l. 4. c. 9. Od. Gissaeus supra Niceph. Eccl. Hist l. 15. c. 25. Blosius in Monili Menol. Cisterc 22. Dec. Chron. Diep an 1467. Tho. Malvenda Tom. 1. Annal. Ord. Praed an 1221. Much more doth the learned Doctor urge to prove that what the Papists offer to the Shrine of that which they call the Blessed Virgin can be nothing less than giving Divine Honour and Adoration to an unclean Spirit but I fear I have been tedious in transcribing this tho it were to be wished that all professed Christians were truly convinced of the danger and damnableness of this Roman Doctrine For if That which was never commanded by God in his Word ought not to be introduced into his Worship If Whatsoever pretended Saint or Angel claims a Religious Adoration be to be reputed Diabolical and unclean Then what can be concluded of those Worshippers and these Saints in the Roman Church unless it be this that they have not introduced only the Doctrine but the down-right Worshipping of Devils It is not for nothing that the Holy Spirit of God doth in the Sacred Writings by his inspired Pen-men so often warn and call off his People from Idolatry it is not for nothing that the Eternal Fountain of Blessedness expresses such an inflamed Jealousy against the Israelites for departing after strange Gods and that the Divine Vengeance always followed that Impious Abomination with such tremendous and smoaking Judgments For when once the profligated Spirits can obtain for Deities in their Temples and Altars it is not to be expected that the true and Eternal God should have any place in the heart of such a People Therefore the Scripture calls Idolatry a departing from the Holy One a going a Whoring from him The Samaritans had that Opinion of the works which Simon the Sorcerer performed by Witchcraft and a Diabolical Confederacy that they called him the mighty power of God in the 8 th Chap. of the Acts. But by the verse preceding it appears that he had fascinated their minds and laid his Charms on their understandings that they were in such a condition as Paul terms the Galatians they were bewitched that they should not Obey the Truth And it cannot be supposed that any thing short of some forcible Enchantment could prevail with those of the Roman Communion to give faith to those lying Wonders and Divine Worship to those eluding Spirits which upon that account have the Shrines erected amongst them By what hath been said it is evident that those Ghosts or Spirits which require Temples and Worship are no other then some of the Tainted Expulsed Legions and that the strange Miracles performed by the Images or at the Shrines of these Deities are the old delusions continued whereby they drew the Antient Pagans after their Oracles Groves and Pythons c. and the Papists now a days into an Adoration of Images Altars and Relicks Still the old Confederacy is kept up tho under new Forms and Notions And perhaps it is none of the smallest Policies of the Agents of that Communion to impose upon their Credulous Ones the belief that there is no such thing as a Witch that so their performances of that kind may the better pass under the notion of a Miracle But by the following discourse any one that will not wilfully blind himself may discern the strange and vast power that the Deceiver of the Nations still maintains amongst the degenerate race of men And so I have put an end to the first Part. THE SECOND PART OF Pandaemonium Giving an Account of divers most Remarkable Witchcrafts Also a further Account of Daemons and Spectres never before Published BY what hath been said in the foregoing pages it is evident that the Prince of Darkness hath a very large Dominion among the Sons of Men That he hath his Temples Altars and Sacrifices and though under new and different names still draws off poor biggotted wretches to pay unto his Implous Shrines that Honour Homage and Adoration which is only due to the most High There are besides these another sort of the Infernal Disciples who give themselves up immediately to the Conduct and disposal of the Apostate Angel by entring into League and Covenant with him and giving themselves up to those Black and Interdicted Mysteries which justly are punished with death both by the Divine and Human Law These have their Familiars of the dark Region that assist them in the Execution of their Hellish purposes by this means they attain to performances vastly transcending the capacity of Human Agents as much as can be supposed that Spiritual and Angelical Beings exceed in Subtilty Agility and Power whatsoever can be pretended to by meer Mortals It would swell this Volume to too large a bulk should I speak of the divers ways and manners by which they enter themselves Scholars to the School of Darkness besides divers learned and famous Authors have taken great pains herein I shall therefore no longer detain the Reader from an account of divers very Remarkable Relations never yet Printed the Truth of which will be averred from Persons of unquestionable Reputation now alive the things themselves having been done within the compass of these very few years And if some sober and ingenious Persons would undertake but to commend to the publick the Occurrences of this nature in every County It would doubtless be a work very acceptable to all good men and of great use for the conviction of others The first Relation An Account of the Troubles that happened in the house of Peter Pain a Shoe-maker living in Mary Poel Street in the City of Bristol extracted out of a Letter sent me from Mr. J. R. a Gentleman of good Ingenuity and Reputation an Inhabitant of the City aforesaid Dated June 25. 1683. Sir ACcording to your desire in a Letter I received from you on Saturday last I have here sent you the true and real Account of the passages you desired That which was related by our late Dean was thus That about 45 years since the house of Peter Pain then a Shoe-maker in St. Mary Poel Street in this City was extreamly disturbed with most surprizing and unaccountable noises for some time and one night above the rest about 12 of the Clock the usual noise was accompanied with so great a light through the whole House as if every Room had been full of burning Tapers or Torches These repeated scenes of Horrour so amused the whole Family that they applied themselves to Mr. Toogood the then Minister of St. Nicholas who was easily prevailed withal to visit the House which he had no sooner entred but he became an Ear-witness of the most dreadful and accustomed noises so together with the whole Family he repaired into a Chamber at one end of a Gallery at the other end of which was a large bulky Trunk full of old lumber and so heavy that four or five men were not able to lift it Having shut the door to them the Minister
Ostentatious Pomps of Devilish Rites and Ceremonies And as the offering of Bullocks Lambs Doves and such like were ordained by the Divine Command to be offered in the time of the Ceremonial Law when the Priest entered into the Holy of Holies and that not without Blood as the Apostle of the Gentiles notes So were the Altars of the Ethnic Idols steeped in Blood and that not only of Beasts But they Reek't with Humane Gore So we read that they caused their Children to pass through the fire to that Canibal Moloch and often in the History of these deluded Oriental Nations we read they Sacrificed sometimes a Youth sometimes a young Damsel to pacify their Incensed Deities In the 18. Chapter of the 1. Book of Kings in that mighty defeat of the Priests of Baal when they contended with the Prophet of the Lord in the 28. verse they cut themselves with Knives and Lancers after their manner 'till the Blood Gushed out upon them By which it appears that it was Customary for those Biggotted Wretches to Implore the aid of their detestable Mock-Deities Nor can any one that reads the Modern Histories of Witch-Craft and Sorceries be Ignorant that the Compacts and Confederacies of those deluded ones are confirmed with their Blood either by making their mark with it on certain Cov'nants drawn between them or by permitting their Familiar to draw their Blood at those Bestial Teats which for that purpose the Succubus draws in the parts of their Bodies What were the Pythones or Pythonici so much resorted to of Old But because by the predictions they uttered by the Assistance of the Black Angel they had got the estimation of Prophets and Prophetesses This made King Saul in the 1. Sam. 28. Chap. 7. vers enquire for one that had a Familiar Spirit or a Pythonem as the Latain translation hath it And this was it which caused the King of Moab thrice to send his princes and Servants to the Son of Behor for they had in their hand the reward of Divination Numb 22. vers 7. So that if they had not believed him to have had such a Familiar or Spirit for what reason should they carry that reward with them Besides they apprehended that he had the power of Blessing and Cursing ver 6. As the Biggotted Papists at this day Impute to their Pythonic Priest the Pope tho it be the Command of our great High Priest to his Disciples that they bless and Curse not It is farther Observable that Balak took Balaam to the High places of the Idol Baal from one place to another where they used to offer Sacrifices and Expect the answer of their Diabolical Gods by the mouth of the Priest who used to Divine unto the People They Imputed a great virtue and power to those places where their lying Spirits used to Confer with them therefore when the Prophet could not Curse Israel from one of the High Places the King takes him to another and to a third with a peradventure thou mayst have a power to curse them from thence But the Prophet being Commanded by God was compelled to declare to him in chap. 23. ver 23. Surely there is no Inchantment against Jacob neither is there any Divination against Israel It is evident to any one who hath read the Histories and Classick Authors of former Ages that the great Apollyon and Abaddon hath uttered his Oracles Riddles and sayings not only out of the Bodies part of the Bodies of Humane kind as he spake out of the Demoniac in the Gospel and Mornaeus de veritate Religionis chap. 23. quotes it out of Diodorus that Oracles were Edit a per Pudenda Puellae and there were too your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. ventriloqui or such as were heard to have discourse or words uttered and pronounced in their Bellies But this Spirit hath spoken sometimes out of Trees as in Dodonos Oak out of Statues as that of Memnoe and many others of which more will be said hereafter The Caves of the Earth and Sometimes the open Air have resounded with voices sentences and noises of this Infernal Daemon sometimes assuming the Vehicle of one Shape sometimes of another and at other times not at all exposing himself in any visible form It is almost incredible how Antient Authors abound with Relations of this kind how frequently they mention the feigned Gods and Goddesses of the Field of Woods of Houses of Mountains Rivers Desarts Springs and such like offering themselves to Men and People at some times in one Shape at other times in other forms requiring Worship Ceremonies and Rites after divers manners and fashions now and then accosting People with pleasant and diverting Encounters and sometimes affrighting them with furious Shapes Gestures and Menaces Of these Plato in his Epominede speaks very largely treating of the force and Powers of the defunct Heroes which the Latins named Lemures Houshold Gods also Manes Ghosts and Genij and Demons diversly sorting themselves in the Air Earth and divers Regions of the World distinguished by several offices and affairs to which they sometimes apropriated themselves They had multitudes of other names conferred on them as Fauns Satyrs Nymphs Hamadriades and a great Number of others The Learned Antiquary Mr. Cambden in his Britannia among the Antiquities of the Romans which he records to have been found in this Island makes mention of Divers Altars to the Diis Manibus and other Loci Genij c. And the Apostle Paul mentioneth many Altars Erected by the Athenians to these kind of Deities amongst which he found one Inscribed to the unknown God But those to whom the Gospel of truth hath been Preached have been taught to believe that there is but one only true God and therefore may be well assured that these were evil Spirits and Diabolical delusions and that paying Adoration to their Impious Shrines or teaching others so to do is a Doctrine of Devils And that such have been and are still by many Barbarous Nations acknowledged is evidently confirmed by the universal agreement of all Histories Records and times and that they were manifestly seen known and familiarly discerned by the outward senses cannot by any Rational and Candid Reader be denyed haveing been so fully proved by Testimonies both Divine and Moral In the next place we shall Compare the Idolatries of the Roman Church with those of the Ancients and prove by Natural Consequence that Idol Worship is a Confederacy with Devils and a practice necessarily promoting that detestable sin of Witch-craft 'T is very true that the Catholick Doctors as they call themselves affirm that they do not teach Images to be Worshipped but certainly when we have enquired into the Doctrines as well as practices of their Church we shall find that such like Evasions are but Jesuitical Shams and pious frauds with which they would wipe off the Odium of their gross Superstitions amongst the Ignorant and Credulous For their Jesuites and Fathers generally
cent 5. chap. 10. and this may fairly be reckoned as the first publick entrance and establishment of Saint-Worship in General since 't is probable the Blessed Mary obtained the Honour or rather Dishonour of their Misdirected Devotions as soon as any other meaner Saint yet true it is that some private men Transported with blind zeal and a little Tinctured with Platoes Notions did before begin to hanker after some such thing and some of the Fathers now then seemed to give too much encouragement thereto by unwary Panegyricks and flashes of Rhetorick on departed Martyrs amongst the rest St. Jerom was much addicted thereunto and for the same justly opposed by Vigilantius in a Treatise wrote on that very occasion The Worshiping of Angels had no better ground for that practise was anciently Introduced by certain Hereticks thence called Angelici as St. Augustin witnesseth Ad Quod vult Deum cap. 39. and indeed these seem to have infested the Church in the Apostles days occasioning that Caution of St. Paul Coloss 2.19 Let no Man beguile you in a voluntary humility and Worshiping of Angels not holding the head c. Which the Greek Scholiast pa. 697. thus interprets There were says he divers that under pretence of modesty forbad them to go to Christ by themselves but that the favour of Angels must be Intreated to Introduce us to God So Theodoret on the same text p. 766. Useing pretence of Humility they gave Counsel to pray to Angels saying we could neither see nor comprehend nor come to God and therefore must Conciliate his favour by Mediation of Angels It is evident this Saint and Angel Worship is a piece of revived Paganisme For the Gentiles besides their Dii Superi which they owned to be Gods by Nature had their Daemons and their Hero's the Spirits of brave Men departed whom they Worshipt just as our Papists do not simply and absolutely but as Intercessours for them to the Superiour Deities Hence Tully in his book de Legibus Deos c. Let the Gods be Worshiped as well those of the upper house who were always counted Celestial as those whom their own Merits have called into Heav'n And again he says Deorum manium jura sancta sunto hos letho datos Divos habento Let the rights of the Ghost-Gods be kept inviolable and let them after death be Worshiped as second-rate Deities by which is evident how exactly our Catholick Romans have renewed the Idolatrous Laws of their Heathen Ancestours The Gentiles Attributed the same offices to their Demons which our Papists expect from their Saints to be Mediators Factors or Agents for them so Plato in Synopsi All intercourse between Gods and Men is performed by Demons they are the Carriers of Mens Prayers to the Gods and they bring back rewards of Devotion to mortals so Apuleius in his Demon Son Cuncta Coelestium voluntate Numine Authoritate fiunt sed Demonum Obsequio operì Ministerio All things says he are done by the Will Power and Authority of the Celestial Gods but by the means dispatch and Ministration of Demons By which they did not ascribe an absolute but only an Intercessive Power to them It is certain that the Papist can no farther prove their setting up and Worshiping of Images to be Lawful and not of Heathenish Original then the Israelites could the setting up their Calves at Dan and Bethel or Solomon and the succeeding Kings Justify their setting up the Altars of Baal and Moloch and the rest of their Abominations which are reckoned amongst the highest provocations against the Almighty who always by his Prophets warned them against that detestable and crying sin denounced the Wrath of God against them which ever follow'd them with severe Judgments for those horrid Impieties in Psal 106.35 to 43 There the Idols of the Heathen are called Devils to which they Sacrificed Innocent Blood so that 't is said in vers 40. The wrath of the Lord was kindled against his People insomuch that he abhorred his own Inheritance One of the first Images that ever we read of that was set up purposly to be Worshiped was that consecrated to Belus the Successor of Ninus amongst the Assyrians who were Paynimas and Eusebius testifieth in his Eccl. Hist l. 7. cap. 17. Or in the Greek 18. The Men of old out of a Heathenish Custom were wont after that manner to honour those they called Hero's or Saviours And in the year of our Redemption 606. Boniface the fourth Pope of Rome caused a Heathen Temple called Pantheon because built to the honour of all the Gods to be dedicated to the Virgin Mary and all Saints and likewise Instituted that Festival called all Saints day wherein the Pope himself must read service Diverse also of the Images which the Pagans had Worshipped were dipt into the name of Saints and under that notion are still Worshipped Upon the whole then here is a bare Exchange of Pagan Gods for Popish Idols and Heathenish Heroes for modern Saints So that it may be said of them they have Changed their Gods but not their Religion But they are still stocks and stones and the work of mens hands by what names or Titles soever they Dignify and Distinguish them are guilty of as much yea much more Idolatry and Blasphemy than their Predecessors the Heathen Romans for they knew not the Evangelical Rule and could not be reckoned such willful obstinate incorrigible opposers of the Divine Command So that what Lamech said to his two wives may with some Alteration be applyed in this case If the Pagan be avenged seven fold surely the Papist seventy and seven fold They pay the same Adoration to their Images as they do to God the Father for him they represent by sometimes the Image of an old man with a Globe in his hand and a reverend beard Sometimes they figure the Trinity as the Heathen Poets did Cerberus by an Image with three heads and faces c. With a Solemn pace they pass before them and fall down to the ground on their marrow bones they go Pilgrimage to them present them Lamps and Candles and offer up Incense and Gold whilst some pretending strange Miracles and lying Wonders hang up Crutches Chains Legs Arms and whole men of War at their Shrines as if by them they had been delivered from Lameness Sickness Captivity or Ship-wrack some of these they pretend have more vertue and holiness in them than others such a one say they was sent from Heaven like the Palladium or Diana of the Ephesians another was brought by Angels a Third came it self from East to West as Dame fortune fled to Rome With abundance of such Fopperies wherein they not only act over all the Fictions and Fables of the Heathenish Poets but vastly transcend them They Invocate their Images as Gods bestowing Divine Attributes upon them taking them to be at the same time in all parts of the world giving Audience both in this and the Lower
of Enquiring of her was supposed verse 7th Besides it seems evident that the Samuel there raised up was not by the power of the Witch for she was affrighted when she saw Samuel and cryed out like one in a surprise and under a Disappointment of what she Expected This was none of her Familiars that appeared for then we may conclude she had not been transported with such a fear Her Confederates were tyed up and could not answer her but it is most probable to be the Prophet Samuel raised by the power of God to pronounce the Sentence of death upon Saul and his Sons for his Disobedience which the Holy man had told him was as the sin of Witchcraft and for Violating the Righteous Command in applying himself to the Witch of Endor contrary to the declared will of God Not unlike to this was that dreadful Judgment of Fire from Heaven which at the prayer of Eliiah fell upon the two Captains and their Fifty's when Ahaziah King of Samaria had sent his servants to Enquire of Baalzebub the Idol or Daemon of Ekron in 1. chap. 2 Book of Kings But how many more of this kind are mentioned in Scripture besides the Witch of Endor will appear if we read what is recorded of Manasseh Jesebell Simon Magus and Elimas the Sorcerer with many other Instances of the same kind whereof the New Testament as well as the Old hath divers extraordinary Relations but of that the passage in the Prophesie of Isaiah chap. 2. ver 6. they are southsayers like the Philistines And it is evident by the 19. verse of the 18. chap. of the same Prophesie that the Jewish Nation were in a great measure given up to the Satanicall delusion of enquiring after Witches and Sorcerers and such as divined to them by Pythons so that they forsook the holy Oracles of the Divine Law and in their difficulties they counselled one another to apply themselves to those forbidden abominations Therefore it must proceed from a Neglect or careless Perusal of the Sacred Books that any one should be ignorant of other instances of Witches besides that of the Pythoness of Endor Suidas has a most considerable proof of the Daemons answering the Heathens by Oracles where speaking of Augustus Caesar's enquiring at an Oracle who should be his Successor the Oracle returned him this answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which may thus be Englished A Boy Of Hebrew Offspring whom the Gods Adore Commands me hence to Hell my proper shore Henceforth forbear Our Altars to implore The Emperour at his return commanded an Altar to be Erected in the Capital having this Inscription Haec est Ara Primogeniti Dei This is the Altar of the first-born of God Now it is plain that our Saviour was born dureing the Reign of this Augustus for in the second chap. of St. Luke we find that Joseph and Mary went up to Judea to be taxed at that time when Augustus had imposed a General Tax upon the World and that during their abode at Bethlehem the blessed Nativity happened of which the Eastern Sages had notice by his Star and that the Roman Cesar had some such apprehension or Impression at least the words upon the Altar do plainly manifest And if this relation of Suidas obtain credit it may easily be Evinced that they were Daemons or Crafty Spirits which answered at the Oracles of the Heathens for if we admit that many answers were given by the Cunning and Jugling of their Priests Yet it could not make for their interest to discredit their Oracle nor for the Credit of their Deity But the almighty power of the Son of God forced those Infatuating Spirits to acknowledge his Soveraign Divinity as the unclean Spirit in the 8. chap. of Luke verse 28. What have I to do with thee Jesus thou Son of the most High God Thus at the arising of the Son of Righteousness did the Dark Oracles vanish as the shadows of the night are chased away by the Appearing of the Sun beames To which may be added what Plutarch relates in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He tells yee that a certain company sailing from Greece towards Italy happened of a sudden to be becalmed and one Thamus an Egyptian who was of the Ships Crew was called three times at the third call he made answer Here am I whereupon the voice bad him when he came to the Palodes certain Shelves in the Ionian Sea that then he should publish that the great Pan was dead And then the Ship was discharged of her restraint and went forward so that whâ—n they came to the place appointed Thamus from the Poop of the Ship published what he had been commanded whereupon followed a great noise of shrieking and lamenting together so that the Sea resounded with the lamentation The Emperour Tiberius having been made acquainted with this passage demanded of his wise men who this great God Pan might be But the best answer they could give him was that he was the Son of Mercury and Penelope But this circumstance happening just at the time when our Saviour was crucified it was concluded by more intelligent and considerate men that by the Great God Pan was meant the Blessed Redeemer of Mankind who by his Death on the cross Overthrew the Kingdom and power of Satan so that the Devils were now to Quit those Oracles by which they had so long deceived the World and on this account those Spirits might be thought to make that great and dismall lamentation For from that time they soon ran into decay and the Delphi Oracula cessant which Juvenal records makes it plain that they were but of short continuance after the fatal blow given them on the Cross when our blessed Saviour gave up the Ghost with an It is Finished Now had these Oracles been managed only by the subtilty and artifice of the Priest it is very improbable but they might have been of longer continuance for the Priests continue to be as Crafty and Covetous as ever and as dexterous at all the feats of Juggling and Legerdemain But it is plain the time of their delusions was expired and it is no small Argument of the power of the Gospel of Truth that those vanquished Spirits flye before it they retire with the molten and Carved Images to the Owls and to the Batts not being able to endure the splendour of the Tidings of Salvation Hence it is that in those Countries where there is least Idolatry and where the sincere preaching of the Word of Power is countenanced there it is very rare comparatively to meet with instances of the Satanical craft and power his strong holds are beaten down tho some small forts he still retains amongst the ignorant and superstitious but in countries where Idolatry and Paganism prevail he Governs as among the Children of disobedience Here he hath his Groves his Cells and Hermitages and Altars He
sinful Mortals so they generally startle and awaken a secure and sinful World to meet God in the way of his Judgments or if they have not that good effect on the sensual and Disobedient they are at least Messengers of Joy and Harbingers of Grace to those who apply themselves to Study the Voice of God in his Providences Whilst we are foretold in the Holy Scripture that Wicked men and seducers shall wax worse worse deceiving and being deceived For the Spirit of Delusion to which they adhere shall betray them into gross mistakes and palpable deviations such are Generally Impenetrable by the Warning of Heaven they are Judicially Blinded and Infatuated that they should not come to the knowledge of the Truth Thus the Prophet Ezekiel tells us of a Spirit of Lying which entered into the False Prophets and they cryed Peace Peace when a sudden desolation and destruction from the Lord was coming upon them And this will be the dreadful case of those miserable Wretches who have given themselves up to the Conduct of the Father of Lyes Who either out of a belief that they have no souls have given themselves over to work Wickedness Or else despising the Glories of a Blessed Eternity have Listed themselves under the Banner of Satan to Fight against the Power of the Omnipotent And that Atheism Idolatry Sensuality and Debauchery have a Natural Tendence to promote this Impious and Diabolical Confederacy hath been hinted in the forgoing Pages Which being so Regulary Learnedly and Largely Treated of by the Excellent pens of Dr. H. M. and Mr. J. G. before mentioned in the second part of Saducismus Triumphatus I shall presume to Wade no further in the Argumentative and Philosophical part but proceed now to give an Account of the most Atested Relations of Ancient Witches and thence descend to some very remarkable and Credible Modern Relations most of which have happened in these Few years and will be attested by persons of Unquestionable Worth and Reputation now alive amongst us CHAP. VI. Examples of Witchcraft and Familiarity with Devils amongst the Antient Druids Sybils Vestal Virgins and Heathen Priests IT is one of the Black Marks which the Apostle of the Gentiles gives us of Antichrist That he shall sit in the Temple of God and shew himself to be worshipped as God And if we consider the Temples Groves Altars Sacrifices and Priests that the Antients in the days of their Blindness and stupid Idolatry Erected and Consecrated to their Infernal Deities we shall find that this Exaction of Worship and Adoration which Antichrist lays claim to was in the former Ages paid unto the Devil himself and that the Apostate Church of Rome usurped to her Revolted Head those Sacred Rites in conformity to those Sacrifices which their Idolatrous Ancestors paid unto the Revolted and Apostate Angels This Chapter therefore shall be filled with an Enumeration of some of the first Proficients in the Black Infernal Mysteries that we may make way to parallel them with an Account of the Proficience of divers Popes and Orders among the Idolatrous Romanists in the same dark and Diabolical Arts in some of the following Pages But what Astonishment may it well raise in us if we but remark that not only those Barbarous Nations that never knew the true God nor had the Advantages of his Law and his Prophets amongst them should follow the foul Abomination But even the chosen Israelites to whom as the Psalmist elegantly expresses the Almighty arose Early and sent his Prophets who saw his wonders in Egypt in the Red Sea and in the Wilderness who saw the Lightnings heard the Thunders and the solemn noise of Trumpets when their Captain Moses receiv'd the Law from the mouth of the Most High on Mount Sinai and had there that First Positive and Repeated Command against Idol-worship which by the dreadful and amazing Judgments inflicted on them for that provoking sin can be thought to be understood no otherwise than Devil-worship See Exod. 20.23 Yet notwithstanding that this Israel should forsake the God that bought them and marked them by special favours from all the Nations of the Earth This you 'l say is stupendious Ingratitude and tremendous Apostacy What can be thought of that Biggotted Ahab who is said to have Taught Israel to sin He had been nurst up under a Whorish Idolatrous Mother the Patroness of the Priests of Baal And he makes little less than a challenge to the Almighty to contend with his Adored Baalim See 1 Kings 18. They were then so besotted that they thought Baal to be a greater God that he who laid the Foundations of the Earth and whose Thunders their Rebellous Fathers had heard on the Sacred Mountain Was it possible that those Infernal Priests should expect an answer by Fire from their detestable Idol unless they had at some time or other by some Voice or Motion or by some Success of their Impious Adorations been deluded into an Opinion that there was something Sacred in that which they reared their Shrines unto It is I think indubitable that the Devil the Father of Lyes and Blasphemies had some way or other gull'd them into that opprobrious Worship They skipt up and down upon his Altars and lanced themselves until the blood gushed out with their Devils Littany O Baal hear us or We beseech thee to hear us O Baal What can this be but an Invocation of the Devil and bears so near a Resemblance unto Witchcraft as if it were the Original of it Do the False Prophets call upon the Devil in their Idol So do the Witches call upon their Familiar Do they offer Sacrifice to their Gods So do these to their Goblins They allure them with Incense and Perfumes they eat and drink by way of Oblation to them as the Priests used to do in their Idol-Temples And as the Hellish Priests offered their own Blood to Baal so do these Infernal Haggs in their Contracts with Beelzebub So that having now cleared the way by explaining the foul Conformity and Analogy betwixt Idolatry and Witchcraft it may well be expected that I should assume the premised Method and give some Instances of Antient Examples to make good the Thesis Therefore not to look back upon those dreadful Examples which the Sacred Writings afford us of the hardened Israelites I shall proceed with some Remarks upon the Antient and much Celebrated Sybils And that it was the usual Compellation the Ignorant Antients gave to their Familiars Spirits or Genii to call them Gods none need doubt who have read what is related of the Pythoness of Endor in the Book of Samuel where she replies to King Saul I see Gods coming up out of the Earth So in 1 Kings 20.21 The Syrians speak of the Gods of the Hills add of the Valleys by which it is evident they reckon'd those Daemons which used to shew themselves unto them in those places to be Gods nay the Idolatrous Gentiles paid an Adoration to them
that Order Then the Doctor asks your Opinion of the following Miracle which he thus relates A Bishop moved with passion against a Covent of Franciscans was resolved to turn them out of his City and to do it the next day The night before behold their Sacrist sees in a vision the Image of St. Paul and the Image of St. Francis both painted in the Church window talking earnestly one with the other He hears St. Paul extreamly blaming St. Francis for no better defending his own Order and St. Francis answering to him What shall I do says he I have but a Cross and that is no defensive Weapon but had I a sword as you have for commonly they represent them so perhaps I might do somewhat more The man being awak'd starts out of his bed and his imagination being full of this runs to the Church finds the two Pictures had exchanged their Arms Paul in the window had the Cross and St. Francis had the Sword This amaz'd the whole Covent but that which is more then all the rest St. Francis had not St. Pauls Sword in vain for that same night the Bishop had his throat cut What Evangelical Doctrine can be confirmed by these three Wonders Pictures that can speak and move St. Paul that exhorts to revenge and a Saint who during his life made Conscience as they say to kill a Louse now can cut his Bishops throat What can be inferâ—d from this unless it be this wholsome Doctrine that Bishops are not Jure Divino but Friers are All these and whole Millions of other such Roman Miracles are not fit for Christs Calendar because they never were accommodated for persuading men of the truth of Christs Gospel and upon that account must needs proceed from any other than his Spirit Authors quoted for proof of this second mark are S. Anth. 3. part Hist l. 23. c. 3. Ser. 1. Chron. Diep an 1231. Hist Carnat an 1116. Archiev Buburg in fraud an 1383. Menol. Cistere 28. April Leand. in vita Hyacinthi ap Sur. 16. August Gregor in Dialog passim Specul Exemp Tit. Excommunicatio Exemp 5. Ibid. Exemp 4. Ibid. Tit. Confessio Exemp 22. Ibid. Tit. Eucharistia S. Bonav in vita Franc. Hieron Platus de bono statu Relig. l. 5. c. 33. The third foul mark he mentions of Roman Miracles and which will put it beyond all doubt that they are the effect of Diabolical Confederacies and Impostures is that besides the evil tendency of them they appear and shew themselves unto the world in such suspicious times as may justly discredit and call in question even true and real Miracles The gift of Miracles being unto Teachers what credential Letters and Royal Colours are unto publick Officers which signify much unto good Subjects whilst they know them granted to none but such as the King doth really send but very little after they see those in the hands these on the backs of every dirty Carrier who hath a mind for his own ends to Counterfeit them and rant with them No man takes for good payment whatsoever hath Caesars Image after he hears of false Coiners who have dispersed vast sums abroad and marked them with the same stamp We are not now in the priviledged days either of Moses or Elias or of Jesus Christ or his Apostles when neither all the Magicians could make one Louse nor all the Baalims light fire on one Altar nor all the workers of false wonders open their mouth against the Son of God We live in such times when the Devils in all mens account are let loose from such a restraint and the Church left unguarded of such a protection When false Prophets may arise with such Prophesies and false Christs with such Miracles as if it were possible might deceive the very Elect. Now the Mirabilarians as St. Augustine calls them are abroad against whom saies he Cautum me fecit Dominus The Lord himself and his Apostles after him have given us all sufficient warning so that it would be a great folly in us to take notice or run after such as have a permitted power of Counterfeiting true Miracles therewith to amuse the simple The glorious work of our Blessed Saviour his Disciples and other Apostolical Fathers were done in such clear days as dissipated and scattered all suspicions and imaginable Clouds of Imposture the Devils had not so much as the liberty to preach the Truth Mark 1.25 If either Simon Magus or Elimas tho Sorcerers of the highest rank did but offer to play their old Game and shew their devilish Feats you read in the Acts how they were kept in Thus this mighty restraining hand rather than the intrinsecal greatness of the work was an infallible Evidence which in those days shined about all true Miracles whereas the Revelations and Feats of the Romanists must needs be full of suspicion and noted for such by all good Christians since they came forth when all false Christs and false Prophets have the liberty to work them Then come up the Apparitions of sad Souls by thousands to acquaint their Friends with their condition underneath and what neither Moses nor the Prophets nor Jesus Christ himself nor his Apostles ever thought to mind us of distressed groaning Spirits make it their principal business to throng about craving for help for Pilgrimages and Masses Then come Images to bleed or sing or mourn as occasion requires and the Consecrated Elements the better to justify what they are not appear with blood with flesh and even sometimes with whole Children It passes all understanding how the Virgin Mary who kept her self so long above would not come down among us Mortals either sooner or in less suspected times or on more serious Errands Five hundred years may be accounted when all good Authors will justify that she continued as quiet above and that she after so long rest and abode in the blessed Mansions should take such an unlucky and obnoxious time to come down and shew her self to men when the Devil and his foul Spirits are permitted to play their pranks this indeed is very admirable It can hardly be imagined that she who never did appear to any of the Primitive Holy Fathers in a less suspected juncture should in these last and Branded times shew her self to a dirty Monk Did not St. Austin before he died being besieged by Barbarians deserve as well her protection and a guard of her armed Angels as St. Dominick did whilest he held a poor pitiful Heretick about the neck with his Rosary wherefore had none of these holy men St. Athanasius St. Hillary St. Cyprian as well the comfort of a kiss or an embrace as Loyola Stephen the Minime and a thousand more less deserving it Or how comes she who never was known to take notice of any trouble disease or imprisonment of true Saints as the Head-ach of St. Chrysostom the sickliness of St. Basil the infirm body of St. Gregory Nazianzen the Prisons and Tortures of all
the Martyrs now to be running up and down to relieve all sorts of persons to cure a Jesuit with her Child whom she laid by him in his bed to cure whole Countries of purple Feavers and to free several Rogues that had well deserved hanging from the Gallows from Dungeons and from all imaginable sorts of dangers How comes this fancy to take her so late of bringing down out of Heaven Crosses Hoods Books Robes Holy Water and such other Utensils which the Fathers in former times never had nor expected from her The truth is these kind of Apparitions and Miracles were most advisedly reserved until such times as these latter are dark and confused and more propitious to Imposture and these strange new transactions have another reason besides which I wish Roman-Catholicks would seriously consider and it is this As long as the Blessed Virgin had no more honour in the Church then what became a Creature and was allowed to her by the Fathers to be Honoured not Adored no Antient Author will tell you that she ever appeared among men But as soon as the latter times brought in publick Services to pray with unto her and Images to pray to her by then she or rather some other Spirit under her name began first to bestir her self then she and a multitude of other Saints with her seem to come down and appear at the voice of these new Prayers just as the Soul of Samuel did or rather seemed to come up at the Mysteries of Endor Ever after the pretended Queen was seen in the Roman Church as in her Heavenly Palace and she had more Angels to wait on her in the least of her ordinary Progresses then our Blessed Saviour himself had in any of his most solemn appearings But as when the Devils will look like Angels you may still they say either perceive a Cloven Foot or smell a stinking vapour that betrays the pretended glorious appearance so Roman Miracles and Visions have commonly some black mark which may convince any sober man that they are not really what they seem to be Consider in the Holy Scriptures what the true Saints and Angels of God have done whenever they met with more Honour then was their due or ask St. Austin what those Spirits are who take it when it is given or call for it when it is not No Saint nor Angel says the good Father will take of others what they know to be due only to God as it appeared by Paul and Barnabas who tore their cloaths when the people offered to worship them to shew they were meer men And by that Angel who rejected Adoration They are unclean Spirits that are for Worship and tho they care little for flesh yet they pride themselves in Sacrifices because God under the Law appointed them for his own service And in another place he says Good Angels are for this one thing that with them we may serve God in whose contemplation they are happy but they who invite us to serve themselves are like proud men c. only the serving of proud Devils is more hurtful And in another place he says Coelestial and happy Spirits will have us Sacrifice not unto themselves but unto God whose Oblation they are as well as we and therefore all Revelations and Miracles that invite us to serve more than one God are such seductions of Devils as any pious and prudent men must needs throw off for this is their proud Malice who by that Token are noted neither to be good Angels themselves nor the Angels of a good God For the good Angels love us so well that they will not have us to serve them but the true God only This was the Opinion of St. Austin in his time by which it appears what his thoughts were of Saint and Idol-Adoration Let us now bring to these Christian Rules most of the Roman Miracles and Apparitions Let us see when ever this humble Spirit did with the good Angel reject one Worshipping or devout Adoration shew wherever she once tore her cloaths at the hearing of Te Deum and the whole Psalter of David sung and applied most Blasphemously from God to her Certain it is that for several Centuries of years the steps of another Spirit are to be found in her ways seeking continually for more honour We may behold one who strokes and kisses pious men because they both begin and end their best devotions with her praises who teaches in what godly form they must pray to her for all Blessings who calls them into brakes of Thorns and Nettles and sometimes into holes under ground to find and Adore her Images one who can put on the shape of a Stag or a Pigeon or a great Queen purposely to shew the place and stone where she must needs have an Altar or a Chappel or a great Church that there she may be served and Worshipped to the worlds end and there walk and delight her self one who in all these Churches brags among Men as if she were the Mother of Compassions the Lady of the House of Prayer and the Fountain of all Blessings Lastly one who spreads forth about her a great Mantle therewith to betoken the largeness of her Mercies and Favours which she says she denies to none that will come to her with faith And now let St Austin or any good Christian judge what kind of Creatures these Spirits are and what great difference there is between those which among the Pagans did perpetually labour for Sacrifices and these which now among the Papists are all for Masses and the greatest oblations that can be set on Romes Altars Mean while we may be confident that none but God alone can own Sacrifices Altars and Churches to be served with none but Devils ever owned Images to speak move or any wise to work in such Spirits as these may be the Authors of all the boasted Miracles Apparitions and Revelations among the Romanists and such appearances and delusive Operations are very fit for such Spirits and both foretold and reserved for the last times And so it may be guess'd what that Church is that hath her proper establishment both from such Wonders and such Saints For proof of what is spoken upon this third head relating to the timing of Popish Miracles see the following Authors Aug. in Joh. Trac 13. sub fin ibid. Specul Exemp Tit. Ros Exemp 1. Attich Cron. Ord. Minim an 1612. Chron. Diep an 1561. Oliver L. Mirac Mar. Montis Albert. de viris Illust Ord. Praedic Epiphan Contr. Haeres l. 3. adv Collyrid August contr Faust l. 20. c. 21 22. Idem de vera Relig. c. 25. Idem de Civit. l. 10. c. 7. Ibid. c. 16. Ibid. c. 7. item l. 9. c. 23. Caesarius l. 7. Hist c. 25. Leander de viris Illust Chron. Diep an 1372. Chron. Diep an 1178. Franc. Hierasc in vita Henr. Silice Odo Gisseus Hist virg Aniciensis In vita Manaveriap sur 5. Jun. Arch. Gian cent 3. Annal.
for that is the Falconer and so turned him about to sleep again which put the poor Falconer into a deeper Consternation till at length he had the Courage to call to some of the Neighbour Lodgers amongst whom the Chaplain being awake came to his relief and it is thought in very good season for the Company he had unadvisedly raised began to be very Troublesome In fine the Chaplain discharged the unwelcome Guest and advised the Falconer hereafter to peruse no Books but what he did in part understand before Advertisement SOme People by perusing unlawful Studies have put themselves in the power of Evil Spirits And though some may look on this Relation but as a jest upon inquiry it will be found a real Truth The seventh Relation An Account of a strange and horrid Spectrum seen by Mr. Edmund Ansty of South Petherton in the County of Somerset ABout four years since being in the House of Mr. Josias Ansty at the place aforesaid Mr. Edmond Ansty who was a very Reverend Old Man upward of fourscore I take it near a hundred years of Age and had always been a temperate and sober Liver gave me this Relation That when he was a Shopkeeper in that place about sixty years from the time of his relating it to me he used to frequent several Fairs for the furnishing his Shop with such goods as he had occasion for he had at that time been at a Fair very well known in the West Country by the name of Woodbery-Hill Fair and having bestowed such moneys as he thought convenient for his occasions he resolved to return home that night though the Journey was so long that another person would hardly have undertook it but having a good Horse and no worse resolution he set forward on his return but was overtaken by a dark night when he was about a dozen miles from home however being pretty secure of the way he resolved to pursue it till at length coming to a place not far from Yeovil noted by the name of Cut-hedge his Horse rushed very violently with him against one side of the Bank snorting and trembling very much so that he could by no means put him on his way but he still pressed nearer to the Bushes At length Mr. Ansty heard the Hedges crack with a dismal noise and perceived coming towards him in the Road which is there pretty wide a large Circle of a duskish light about the bigness of a very large Wheel and in it he perfectly saw the proportion of a huge Bear as if it had been by day-light It passed near by him and as it came just over against the place where he was the horrid Monster looked very gashfully at him shewing a pair of very large flaming Eyes As soon as ever it was gone by his Horse sprung into the Road and made homeward with so much hast that he could not possibly rein him in and had much ado to keep the Saddle The old Gentleman is lately dead but there are many of the Neighbours of good reputation that have often heard him relate this passage and upon enquiry can witness the Truth of it The Eighth Relation Of divers strange Appearances of Spirits in a Noblemans House in the West ABout the year 1667. being with some Persons of Honour at the House of a Nobleman in the West Country which had formerly been a Nunnery I must confess I had often heard the Servants and others that inhabited or lodged there speak much of the noises stirs and Apparitions that frequently disturbed the House but had at that time no apprehensions of it for the House being full of Strangers the Noblemans Steward Mr. C. lay with me in a fine Wainscot Room called my Ladies Chamber we went to our Lodging pretty early and having a good fire in the Room we spent some time in reading in which he much delighted then having got into Bed and put out the Candles we observed the Room to be very light by the brightness of the Moon so that a Wager was laid between us that it was possible to read written hand by that light upon the Bed where we lay accordingly I drew out of my Pocket a Manuscript which he read distinctly in the place where he lay We had scarce made an end of discoursing about that affair when I saw my face being towards the door which was lockt entring into the Room through the door five Appearances of very fine and lovely Women they were of excellent stature and their dresses seemed very fine but covered all but their faces with thin white Vails whose skirts trailed largely on the floor They entered in a file one after the other and in that posture walked round the Room till the foremost came and stood by that side of the Bed where I lay with my left hand over the side of the Bed for my head rested on that arm and I determined not to alter the posture I was in she struck me upon that hand with a blow that felt very soft but I did never remember whether it were cold or hot I demanded in the name of the Blessed Trinity what business they had there but received no answer then I spoke to Mr. C. Sir do you see what fair Guests we have come to visit us Upon which they all disappeared I found him in some kind of Agony and was forced to grasp him on the breast with my right hand which was next him underneath the Bed-cloaths before I could obtain speech of him then he told me that he had seen the fair Guests I spoke of and had heard me speak to them but withal said that he was not able to speak sooner unto me being extreamly affrighted at the sight of a dreadful Monster which assuming a shape betwixt that of a Lyon and a Bear attempted to come upon the Beds foot I told him I thanked God nothing so frightful had presented itself to me but I hoped through his assistance not to dread the Ambages of Hell It was a long time before I could compose him to sleep and though he had had many disturbances in his own Room and understood of others in the House yet he acknowledged he had never been so terrify'd during many years abode there The next day at Dinner he shewed to divers Persons of Principal Quality the mark that had been occasioned on his Breast by the gripe I was forced to give him to get him to speak and related all the passages very exactly after which he protested never to lie more in that Room upon which I set up a resolution to lodge in it again not knowing but something of the reason of those troubles might by that means be imparted to me The next night therefore I ordered a Bible and another Book to be laid in the Room and resolved to spend my time by the fire in reading and contemplation till I found my self inclin'd to sleep and accordingly having taken leave of the Family at the usual