueton. Tranq Plin. in Epist. A strange story reported by Fincelius Georg. Tauronensis of Datius Bishop of Mediolanum A strange History of one recouered to Life Enapius remembred by Plutarch A strange History of the Spirit of the Buttry Certain marks by which good Spirits are distinguished from the bad What shapes diuels may assume what they cannot Their actions A special mark to know euill Spirits by Athanasius Lactantius Of Musicke A Coelo Symphonia The velocitie of the heauens and planets The ambition of Man to search into hidden Arts. Plenâ—i vâ—cuâ—â— Iob cap. 38. Cor. cap. 3.16 Iob 5.13 Eccles. 8. The Academicks The Pyrhonicks Contra negantem principia non est disputandum c. Diag Milesius Theod. Cyrenus Epicurus Protagoras Opinions concerning the Soule Crâ—â—es Theban Hypocrates Lysippus Hippâ—as Anâ—xag Diâ—g Hâ—siodus Epic. Boethius Ant. Cleantâ—es Zeâ—â— Diarch Galenus Chrisip Archel Heraclitus Thales Xenocrates Of the Seat of the Soule Hippocrates Hierophilus Erasiâ—tratus Diogen Chrisip Cum Stoicis Emped Arist. Plato Concerning the Immortality of the Soule Pythagoras Plato The Stoicks Aristotle He that would find the truth let him search the Scriptures Aug. de Trinitat lib. 1. cap. 3. Aurel. Imperat. Against Couetousnes The Poets of Couetousnes Prov. cap. 11. Cap. 15. Cap. 28. Eccles cap. 5. Ibid. 14. The Fathers of Avarice Historicall Examples Brusonius lib. 1. c. 1. ex Plut. Stob. serm 10. Max. serm 12. Caligula Comnodus Hierogliphick Emblem 85. Apologus The Witches of Warboys in Huntington shire Macrob. lib. 1 satur cap. 18. A straÌ„ge story of a NoblemaÌ„ of Silesia A strange Vision of Syluane Spirits Sabell lib. 1. c. 4. A stranhe History of a Syluane Spectar Another recorded by Fincelius Gaspin Meng in CompeÌ„dio Mantuae A yong man beloued of a Spirit A yong Maid beloued of a Spirit Of another Maid of Bonnonia Onomonteia Arithmanteia Stoicheiomanteia This History I receiued from D. Strozza lib. de Incant These questioÌ„s haue been diuersly argued The names of the 7 sleepers Paulus Diac. Necessary obseruations D. Strozza Remedâ—es against the teÌ„ptations of the Diuell Anton. Lauer. Tobit c. 8. v. 3. The miserable ends of notorious Magitians Simon Magus Nicenus of Simon Magus Zito the Bohemian a cuÌ„ning Iugler A triall of skill betwixt two Magitians This story is reported by an ItaliaÌ„ Doctor Of Zedech a Iew a great Magitian Polidor Virgill The miserable end of Empedociss Mich. Sidesita a Sorcerer Of Eumus an English Magitian and his wretched end Scafius the Magition A Magition of Nuburch The miserable end of Cornel. Agrippa Levit. 20. v. 6. SERAPH Vriel CHERVE Iophiel THRONES Zaphkiâ—l DOMINAT Zadkiel VERTVES Haniel POWERS Raphael PRINCIP Chamael ARCHANGELL Michael ANGELL Gabriel