painful person Renatus des Cartes who brought in revived and refined the old Doctrine of Atoms ascribed to Democritus and other of the Ancients found for a long time much opposition insomuch that when he lived at Utrecht in Holland the Aristotelian Professors of that University became so inflamed with envy at him that their Scholars raised the Rabble of the City at the sound of a Bell to drive him out of Town And yet this mans Philosophy hath had the luck to triumph in that University where so much contempt was poured upon him for Henricus Regius the publick Professor of Physick there hath published a Book of Natural Philosophy agreeable to the Principles and design of Des Cartes and is in a manner generally received and applauded and by the honourable Mr. Boyle much made use of and by him styled the Corpuscularian Philosophy So was not that must learned and diligent Mathematician Galalaeus imprisoned for seeing more than others could by the help of his Optick Glasses losing as one saith his own liberty in Prison for giving the Earth liberty to fetch a round about the Sun And yet now to what great height of improvement are Telescopes arrived unto and what credit is given to the Observations made with them though in their birth their first Author and User so much opposed and punished for all Inventions that are new as well as Opinions are in their beginnings opposed and censured not considering that all acquired Knowledge and all Arts and Sciences were once new and had their beginnings 3. When Josephus Quercâ—tanus and Sir Theodore Mayern did labour to introduce the practice of Chymical Physick into the City of Paris what cruel censures and scandals did they undergo by all the rest of the Physicians of the Colledge so that they were accounted illiterate and ignorant Fellows and dangerous Empiricks not fit to practise in the King of France his Dominions and so were sentenced by the Colledge and prohibited to practise So far did ignorance self-interest and blind malice prevail against these two persons of so much Worth and Learning insomuch that the former was made Physician to the King of France and lived to see despised Chymistry to flourish where it had been most contemned himself to be honoured and his Chymical Works to be published and to be had in great and general esteem with all that were Lovers of Learning The latter likewise out-lived the malice of all his enemies and saw himself advanced to be Physician to two potent and renowned Kings of England and to have the general practice of the most of the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom and to live to a fair old age and to dye vastly rich So that even the bravest men for their noble endeavors for the good of Mankind have always found harsh usage 4. It hath fared no better with divers persons that have written of abstruse and mysterious Subjects such as were Arnoldus de Villa Nova and Raimundus Lullius who because they handled that secret and sublime Art of the Transmutation of Metals were by the ignorance and malice of Francis Pegna and the John Tredeschen of Rome Athanasius Kircherus with some others branded with the name of Magicians taken in the worst sense Facile est reprehendere maledicere so apt are men through over-weening pride and self-conceitedness as though they were ignorant of nothing to take upon them to censure all things when Artists only are fit to judge of those proper Arts in which they are verst and bred in and not others For it is not sufficient for a man to be verst in many parts of Learning but also in that very Science or Art in which the Question is propounded as for Example Suppose a man to be well read in School Theology Metaphysicks Logick Grammar Rhetorick Ethicks and Physicks yet for all this how unable were he to resolve one of the difficultest Propositions in Euclid no more can any person though never so generally learned if he perfectly do not understand the method terms ground matter and end of the Writers in mystical Chymistry be any competent Judge of their Art nor of the nature of Transmutation And this might justly have bridled Kircher and many other rash and vain Censurers to hold back their judgment until they perfectly understand the matter about which they are to give judgment and to have considered that Maxime of the wisest of men Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit there is more hope of a fool than of him But notwithstanding these groundless slanders against Arnoldus that he was guilty of Diabolical Magick from which the Pen of learned Nandaeus hath totally discharged him though he otherwise according to his petulant humor and prejudiced opinion against the Art of Transmutation of which he was no competent Judge for the reason foregoing cast some unworthy reflections both upon him and Lully yet he confesseth which is but the bare truth as every learned Physician doth sufficiently know that have heedfully read his Writings of the Art of Medicine in these words That it is certain he was the learnedest Physician of his time equally acquainted with the Latine Greek and Arabian Tongues and one whose Writings sufficiently witness his abilities in the Mathematicks Medicine and Philosophy the practice whereof gained him favour and imployment about Pope Clement and Frederick King of Sicily who certainly would never have made use of him if he had thought him a Conjurer or Magician such as many judged he was As for Lully notwithstanding the malevolent froth of some rash malicious and ignorant Writers he was guilty of no other Magick but what was natural lawful and laudable as his profound and learned Works if his blind Adversaries had ever taken pains to have perused them who frequently censure and condemn those things they never saw read or understood do witness beyond all exception and is all justified by the testimonies of so many learned and judicious persons that more cannot be said to his praise and vindication The most of his learned Works being kept in the Library at Oxford written in an ancient hand which would never have been done if they had not been highly esteemed and prised For as Zetznerus the great Stationer of Stasburgh saith Tantae suo fuisse aevo authoritatis atque aestimationis legitur ut justissimi Arragonum Reges cum in privilegiis eidem concessis magnum in Philosophia magistrum mirandarum artium scientiarum authorem nominârint Lastly one Father Pacificus in his Journey from Persia 1628. came into the Isle of Majorca where Lully was born and to his great admiration found the Statue of Lully there in Wood curiously coloured and he honoured as a Saint whom he had before judged an Heretick as also a Society of Professors following the Doctrine of Lully and called Raymundines or Lullists and that they affirmed that by Divine illumination he had the perfect knowledge of Nature by
needs be false But this tenent of Samuels Soul acting in the Body after death is flatly contrary to the plain Doctrine of the Scripture ergo it is false The major we suppose no Oxthodox Christian can justly deny and the minor is proved thus The Scripture doth assure us that those that die in the Lord as without all doubt Samuel did are blessed and rest from their labours Therefore must this Tenent be abominably false for if the Soul of Samuel after his death had been brought again to act in the Body then he had not rested from his labours but had been disquieted and brought to new trouble to have been vexed to have seen Saul committing more wickedness than before in taking counsel from a cursed Idolatrous Woman such as the Lord had commanded to be destroyed And there is no one point in all this transaction of Saul with the Witch that speaketh her Imposture more apparently than where this counterfeit Samuel saith Why hast thou disquieted me As though the Saints of God after death could be disquieted by a Devil or a Witch who according to Gods infallible truth are blessed and rest from their labours and are in the hands of the Lord where no Torments can touch them And therefore none would have spoken those lying words but a devilish cheating quean or a damnable suborned confederate 6. If Samuels Soul was again joined to his body so long after separation and so performed vital actions who was the author of this conjunction or union could the Witch or the Devil or any created power effect that union Surely not none but the almighty power of Jehovah who breathed into Adam the breath of life And therefore we are bold to assert with all the company of learned Christians that this opinion is erroneous impious and blasphemous 2. The second opinion that it was Samuels Soul that appeared in his wonted shape and habit that he wore while he lived hath been strenuously maintained by the Popish party and as strongly confuted by the reformed Divines But we shall not trouble our selves and our readers with them all but only urge two or three that are most cogent thereby to answer Mr. Glanvils fopperies and they are these 1. If it were Samuels Soul that appeared it cannot be supposed to come contrary or whether God would or not for hardly any rational Man we believe will affirm that because God doth whatsoever he will both in Heaven and Earth and who hath resisted his will 2. And it cannot be rationally thought that Samuel who whilst he lived was so punctually careful to do nothing especially in his prophetick office but what he was commanded of God would after his death run an errand without his consent or licence 3. And that his Soul did not come by the command of God is most certain Though Mr. Glanvil ask the question who saith that happy departed Souls were never imployed in any ministeries here below To which though we have answered it before we now again reply that all learned Divines of the reformed Churches have said and maintained it and so do we both say and affirm that they never were nor are imployed in ministeries here below because never created nor ordained of God for any such end or purpose but there are legions of Angels that are ordained to be ministring Spirits and not the Souls of the Saints departed this life But Mr. Glanvil goeth further and saith that Samuel was not raised by the power of the Witches inchantments but came on that occasion on a Divine errand And though we have before unanswerably proved in the general that no Souls of those that are dead do after death appear or wander here below nor come such sleveless errands as he supposeth yet we shall add one or two here in particular to prove that Samuels Soul came not on a Divine errand as sent by God without which mission it could not have come at all 4. For fourthly if Mr. Glanvil had proved by any argument or colour of reason that his Soul had come upon such a Divine errand it had been something but he hath only laid down an affirmation without either proof reason or authority and we may with as good reason deny it as he affirm it for bare affirmations prove nothing at all 5. It is manifest that God in all his ordinances of providence especially in the order of his miracles doth work chiefly to confirm and witness truth for that as the worthy and learned Stillingsleet hath observed is the most proper criterium of a miracle and to send a Soul from the dead must needs be miraculous Now if the chief end in Gods working of miracles for none else but he can work them be to establish truth and settle his own Divine and pure worship then it cannot be to uphold lies and Idolatrous courses But if God should have sent Samuels Soul on a Divine errand when the Witch was practising her Diabolical Divinations and cheating tricks it had been to have countenanced and confirmed both Saul and the Witch in their wicked wayes and to have contradicted his own law and command which did positively order that all that used Divinations should be put to death and all those that sought for counsel from them to be severely punished Now let Mr. Glanvil or any other prove that God orders that to be done by the dead which he forbad to be done by the living 6. If it had been the true Samuel that appeared it is not rational nor credible to imagine that he would neither rebuke Saul for consulting with a Woman that practised those things that were forbidden by the law upon pain of death nor that he would either reprove or punish so wicked a Woman finding her in the very act We say it is not credible unless we suppose Samuel less zealous for the law and commands of God being dead than he was for them being living Surely he that living hewed Agag in pieces only because God had commanded he should be slain would if it had been the true Samuel which without all question it was not have done as much or worse to the cursed and Idolatrous cheating Witch though after his death if he had come upon a Divine errand 7. God should have shewed himself very mutable if he had answered Saul in a miraculous way by a dead Prophet that had refused to answer him by one living And Samuel while living knew certainly that the Lord had rejected Saul from being King over Israel and had testified unto him that the strength of Israel would not lie and that he was not like a man that he should repent But if it had been the true Samuel that had been sent to speak to Saul he knowing both by his own knowledge and relation of Saul himself that God had refused to answer him by Prophets must in that conference both have made God a liar and mutable and also himself who living had testified
Though an argument taken à denotatione nominis be of little weight or validity and that the industrious and sharp-witted person Galen doth seem to make little account of words that is in this respect when we would only understand the nature of things yet in another respect he concludeth thus Verùm qui alterum docere volet quae ipse tenet huic prorsus nominibus propter res uti est opus Now the handling of Controversies is chiefly and principally to inform others and teach them the truth and to discover errours therefore in this respect the explication and denotation of words is exceeding profitable and necessary and so Plato in Cratylo tells us Nomen itaque rerum substantiam docendi discernendique instrumentum est And it being a manifest truth that words are but the making forth of those notions that we have of things and ought to be subjected to things and not things to words if our notions do not agree with the things themselves then we have received false Idola or images of them but if we have conceived them aright and do not express them fitly and congruously then we shall hardly make others understand us aright nor can clearly open unto them the doctrine that we would teach them 2. But to come to the signification and acceptation of the words that those Authors who have magnified and defended the power of Witches have used to express their notions by we shall find them to be so far fetcht so metaphorical and improperly applied that no rational or understanding man can tell us what to make of them And if we take the notion as they do of a killing and murthering Witch with the rest of the adjuncts which they couple with it we shall not be able to find a proper and significative word either in the Hebrew Greek Latine French Spanish Italian or High-Dutch but a multitude or a Ferrago of words whereof not one doth properly signifie any such thing as they would make us believe by the notion that they maintain of a Witch of which we shall principally note these 1. For the Hebrew words used in the Old Testament we shall not mention them here but afterward where we speak of the mis-translation of them and therefore shall pursue them in the Latine and other Languages And first they sometimes use the word Lamia in the Latine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek which Gesner and others tell us doth signifie a terrestrial Creature or a voracious fish as also a Spectrum or Phantasm And this was supposed to be a Creature with a face like a Woman and feet like a Horse or an Ass such as indeed neither is nor ever was in rerum natura but was only a sigment devised to affright children withal But if we will believe Poetical Fables the Romances of Philostratus concerning Apollonius or the lying Diary of his Man Damis we must take it to be a Spirit or Apparition such as the Greeks called Empusae that went upon one leg and had eyes that they could take forth and set in when they pleased And such a monstrous Fable and Lye was a sufficient ground for doting Witchmongers to build their incredible stories of the power and actions of Witches upon having no proper word for such a Witch as they falsely believe and suppose Though there be a Text in the Lamentations of Jeremiah that hath given occasion or colour to this vain opinion especially as the vulgar Latine renders it which is thus Sed Lamiae nudaverunt mammam lactaverunt catulos suos Filia populi mei crudelis quasi struthio in deserto The French render it The Dragons have made bare their breasts and so have also the Italians in their Translation retained the words Dragon and Ostrich and also the Septuagint render the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Luther in his Translation hath kept the same words though the Germans call Lamia Ein 〈◊〉 But our own Translation hath come more near the truth Even the Sea-monsters draw out the breast they give suck to their young ones the Daughter of my people are become cruel like the Ostriches in the wilderness And Arias Montanus gives it thus Etiam draco 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tannin which signifieth a Dragon Serpent Whale or other Sea-creatures solverunt mammam lact averunt catulos suos Filia populi mei in crudelem veluti ululae in deserto But none hath come up close to the mark but Junius and Tremellius who render the place thus Etiam Phocae praebent mammam lactant catulos suos quomodo filia populi mei propter crudelem inimicum est similis ululis in deserto And the Notes upon the place do make it plain Vox quidem Hebraea latè patet significans serpentes reptilia magna sive terrestria sive aquatilia sed cùm non omnium reptilium sint mammae neque aquaticorum sint ii quos Propheta vocat catulos necesse fuit hunc locum ad Phocas id est marinos vitulos accommodari qui à natura sint quasi Amphibii Nam Draconibus accommodari non potest cùm volucrium solus vespertilio mammas habeat serpentium terrestrium nulla species mammata est ac proind◠haec ad marinum istud genus referri debent 2. Another far fetcht and improperly applied name to Witches is Strix and so some Authors call them Striges when as the word Strix doth properly signifie a nocturnal bird à stridendo sic dicta that do use to suck the dugs of Goats and also of young children which we shall shew hereafter to be a Truth and no Fable as Ovid saith Nocte volant puerósque petunt nutricis egentes Et vitiant cunis corpora rapta suis. Carpere dicuntur lactentia viscera rostris Et plenum poto sanguine guttur habent Est illis strigilis nomen sed nominis hujus Causa quòd horrendâ stridere nocte solent This is that sort of bird that Gesner calleth Caprimulgus and the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Germans Rachtvogel or Rachtraven the Hebrews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lillith as is said in Isaiah Quin ibi subitò quievit strix seu lamia invenit sibi requiem It is taken to be a kind of Owl litter bigger than an Ousel and less than a Cuckow they are blind upon the day and flye abroad upon the nights making an horrible noise and were to be found about Rome Helvetia and Crete or Candy and do certainly suck the dugs of Goats that thereby they waste away and become blind And that they are also sometimes found in Denmark that learned Physician and laborious Anatomist Bartholinus doth make manifest and that they do suck the breasts or navils of young children Now what affinity hath this to a Witch or Witchcraft but that Witchmongers would bring in any allusion or Metaphor though never so impertinent or incongruous For if it were
others and this was nothing but contagion or corrupt steams issuing from one body to another which may happen in many diseases as is manifest by the Writings of divers learned Physicians as in bodies infected with the Plague French Pox Leprosie Ophthalmies and such like 3. Sometimes Fascination is taken for some kind of Incantation that by virtue of Words or Charms doth perform some strange things but concerning this there is such incertainty of the opinions of the Learned some flatly denying that Words or Charms have in them any natural efficacy at all others as strongly affirming it that of this point it is very difficult to make a clear determination and therefore we shall say but this of it here that the Angelical Doctor did conclude well in this particular in these words Ad sciendum autem quid sit fascinatio sciendum est quòd secundùm glossam fascinatio propriè dicitur ludificatio sensus quae per artes magicâ—s fieri consuevit putâ— cum hominem facit aspectibus aliorum apparere leonem vel cornutum hujusmodi Having been thus large in considering the names and denomination given to those persons that are esteemed Witches and finding them to be so improper impertinent various and uncertain let us now proceed to the notion and acceptation of Witchcraft and Witches to try if in that we can find any more certainty or consonancy and herein we shall produce some of the chief descriptions that are given of them by several Authors for to quote all would be tedious and superfluous Those that are or may be accounted Witches we rank in these two orders 1. Those that were and are active deceivers and are both by practice and purpose notorious Impostors though they shadow their delusive and cheating knaveries under divers and various pretences some pretending to do their Feats by Astrology which is a general Cheat as it is commonly used some by a pretended gift from God when they are notoriously drunken debauched and blasphemous persons such as of very late years was the Cobler that lived upon Ellill Moor named Richmond and divers others that I could name but that in modesty I would spare their reputations some by pretending skill in Natural Magick when indeed they can hardly read English truly some by pretending a familiar Spirit as one Thomas Bolton near Knaresborough in York-shire when indeed and in truth they have no other Familiar but their own Spirit of lying and deceiving some by pretending to reveal things in Crystal-glasses or Beryls as was well known to be pretended by Doctor Lamb and divers others that I have known And some by pretending to conjure and call up Devils or the Spirits of men departed and some by many other ways and means that are not necessary to be named here for errour and deceit have a numerous train of Followers and Disciples And the existence of such kind of Witches as these if you will needs call them by that name and not by their proper titles which are that they truly are Deceivers Cheaters Couseners and Impostors I willingly acknowledge as having been and are to be found in all ages and these sorts are also acknowledged by Wierus Mr. Scot Johannes Lazarus Gutierius Tobias Tandlerus Hieronymus Nymannus Martinius Biermannus and all the rest that notwithstanding did with might and main oppose the gross Tenent of the common Witchmongers And of this sort were all those several differences of Diviners Witches or Deceivers named in the Scriptures as Mr. Ady hath sufficiently declared in this passage which we shall transcribe A Witch is a man or woman that practiseth Devillish crafts of seducing the people for gain from the knowledge and worship of God and from the truth to vain credulity or believing of lyes or to the worshipping of Idols And again he saith Witchcraft is a Devillish craft of seducing the people for gain from the knowledge and worship of God and from his truth to vain credulity or believing of lyes or to the worshipping of Idols That it is a Craft truly so called and likewise that it is for gain is proved Act. 16. 16 19. The Maid that followed Paul crying brought in her Master much gain and that it is a Craft of perverting the people or seducing them from God and his Truth is proved Act. 6. 7 8. Elimas the Sorcerer laboured to pervert the Deputy from the Faith So likewise Act. 8. 9 10 11. it doth more plainly prove all these words And there was a man before in the City called Simon which used Witchcraft and bewitched the people of Samaria saying That he himself was some great man to whom they gave heed from the least to the greatest saying This man is the great power of God and gave heed unto him because that of long time he had bewitched them with Sorceries How bewitched them with Sorceries That is seduced them with Devillish Crafts as the Greek and also Tremelius Latine Translation do more plainly illustrate In this sense speaketh Paul to the Galatians 3. 1. O foolish Galathians who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth And that a Witch or Witchcraft is taken in no other sense in all the Scripture it appeareth by the whole current of the Scriptures as you may see in this Book But against this Mr. Glanvil and the rest of his opinion will object and say that it is hard and severe that Cheaters and Impostors should be ranked with Inchanters and such as converse with Devils and with Idolaters and that of this it is hard to give a reason To this we shall give this full responsion 1. We are to consider in what precise respect actions are in Sacred Writ called sinful and wicked and wherefore they have such severe punishments annexed unto them and we shall find that this is not ratione medii vel actûs sed finis As for instance and illustration we shall find that the Law was peremptory in point of adultery which saith If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband then they shall both of them dye Now the act of copulation as it is an act is all one with a lawful wife and with the wife of another man that is one generically considered and yet the one is lawful as agreeing with Gods Law and Ordinance and the other is unlawful sinful wicked and therefore to be punished with death because it is an aberration from the Divine Ordinance and contrary to the Command of God who saith Thou shalt not commit adultery So though the things committed by these persons were or might be performed by natural or artificial means that simply in themselves were not sinful or so severely punishable yet were they evil in regard of the end which was to deceive and seduce the people to Idolatry 2. Therefore the true and punctual reason why these persons termed Witches or Diviners are by the Law of God so severely to be punished is because they
melancholy persons to fear things not to be feared and to feign things quae nec picta usquam sunt nec scripta A Plebeian he saith with them abounding with melancholy blood did imagine that his Nose was grown to that greatness that he durst not go abroad for fear it should be hurt or justled upon by those he met And that a famous Poet at Amsterdam did believe that his Buttocks were of glass and feared their breaking if he should sit down Another Old man of prime Dignity did suspect that he had swallowed a nail which being lost he could no where find and thought himself much tortured by its being fixed in him But was restored to his health by having a Vomit given and the Physician conveying a nail into the matter that he cast up And that a certain man in England would not make water for fear that all the blood in his body should have passed forth by that passage and therefore straitly tyed the yard with a thred for some days which swelling he was not far from death but that his Brother by force untyed it The Books of Physicians are very full with such relations and we in our Practice have met with divers as strange as these and cured them Also he tells us this A certain Student of a melancholick Constitution distracted with grief for the death of a Sister and wearied with lucubrations did complain to Bartholinus of the Devil haunting of him and did affirm that he felt the evil Spirit enter by his fundament with wind and so did creep up his body until it possessed the head lest he might attend his Prayers and Meditations with his accustomed devotion and that it did descend and go forth the same way when he bent himself to Prayers and reading of Sacred Books Before these things he used to be filled with unheard of joy from his assiduous Prayers and watching that also he had heard a celestial kind of Musick and therefore despising all mortal things he had distributed all things to the poor but that now piety waxing cold by too much appetite after meat and his brain troubled with that wind that he had heard a voice of one in his brain upbraiding him with Blasphemy and that he felt hands beating and a stink passing before his nose By all which Bartholinus guessed that it was Hypochondriacal Melancholy and by good Counsel proper Physick merry Company and rightly ordering of him he was perfectly cured 4. To these we will only add this that is related by Marcellus Donatus Physician to the Duke of Mantua and Montferrat to this purpose That he knew a Noble Countess of their City that did most earnestly affirm that she was made sick by the Witchery and Incantation of a certain ill-minded Woman which was apprehended by a learned Physician to be notwithstanding her fancy nothing else but Hypochondriacal Melancholy which he cured by giving her proper Medicaments to purge that humour and ordering her Waiting-maid to put into the matter she voided Nails Feathers and Needles which when with a glad countenance she had shewed to her Mistress she presently cryed out that she had not been deceived when she had referred the cause of her disease to Witchcraft and afterwards did daily recover more and more 3. And as ignorance and irreligion meeting with a melancholick Constitution doth frame many persons to strange fancies both of fear and credulity so when to these is added the teachings of those that are themselves under a most strong passive delusion then of all others these become most strongly confident that they can perform admirable things As when a person hath by education suckt in all the grossest fables and lyes of the power of Witches and familiar Devils and therein becometh extremely confident heightned with the fumes of black Choler and so thinks meditates and dreameth of Devils Spirits and all the strange stories that have been related of them and becometh maliciously stirred up against some Neighbour or other And so in that malicious and revengeful mind seeketh unto and inquireth for some famed and notorious Witch of whom they believe they may learn such craft and cunning that thereby they may be able to kill or destroy the persons or goods of those that they suppose have done them injuries Then meeting with some that are strongly deluded and confidently perswaded that they have the company and assistance of a familiar Spirit by whose help they believe they can do almost any thing especially in destroying men or cattel they are presently instructed what vain and abominable Ceremonies Observances Unguents Charms making of Pictures and a thousand such fond odd fopperies they are to use by which they believe they can do strange Feats And from this do proceed their bold and confident confessions of lyes and impossibilities that notwithstanding have abused so many to take them for certain truths so that according to the Proverb Popery and Witchcraft go by Tradition and we shall find none of these deluded Witches if they must be so called but they have been taught by others that thought themselves to be such also And this is a truth if we may trust the confession of Alizon Denice at the Bar at Lancaster who saith thus That about two years agone her Grandmother called Elizabeth Sotheres alias Dembdike did sundry times in going or walking together as they went begging perswade and advise this Examinate to let a Devil or a Familiar appear to her and that she this Examinate would let him suck at some part of her and she might have and do what she would But besides these two sorts of Witches whose Existence we deny not there is an acceptation of the word Witch in another sense the Existence of which I absolutely deny and that is this according to Mr. Perkins A Witch is a Magician who either by open or secret League wittingly and willingly consenteth to use the aid and assistance of the Devil in the working of Wonders But the full Description and Notion that the common Witchmongers give a Witch is this That a Witch is such a person to whom the Devil doth appear in some visible shape with whom the Witch maketh a League or Covenant sometimes by Bond signed with the Witches blood and that thereby he doth after suck upon some part of their bodies and that they have carnal Copulation together and that by virtue of that League the Witch can be changed into an Hare Dog Cat Wolf or such like Creatures that they can flye in the air raise storms and tempests kill men or cattel and such like wonders This notion of a Witch may be gathered from the Writings of these persons Delrio the Jesuit Bodinus Jacobus Springerus Johannes Niderus Bartholomeus Spineus Paulus Grillandus Lambertus Danaeus Hemmingius Erastus Sennertus and many others As also from the Writings of our own Country-men Mr. Perkins Mr. Bernard of Balcombe the Author of the Book called Demonology Mr. Gaâ—le Mr.
and skill And to this opinion do the Schools both of the ancient and later Academicks wholly incline and seems to be favoured both by Dr. Moor and Mr. Glanvil himself and if there be any such matters doubtless from thence did arise all the strange stories and gests that former Generations have told and believed concerning the Apparition of these kind of Creatures which the common people call Fayries of which the Reverend and Learned person Bishop Hall giveth us this touch The times are not past the ken of our memory since the frequent and in some part true reports of those familiar Devils Fayries and Goblins wherewith many places were commonly haunted the rarity whereof in these latter times is sufficient to descry the difference betwixt the state of ignorant Superstition and the clear light of the Gospel And whosoever shall seriously read and consider that little Piece that was printed some few years since though written long ago and by some that pretend to no small share of Learning cryed up exceedingly for a most convincing Relation to prove the Existence of Spirits called The Devil of Mascon may easily gather that if the thing were truly related as to the matter of fact that it must needs be some Creature of a middle Nature and no evil Spirit both because it was such a sportful and mannerly Creature that it would leave them and not disturb them at their devotions as also as far as I remember for I have not the Book by me because it denied that it was a Devil and professed that it hoped to be saved by Christ. 4. That the Scriptures contain in them all things necessary to Salvation is so clear a truth that none but those that are wilfully blind can deny it for Christ taught his Disciples all things that he had learned of the Father and the Father sending him to be the Saviour of the World and to preach the Gospel of eternal Salvation was not defective in declaring all things that were necessary to accomplish the work and end for which he was sent forth of the Father And the glorious Apostle St. Paul tells the Disciples and Brethâ—en That he had not shunned to declare unto them all the counsel of God which must of necessity be abundantly sufficient for their Salvations And he telleth Timothy That he had known the Scriptures from a child which were able to make him wise unto salvation All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness That the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works Nay the Woman of Samaria had so much knowledge and faith that she believed that when the Messias was come he would tell them all things Now to the obtaining of Salvation there is nothing more necessary than to know what enemies men have to fight against in their Christian Warfare which the Apostle tells in these words For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places Wherefore they are to take unto them the whole armor of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that made the Apostle say in another place We are not ignorant of his devices or crafts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now the Scriptures being able to make us wise to Salvation it hath sufficiently declared the natures powers knowledge and offices of both the good and bad Angels and is a sure word of Prophecy unto which it is good to take heed and not unto old wives fables of Apparitions and Goblins such as Mr. Glanvil would perswade us that they are tydings of another World when we are taught by unerring testimony of Truth That those that have Moses and the Prophets and do not hear them neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead And therefore we must be bold to tell Mr. Glanvil that the Sacred Scriptures do with infallible certitude teach us that both good and bad Spirits have most certainly an Existence and therefore we need none of his feigned nor forged stories of Apparitions which if they were certainly known to be true and real by undeceivable matters of fact yet he that doth not believe what is written of the Being of Spirits by Moses and the Prophets will not believe Apparitions no not of a man if he came from the dead And therefore I will conclude with that precious and pithy Sentence of St. Austin who saith Major est hujus Scripturae authoritas quà m omnis humani ingenii perspicacitas And believe not them that say If you would know the power of Devils and Witches go to the Writings of Dr. Casaubon Mr. Glanvil and to the rest of the Demonographers and Witchmongers that amass and heap together all the lying vain improbable and impossible stories that can be scraped forth of any Author ancient middle or modern when we are commanded to go to the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no truth in them And so I shall shut up this Chapter wherein I suppose I have sufficiently proved that the denying of such a Witch as I have described doth not infer the denial of the Being of Angels or Spirits and that Apparitions are no sufficient grounds for Christians to believe the Existence of Angels and Spirits by but the Word of God which was the thing undertaken to be proved CHAP. IV. That the Scriptures and sound Reason are the true and proper Mediums to prove the Actions attributed unto Witches by and not other improper ways that many Authors have used And of the Requisites necessary truly to prove a matter of Fact by AS we have in the former Chapter proved that Apparitions though true are no sufficient warrant to ground our belief upon for the Existence of Angels or Spirits but the Word of God so here we shall endeavour clearly to manifest that the Sacred Scriptures are the only Medium joyned with sound Reason of deciding this point of the power and operation of Demons and Witches and not other improper Mediums brought in by divers Authors and first we shall answer the Objection of Mr. Glanvil that runs thus That though the New Testament had mentioned nothing of this matter yet its silence in such cases is not argumentative He said nothing of those large unknown Tracts of America nor gave he any intimations of as much as the existence of that numerous people much less did he leave instructions about their Conversion He gives no account of the affairs and state of the other World but only that general one of the happiness of some and the misery of others He made no discovery of the Magnalia of Art or
Nature no not of those whereby the propagation of the Gospel might have been much advanced viz. the Mystery of Printing and the Magnet and yet no one useth his silence in these instances as an argument against the being of things which are evident objects of sense To which we answer 1. He falleth into a common mistake in making the Proposition universal and dolus versatur in universalibus when it ought but to be particular so for him to say that no silence of Scripture is argumentative is too universal for its silence in point of Geography as in describing America and the people thereof nor in discovering the Magnalia Naturae Artis is not argumentative and we do not say that all silence of Scripture is argumentative but yet we affirm that some silence of Scripture is argumentative So we cannot universally say that nothing hath a being but what is mentioned in Scripture but we may very well affirm that some things have no being of truth of existence because not declared in Scripture 2. The Scriptures were not written to teach Naural Philosophy Arts or Sciences humane Policy or the like but were given that the man of God might be perfect furnished for every good work and it is by them that we have the doctrine of eternal Salvation revealed unto us and we positively affirm the sufficiency of the Scriptures unto Salvation which thing no Orthodox Divine we suppose will deny and Bellarmine himself did confess in these words Prophetici Apostolici libri sunt verum verbum Dei ac stabilis regula fidei And if it be a certain Rule of Faith and the true Word of God then whatsoever it is silent of we ought not to believe and so its silence is argumentative in that point The Scriptures are utterly silent concerning Purgatory and therefore it is a good argument to affirm there is no such place as Purgatory because the Word of God is silent as concerning it but if it had been necessary to have been believed then there would have been mention made of it 3. And as the Scriptures are sufficient in matters of Faith and circa credenda and what they are silent in are not to be received as Articles of our Faith but to be rejected as having no truth of Existence So likewise what Worship God requireth of his people is fully revealed in his Word and therefore I am to reject the worshipping of Mahomet with the Turks or Images and praying to Saints with the Papists because I have neither precept nor president in the Word but it is silent in such matters nay tells us That he is the Lord our God and him only we ought to serve 4. Though Mr. Glanvil say that God hath given no account of the state of the other World but only that general one of the happiness of some and the misery of others yet Am I to believe as Mr. Glanvil somewhere in his Book affirmeth that Samuels Soul was raised up by the Woman at Endor and that those that he feigneth to make Leagues and Contracts with Witches are the Souls of such as had been Witches when they lived and asketh Who saith that happy Souls were never imployed in any ministeries here below Or am I to believe that both the Souls of the godly and wicked do rove up and down here upon earth and make Apparitions because the Popish Teachers do hold it to be so I hope not and therefore I shall in part give an answer here to some of these and handle that of the Woman of Endor in another place 1. The Word of God doth particularly teach us the state and condition of the Souls after death that they shall be like the Angels in Heaven and all other things necessary to move and draw us to believe the immortal Existence of Souls as that most able and learned Divine Dr. Stillingfleet hath asserted in these words The Scriptures give the most faithful representation of the state and condition of the Soul of Man The World he saith was almost lost in Disputes concerning the Nature Condition and Immortality of the Soul before divine Revelation was made known to Mankind by the Gospel of Christ but life and immortality was brought to light by the Gospel and the future state of the soul of man not discovered in an uncertain Platonical way but with the greatest light and evidence from that God who hath the supreme disposal of souls and therefore best knows and understands them A Sentence truly pious and orthodoxal 2. Hath not God in the holy Scriptures amply and plainly taught us the state of the other World in describing unto us such a numerous company of Sâ—raphims and Cherubims Angels and Archangels with their several Orders Offices Ministeries and Imployments and this is more than a general account as may be seen at full in that learned and godly Piece of Bishop Halls called The invisible World And hath he not given us a particular account of the very Kingdom of Darkness telling us of the Devil and his Angels and precisely in this enumeration For we wrestle not with flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiâ—al wickedness in high places And this is more than a general account and we must needs fay that what he holds is very derogatory to the wisdom and goodness of God and the sufficiency and truth of the Scriptures 3. Must I believe him that the souls of the Saints do rove and wander here below when as Bishop Hall saith where he is speaking against the opinion of those that hold that Souls do sleep until the Day of Judgment Indeed who can but wonder that any Christian can possibly give entertainment to so absurd a thought whilst he hears his Saviour say Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with â—e where I am and that not in a safe sleep they may behold my glory which thou hast given me Sure if the Souls departed be with Christ where he is and do behold his glory then it is a Popish Fable of Mr. Glanvil to feign their coming upon Messages hither The saying of St. Bernard is remarkable in this case Advertisâ—is 〈◊〉 esse sanctarum status animarum primum videlicet in coâ—pore 〈◊〉 â—cundum sinâ— corpore tertium in corpore jam glorificatoâ— Primum in militiâ— secundum in requie tertium in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And if the second state of holy Souls bâ— without 〈◊〉 body and be at peace and rest then it must necessarily be a truth that they do not wander here nor run upon Errands For the souls of the righteous are in the hands of the Lord and there shall no torment touch theâ— And our Saviour told the Thief upon the Cross This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise that is as Dr. Hammond giveth the Paraphrase Immediately after thy death thou shalt go to a
Athenodorus the Philosopher adventured upon it and abode the coming of the Apparition or Phantasm and upon its signs followed it to a place below and then it vanished he marked the place and went to the Magistrate and caused the place to be digged up and found the bones of a person inchained or fettered and caused the bones to be buried and so the House remained free afterwards It is a wonder to think how many Authors have swallowed this relation nay even Philip Camerarius himself who though a very Learned man yet in things of this nature too extremely credulous and urged it for proof as a matter of great credit and authority when we cannot discern that it affords any credible ground to a rational man to believe it not only because the very matter it self and the circumstances of it do yield sufficient grounds of the suspicion of its verity but chiefly because Pliny doth but relate it by hear-say exponam ut accepi and of it and the rest he desires the opinion of his Friend Sura from whom we do not find any answer The story taken from Plutarch a grave Author if he be considered as an Heathen and a Moralist yet of no authority to decide such points as these are of the voice that called upon Thamus and commanded him to declare when he came at Palodes that the great God Pan was dead which he performed and that thereupon followed a great lamentation of many the story at large is related by many and urged as a matter of great weight and credibility when indeed there is no ground sufficient to perswade any that it was true For if it had been related by Plutarch as an ear-witness of it yet was he but an Heathen that we know believed many fond lying and impossible things especially of their Gods and therefore in this case to a considerate Christian could be of no great authority And if his authority had been great or of weight in such matters as these yet was he but singularis testis which is not sufficient in these things to be relied upon And lastly to our present purpose here he doth not record it as a thing of his own certain knowledge but of hear-say from Epitherses who was but a single Relator and a man of no certain veracity and therefore we can have no rational ground to believe the truth of the story but it may be rejected with more reason than it can be affirmed by Of no greater credit can his story be of Brutus his malus Genius appearing unto him because he received this by meer Tradition and hear-say neither could it have any other rise but from the relation of Brutus himself whose guilty conscience and troubled brain fancied such vain things for those that were near Brutus neither saw nor heard any such matter and therefore must have been a deception of Phansie and no real Apparition ad extra 2. And as evidence of the matter of fact recorded from the relation of others is of no validity to a judicious person so if the matter of fact be witnessed but by one single testimony though an eye or an ear-witness it is not sufficient because one single person may be imperfect in some senses or under some distemper and so be no proper Judge of what it sees or hears and the Word of Truth tells us That in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established and therefore we are not especially in such abstruse matters as these to trust the evidence of one single testimony To make clear this Particular we shall relate a story or two from the credit of the Reverend and Learned Bishop Hall joyned with his judgment of such weak and feigned Tales one of which runs thus Johannes à Jesu Maria a modern Carmelite writing the Life of Theresia Sainted lately by Gregory XV. tells us that as she was a vigilant Overseer of her Votaries in her life so in and after death she would not be drawn away from her care and attendance For saith he if any of her Sisters did but talk in the set hours of their silence she was wont by three knocks at the door of the Cell to put them in mind of their enjoyned taciturnity And on a time appearing as she did often in a lightsome brightness to a certain Carmelite is said thus to bespeak him Nos coelestes ac vos exules amore ac puritate foederati esse debemus c. We Citizens of Heaven and ye exiled Pilgrims on earth ought to be linked in a League of love and purity c. Methinks the Reporter saith the Bishop should fear this to be too much good fellowship for a Saint I am sure neither Divine nor Ancient story had wont to afford such familiarity and many have misdoubted the agency of worse where have appeared less causes of suspicion That this was if any thing an ill Spirit under that face I am justly confident neither can any man doubt that looking further into the relation finds him to come with a ly◠in his mouth For thus he goes on We Celestial ones behold the Deity ye banished ones worship the Eucharist which ye ought to worship with the same affection wherewith we adore the Deity such perfume doth this holy Devil leave behind him The like might be instanced in a thousand Apparitions of this kind all worthy of the same entertainment This is a story from one single person a lying Carmelite one that for interest and upholding of Superstition and Idolatry had feigned and forged it for in it self it appeareth to be a meer falsity and figment as any rational man may easily discern and so are a thousand stories of this kind worthy of the like entertainment that is to be condemned for most horrid lyes Another he tells us Amongst such fastidious choice of whole dry-fats of voluminous relations I cannot forbear to single out that one famous of Magdalen de la Croix in the year of our Lord Christ 1545 c. The third from the mouth of another lying Fryar named Jacobus de Pozali in his Sermon That St. Macarius once went about to make peace betwixt God and Satan c. Now whatsoever credit this Learned man who in things of this kind appeareth to be as vainly credulous as any doth seem to give unto these or what use soever he would make of them it is undeniably manifest to all impartial judgments that they were but absolute forgeries and knacks of Imposture and Knavery and according to his own opinion may justly be ranked amongst those thousand Apparitions of this kind all worthy of the same entertainment that is to be rejected for abominable lyes or forgeries and that for these reasons 1. Because they are not attested by any sincere and uncorrupt ear and eye-witnesses but by reports and relations and that of those that were corrupt and partial or Accomplices to bring to pass the fraud and
a bare affirmation without proof that these things are verified to have been matters of fact and really performed both by authority and the evidence of sense which are both utterly false then they flye to this assertion That the Confessions of so many Witches in all Ages in several Countries at divers times and places all agreeing in these particulars are sufficient evidence of the truth of these matters To which we shall rejoyn that the Confessions of Witches however considered are not of credit and validity to prove these things but are in themselves null and void as false impossible and forged lyes which we shall make good by these following Reasons 1. The Witch must be taken to be either a person insanae vel sanae mentis and if they be insanae mentis their Confessions are no sufficient evidence nor worthy of any credit because there is neither Reason Law nor Equity that allows the testimony or confession of an Idiot Lunatick mad or doting person because they are not of a right and sound understanding and are not to be accounted as compotes mentis nor governed by rationability For as by the Civil Law mad Folks Idiots and Old men childish Bond-slaves and Villains are not capable of making a Will to dispose of Goods Lands or Chattels so much more are all these sorts of persons excepted for giving evidence by confessions or otherwise in matters concerning life and death which are of far greater weight and concernment And that these persons are of unsound understandings is manifest in all the points that they confess and therefore are no proof nor ought to be credited and that for these reasons 1. Because the things they confess are not attested by any other persons of integrity and sound judgment and they must of necessity be lyars because the Bond-slaves of the Devil whose works they will do and he was a lyar from the beginning 2. Because they confess things that are impossible as we shall prove anon and confiteri impossibilia insanienti◠est 3. There is no good end wherefore they make these Confessions neither do they receive any benefit by them either spiritual or temporal internal nor external And this doth sufficiently shew that they are deluded melancholy and mad persons and so their Confessions of no credit truth or validity 2. Their Confessions will be found null and false if we consider the impulsive cause that moves them to make them and the end wherefore they declare such false and lying matters and that in these particulars 1. The moving cause is not nor can be the Spirit of God which is a Spirit of truth and righteousness nor any motion of true remorse for their sins or any thing flowing from repentant hearts because they are persons forsaken of God and his Grace and given over to reprobate minds and senses and therefore the truth of the Word of God is fulfilled in them Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved therefore God shall send them strong delusion that they might believe a lye That they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness 2. Neither is the end for the glory of God or their own Salvation because they are the Vassals and Bond-slaves of Satan being kept Captive at his will and are Rebels and Traitors against God and Christ his Church and Truth having renounced the Faith and become Apostata's to the truth 3. The impulsive cause and chief end wherefore they make these and such like confessions is sometimes and in some persons meerly to eschew torture and bodily pains and sometimes the quite contrary solely to escape the present miseries of a poor wretched and troublesom life and therefore these confessions not at all to be credited as being vain and feigned 4. Sometimes they are by force waking craft and cunning in hope of pardon and life to make such confessions as the base ends and corrupt intentions of the Inquisitors themselves or their Agents have infused into them for the advancement of false Doctrine Superstition and Idolatry such were the most if not all recorded by Delrio Bodinus and the rest of the Witchmongers to which no credit can be given at all 5. But the chief end that Satan hath who is the Forger Contriver and Deviser of these Confessions if voluntarily and freely made the principal Agent in all these matters is to set forth the power and glory of his own Kingdom thereby to lead men into and continue them in lyes and errors for when he speaketh a lye he speaketh of his own for he is a lyar and the father of it and the Witches are his Children and the works of their Father the Devil they will do and he was and is a Murtherer and Lyar from the beginning And thus far we acknowledge a spiritual and mental League betwixt the Witch and the Devil by virtue of which they confess these horrible and abominable lyes of the glory of him and his Kingdom but other League or Covenant there is none neither is there any the least spark of truth in all that they say or confess because their sole end in making of these confessions is to advance the credit and power of Satan 6. The impulsive cause that often makes them to utter such confessions of strange and impossible things is the strong passive delusion that they lye under contracted by ignorant unchristian and superstitious education which they have suckt in with their milk heightned with an atrabilarious temper and constitution and confirmed by the wicked lyes and teaching of others which makes them confess these execrable things which they in their depraved and vitiated imaginations do think and believe they have done and suffered when there was never truly acted any such matter ad extrà but only in their mad and deluded Phantasies and so no more credit to be given to them than to the maddest Melancholist that ever was read or heard of 3. That there is not any jot of truth in these Confessions is manifest if we consider the subjective matter of them as is plain by these ensuing grounds 1. For the most of them are not credible by reason of their obscenity and filthiness for chast ears would tingle to hear such bawdy and immodest lyes and what pure and sober minds would not nauseate and startle to understand such unclean stories as of the carnal Copulation of the Devil with a Witch or of his sucking the Teat or Wart of an old stinking and rotten Carkass surely even the impurity of it may be sufficient to overthrow the credibility of it especially amongst Christians 2. There are many things that have no verity in them at all that notwithstanding have verisimilitude but these are not only void of truth but also of truth-likeliness for it is neither truth nor hath any likelihood of it to believe it for a truth that the Devil should carry an
explained That many of the Ephesians being of those who had exercised curious Arts had brought their Books and burned them openly c. She forthwith he saith came unto me with a mind plainly troubled and with tears pouring forth into my bosom the secrets of her breast did receive Christian instruction and when she had understood by the blessing of God the vanity of Diabolical Impostures and perceived them with opened eyes she was easily converted to the light of truth the smoak of lyes being laid aside She truth being once received hath most constantly confessed that it did appear to her more clear than the light at noon day that Satan did only deceive and blind the eyes of his Vassals and that there was nothing done in verity and this she declared with a detestation of her Diabolical Art And so concludes it in these words Uno verbo dicam me satis experientiâ didicisse bonam partem incantationum mera esse insomnia And whosoever shall read and seriously consider the Epistle of that excellent and learned Divine will find the most of those vain illusions laid open and confuted so that in all or the most of the things attributed unto Witches we shall find no more of Diabolical operation in them than an internal mental and spiritual delusion in making the Witches to believe and to draw on others to the same opinion that the Devil hath a kind of omnipotent Power and Soveraignty Therefore did Aristotle well conclude Incantamenta esse muliercularum figmenta 4. A fourth Reason of the meer falsity and incredibility of these Confessions is this Is it possibly credible to a rational and unbiassed judgment that the Witches though never so many at several times and places having made themselves the Slaves and Vassals of the Devil both in soul and body and being led by his lying and deceitful Spirit though making large and voluntary confessions can be conceived to have any touch of truth in them at all Surely no more truth in these confessions than there is in the Devil who was a Lyar from the beginning and therefore we argue thus Such kind of will affections and inclinations as are in the Devil himself such kind are in his Children But the will and affections of the Devil are against God his Truth and against all Gods people and his inclinations tend to continual lying Therefore the will affections and inclinations of his Children such as the Witches are and are granted to be are against God his Truth and against all Gods people and their inclinations tend to continual lying The proof of the major and minor Proposition is the plain words of our Saviour Ye are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father the devil ye will do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he was a murtherer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him When he speaketh a lye he speaketh of his own for he is a lyar and the father of it And again St. John tells us He that committeth sin is of the devil for the devil sinneth from the beginning So that it may truly be said of them They delight in lyes and their confessions are nothing but lyes And if they object and say that here we confess a League with the Devil and the Witch otherwise the Witches could not be his Children Vassals and Bond-slaves which elsewhere we deny we answer it is a gross mistake in not observing the distinction we make betwixt a mental and spiritual League such as the Devil and Judas made and such as all wicked men make with him and under this League we acknowledge all Witches to be but a visible and corporeal League we positively deny and so the objection is of no validity And thus we suppose we have sufficiently proved that there ought no credit at all to be given to the Confessions of Witches no more than to Devils who are all lyars Now let us proceed to their third main Objection That so many wise and grave Judges and honest Juries could not have been deceived to put to death such great numbers of those kind of people without sufficient proof of the matters of fact Against which we oppose these following Reasons 1. It is but an Argument at the best to drive the other Party into an absurdity which is not of any such dangerous consequence as may be supposed for it would but conclude that many grave and wise Judges and Juries have been imposed upon and deceived which is but argumentum ad homines and doubtless many might and have been And do not we Christians hold that the gravest and wisest Judges amongst the Turks and Persians have been and are deceived and have done unjustly in persecuting and putting Christians to death because they would not submit to the Religion of Mahomet and yet we account it no absurdity or injustice to pass that censure upon them And do not the Idolaters in all those large Empires and Kingdoms of Tartary China the Moguls Country and the rest of those Countries in the East of Asia persecute and put many to death for not worshipping their Idols or embracing their Religion and do we think it absurd to censure and condemn them of injustice though in their own Countries they be accounted grave and wise Judges Surely we do not and there is the parity of reason in both the Arguments for all are but men and so may erre 2. But as for the grave learned and wise Judges and understanding and honest Juries within His Majesties Dominions we affirm they are clear and innocent from these imputations and that for divers and sundry sound reasons 1. Our Judges and Juries have no such sinister and corrupt ends to wrest the Laws or wring forth and extort feigned and false Confessions because they have no such ends as to uphold and maintain idolatrous and superstitious Tenents as praying to Saints magnifying of Holy-water or setting up of Purgatory as had the Popish Inquisitors and the Demonographers and Witchmongers that writ for those ends And therefore it is no absurdity to say or think that they dealt unjustly in their proceedings which our learned and pious Judges are not nor can be guilty of 2. The Inquisitors and their Agents had benefit by the death of Witches having a share in their Goods and therefore no absurdity to conclude that their proceedings were unjust partial and corrupt of which our Judges and Juries are clear as having no profit at all by the death of these wretched and deluded people 3. Our Judges are but sworn to the due execution of the Laws made and the Juries sworn to bring in their Verdicts according to their best evidence now if the Witnesses forth of malice envy ignorance or mistake swear to matters of fact for which death or other punishments are allotted by the Law both the Judges and the Jury are absolutely excusable and if there be any
and more change than this the words or sense do not bear 3. There was no other change but what was by natural growth for the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth properly signifie multus fuit succrevit in multitudinem so that the hairs were increased naturally in multitude and length and the nails in magnitude and length and so there was no essential change at all but only an excessive augmentation of them both he having lost the use of reason whereby he could not use means to cut cleanse and order them So that they did but grow squalid and ill-favour'd for want of using means to order and make them comely even as many that have been lost or left in Desarts and desolate places have after some length of time been found to be overgrown with hairs and ugly nails that they have scarce been taken for men but have appeared as savage and feral Monsters 3. His restauration doth plainly testifie what kind of change it was for that which was restored unto him did bring him into the same condition that he was in before this transformation and that was his knowledge or understanding Now therefore if his knowledge or understanding did reduce him to the right use of reason and brought those conditions and qualities that he had before Then it is most plain that it was only his knowledge or understanding that was taken away or changed and so there was no other transformation but what was internal in the mind judgment or imagination by altering his will desires cogitations condition and qualities and so no essential transformation at all nor no change of his external shape but what grew naturally in regard of his hair and nails or skin for want of due ordering and decent dressing And that this is an unanswerable truth the words in the Text do sufficiently testifie which are in our English And mine understanding returned unto me and at the same time my reason returned unto me therefore it was only his understanding and reason that had for a time been turned from him and at his restauration they returned or came again Tremellius renders the former Verse Et mente meâ ad me reversâ Excelso benedixi And in the latter Mente meâ reversâ in me In both Verses Arias Montanus renders it Cognitio mea super me reversa est for the Hebrew word there used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scivit restituit cognovit agnovit propriè est mentis intellectûs as Avenarius saith And the Septuagint in both the Verses do agree with the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And to this purpose doth the French Italian and Luthers Translation render it only the vulgar Latine gives it by the word sensus figura mea reversa est which is altogether vicious So that from hence we may safely conclude that this transformation was only internal and mental and no essential change at all of which a most learned Divine tells us thus much Sunt nonnulli inter quos est Johannes Bodinus qui putant humanam figuram reverà fuisse ei ademptam Ac sanè Deus pro sua omnipotentia miraculum hoc in rege isto impio facere humanam ejus naturam in bruti animalis essentiam mutare potuit sed verisimilius est regem alienatum mente vel etiam maniacum factum ademptâ ei divinitùs mente ut patet ex sequente vers 34. in furorem versum sive per iram sive per dolorem ob acceptam ignominiam quòd regiâ dignitate esset orbatu◠Sic Ericus Rex Sueciae in furorem est actus per iram dolorem quòd regno esset dejectus Anno 1568. 4. That this was only a mental and internal transformation as are many sorts of Melancholy especially that which Physicians call Lycanthropia or Melancholia lupina Rabies canina and the like is most manifest by comparing it with some of these that we have named of which though we have related some before we shall give some few from Authors of credit and veracity 1. And first concerning the effects of that Madness caused by the biting of a mad Dog we have a most sad and deplorable story recited by Philip Salmuth that experienced Physician of Anhalt which we shall here give in English Many he saith do verily think that the force of this poyson will break out and appear within a few months or years But experience doth altogether testifie the contrary As certain learned Authors do commemorate that it hath laid hid in some the space of seven years but in others it hath broke forth in the twelfth Guainerius also mentioneth a certain person to whom the Hydrophobia did happen the 18. year after he was bitten by the mad Dog Moreover he continueth a most Noble person of Hagen hath told me that a certain Noble man was bitten in the face by a little pretty Dog which he much delighted in and that the seeds of that poyson as it were nourished in his bosom for a long time at the last did suddenly break forth For after that for some years feeling no molestation nor trouble from that bite he addressing himself to a Virgi◠did marry And the nuptial Supper being ended and the Bride brought to the Marriage-bed her Kinsfolks a little after do hear her complaining and lamenting At which they laughed and jested thinking it but to be the Venereal sport But that howling continuing late they by force do break the barred doors of the Chamber and enter and find that the Bridegroom had bitten with his teeth plainly after the manner of a Dog the face of the Bride and also the shoulders and arms and the fleshy places and still did not give over the same sort of biting Being much astonished with this sad spectacle and cruel wickedness they with an ireful and provoked mind do forthwith slay him and the new Bride also died the same day Though this he had but by relation yet it was from a person of great quality and if he had not been reasonably assured of the truth of it he would never have writ it down amongst his Medical Observations But this is also attested by other Authors of sufficient credit of divers of this sort of persons that have both barked and bitten like Dogs and this is testified by Scribonius Largus and Rhases as Baptista Codronchus hath cited them and learned Sennertus tells us this That some if bitten with Dogs do bark like Dogs and flye at whomsoever they meet and that against or besides their will For he saith Gentilis relateth in his Comment upon Avicen that a certain young man troubled with this rabiousness did exhort his Mother that she should not come near him for he could not contain himself but bite those that came near him 2. As concerning Wolf-melancholy we shall only give a short relation or two the first from Donatus ab alto mari who confesseth that he
of Gods which are plural and more than one but he asketh in the singular what form is he of By all which it is manifest that he yet saw nothing at all For when we plainly see a thing we do not usually ask others what form it is of because our eyes can inform us of that So that he saw nothing either because he was not in the same room or that there appeared nothing that was visible 6. Now after all these ambigous lies and delatory cheats the crafty quean doth begin to come more near to give satisfaction to the blinded expectation of Saul who all this while stood gaping to see the appearance of Samuel and so she tells him who was fit to believe any thing though never so absurd or impossible behold an old man comes up and he is covered with a mantle In the beginning of the action the Text saith and when the woman saw Samuel she cried out then she said she saw gods ascending out of the earth and now after all this discourse and expence of time Samuel is but coming up all was lies and delayes the more to blind and delude the poor credulous King But yet thus far it is plain that Saul saw nothing at all and so must needs all this while either be in another room or else for certain there was no apparition visible and all the satisfaction that he had was from the lying stories the Woman told him Now let Mr. Glanvil consider and answer whether it be not only intimated but clearly holden forth in the Text that either they were in two distinct rooms or that nothing visible did appear before Saul 7. Now after all this the Text saith and Saul perceived that it was Samuel the Hebrew word doth signifie to know or to perceive and relates to the understanding but how did he know or perceive that it was Samuel not by the sight of his eyes for we have made it plain that he was either in another room or that no visible apparition presented it self before his eyes but he only perceived it by the description of the crafty Woman who knew well enough what habit or garments Samuel wore in his life time as one that was the most publickly known Man in Israel and therefore the subtil and crafty quean knowing that Saul only required Samuel to be brought up and no other doth at the last frame her tale agreeable to Sauls desire and so describes him an old Man covered with a mantle and such an one Saul had known him to be while he was living But if Saul had seen any such thing as the shape or form of Samuel then the Hebrew Verb thrice used in that action that properly signifieth to see with the eyes would have been used in this place as well as when it relateth what she saw and not the verb for knowing or perceiving that relateth to the mind and Samuel he saw not but only believed the lies she told him For otherwise it would have been And Saul saw Samuel and not Saul perceived that it was Samuel which he could not do but only by her relation and forged tales 8. The last thing in this action is that Saul stooped with his face to the ground and bowed himself now to what did he stoop and bow seeing he had seen nothing with his own eyes neither knew any thing that appeared but as the Woman told him Could it be to any thing but to an imaginary Samuel and such an one as she had described whom he conceited in his Phantasie to be Samuel himself Surely in rational consequence it could be nothing else For all that she had done and said before being undeniably lies and cheats this also in just and right reason must be judged to be so also So that it was either the Woman that being in another room did change and alter her voice and so plaid the part of Samuel or else that she had a confederate knave whom she turned out to act the part of dead Samuel 6. The last thing that we shall handle concerning this controverted subject is the examination of the grounds and reasons of those that are of a different judgment which may be comprised in these three several heads 1. Some do conceive that it was the Body of Samuel that was raised up and acted by his soul or by Satan 2. Some hold that it was Samuels Soul that appeared in the shape and habit that he had living 3. Others do positively affirm that it was the Devil that assumed the shape of Samuel and so acted the whole business by a compact betwixt him and the Woman These we shall confute in order 1. That it was not the Body of Samuel that was raised up nor the Soul joyned with it that acted Samuels part is manifest from these reasons 1. Because Samuels Body had lain too long in the grave for some account it near two years and therefore must needs in a great part be corrupted wasted and disfigured that none could have certainly known that it was Samuel 2. It must have been so putrified and stinking that none could have endured near it for the noisome and horrible smell 3. Who should have covered it with the mantle which had it been buried with him must in so long a time have been rotten and consumed Surely there were no Taylors in the Grave to make him a new one but in reason and likelihood if it had been his Body it should have appeared in Linnen or a winding-sheet if that had not been rotten likewise 4. To raise a Body so long dead must needs have required an omnipotent power for it is the Almighty power of Christ alone that raiseth up the vile Bodies of his Saints and maketh them like his glorious Body And therefore neither the woman with all her Divinations nor all the Devils in Hell nor any created power but the Lord Almighty could have wrought this miracle who would never have done it to gratifie the humour or to magnifie the cheating craft of an idolatrous wicked and couzening Witch And if the Devil or any created power could raise up the Body of a departed Saint then the rising out of the Graves of many Bodies of Saints that had slept and their coming into the holy City and appearing unto many after Christ was risen from the dead had been no certain or convincing argument of the undoubted truth of the Divinity and Resurrection of our most Blessed Saviour But they were most infallible evidences of them both as saith the Father S. Hierome in these words Sic multa corpora sanctorum resurrexerunt ut dominum ostenderent resurgentem tamen cum monumenta aperta sunt non antè resurrexerumt quà m resurgeret dominus ut esset primogenitus resurrectionis à mortuis 5. That it was not Samuels Soul joyned with the Body that acted this we thus argue That Tenent that is flatly contrary to the plain Doctrine of the Scripture must
Acts Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways which is as Beza notes Ex arbitrio suo vivere nulla ipsis praescripta ratione religionis And in this sense and to this purpose it is that God gave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts because of that horrible Idolatry that formerly they were guilty of 4. God ruleth his creatures by his providence sometimes by repressing prohibiting and impeding the execution of their wicked wills as is clear in the case of Abimelech King of Gerar who took Sarah Abrahams Wife intending to have had carnal knowledge of her but God plagued him and his Family and said For I also withheld thee from sinning against me therefore I suffered thee not to touch her Now we shall come to consider how the faln Angels are under the rule and restraint of this Divine and all-governing providence wherein we shall make it appear that they act nothing in this elementary and sublunary World after any corporeal manner but as they are ordered licensed and limited by the will and decree of the Almighty and so do not wander and rove at their own pleasures to act in corporeal things what when and how they list as the Witchmongers vainly suppose and this we shall clear in these particulars 1. It cannot rationally be supposed that God is less wise in ruling and ordering the Prince of darkness the Prince of Devils and the head of all Rebellion and Rebels than he is in ruling his Subjects and Servants which are all wicked men but all these he ruleth with a rod of Iron and breaketh them in sunder like a Potterâ— vessel And therefore much more hath he a restraint upon and a rule over the faln Angels who kept not their first estates and therefore are reserved in chains in darkness until the judgment of the great day 2. As he is the Prince and Ring-leader of all Sin and Rebellion against God though he yet have not his final punishment unto which he is reserved for the judgment of the great day and though he be not yet thrust into the abysse or great depth nor into that everlasting fire that is prepared for him and his Angels yet is he kept in chains and darkness and can act nothing but as he is licensed ordered and limited by the Almighty 3. And though he compass the earth to and fro and walk about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour yet is that but according to the malice and purpose of his wicked will for in punishing or afflicting of the godly he must have licence from God first or else he can do nothing in this Elementary World as is most manifest in the affliction of Job neither could he enter into the herd of Swine but by Christs leave and order nor deceive Ahabs Prophets but by order from the Lord. And therefore an ancient Father said well Quod si super porcos potestatem non habent multò magis nullam habent Daemones contra homines factos ad imaginem Dei oportet ergo Deum solum timere contemnere autem illos Therefore we shall conclude this briefly here having occasion to handle it more fully hereafter to wit that the Witchmongâ—rs can have no shelter for their opinion from the Doctrine of Gods permission if rightly understood because God doth neither order nor permit faln Angels to act any thing especially in corporeal things but what is for just good and wise ends which cannot be shewed in these actions attributed to Witches CHAP. X. Whether faln Angels be Corporeal or simply Incorporeal and the absurdity of the assuming of Bodies and the like consequents IAm not insensible what great censure I may incurr for entring upon such a ticklish and nice point as the corporeity or incorporeity of Angels seeing it hath exercised and crucified the wits of the most learned in all ages especially being but an obscure person and not heightned with those lofty titles that usually elevate Mens fames more by those attributes than by the weight and strength of their arguments Yet it being no necessary Article of the Christian Faith but that a Man may lawfully defend either it cannot rationally be judged by understanding Readers either to be pride or just offence for me to handle this subject For seeing that most of the Christian and Learned Fathers for the space of four hundred years after Christ were of the opinion that they were corporeal it can be no novelty in me to revive or assert that opinion and therefore I shall labour to make it manifest in this ensuing order 1. There is a late way of arguing taken up by Dr. Moore and others that they will undertake to prove a thing to be so or so or else to make Man to deny his own faculties And so the said Doctor doth undertake to prove the existence of immateral and incorporeal beings or else he thinketh he bringeth Men to deny their own faculties And these faculties he maketh to be common notions external sense and evident and undeniable deductions of reason And concludeth that what is not consonant to all or some of these is meer fancy and is of no moment for the evincing of truth or falshood by either its vigour or perplexiveness But this will not accomplish the business he intends for these reasons 1. Because there is not the common notion of a spiritual and immaterial being in all or any Man neither is it to use his own words true at first sight to all men in their wits upon a clear perception of the terms without any further discourse or reasoning but is only a bare supposition without any proof or evidence at all 2. The being of an immaterial and spiritual substance can no way incurr into the senses nor affect them because it is manifest as Des Cartes hath sufficiently proved that all sensation is procured by corporeal contact and not otherwise And though we deny not that there have been are and may be apparitions that cannot be rationally supposed to be the ordinary Phaenomena of corporeal matter yet affecting the senses there must be something in them that performeth that effect that is corporeal or else the senses could not be wrought upon for immateriale non agit in materiale nisi eminenter ut Deus 3. No right deductions can possibly be drawn from the highest power of ratiocination where the understanding hath no cognoscibility of the things that reason would draw its conclusions from for as the same Doctor frameth his Axiome which is this Whatsoever things are in themselves they are nothing to us but so far forth as they become known to our faculties or cognitive powers But we assert which we shall make good anon that our faculties or cognitive powers how far soever some would vainly magnifie and extol them have not the power of understanding beings that are simply and absolutely immaterial
by that most sagacious and learned person Marcus Marci a late Physician of no mean judgment who saith thus Quicquid tamen sit de his Pygmaeos olim fuisse nunc esse affirmamus And besides the testimony of Aristotle Solinus Pomponius Mela and Aelian he relateth these But those he saith that have in our age viewed the World the same do testifie also that there are yet Pygmies in the Island of Aruchet one of the Moluccas and in the Isle Cophi and such Pigasetta affirmeth that he saw And though Doctor Brown seem to sleight it yet according to the Proverb one eye-witness is more to be credited than ten that have it but by the ear Odericus in his History of India doth report also that there are such people of about three spans high which also is confirmed by the later Odericus And to these affirmative proofs we shall add that of the learned Philosopher and Physician Baptista Van Helmont in English thus A Wine Merchant he saith of our Country a very honest man sailing sometimes to the Canaries or Fortunate Islands being asked of me his serious opinion and judgment upon certain Creatures which there the Children as oft as they would did bring home and did name them Tudesquillos or Germanulos that is little men the Germans call them Eard-Manlins for they were dead Carkases dried almost three foot long which any one of the Boys did easily carry in one hand and were of an human shape But the whole dead Carkase was transparent like Parchment and the bones were flexible as grisles Also the bowels and intestines were to be seen holden against the sun which when after I knew to be a certain truth from the Spaniards born there I considered that in these days the off-spring of the Pygmies were there destroyed From whence all understanding and unpartial judgments may clearly perceive that these kind of Creatures have been really existent in the World and are and may be so still in Islands and Mountains that are uninhabited and that they are no real Demons or non-Adamick Creatures that can appear and become invisible when they please as Paracelsus thinketh But that either they were truly of human race endowed with the use of reason and speech which is most probable or at least that they were some little kind of Apes or Satyres that having their secret recesses and holes in the Mountains could by their agility and nimbleness soon be in or out like Conies Weazels Squirrels and the like 4. It hath been no less a mistake about those Fishes that are called Tritones Syrenes Meir-maids or Marine and Sea-Men and Women which have been by many supposed and taken to be Spirits or Demons and commonly Nymphs when indeed and truth they are reall creatures as these examples do make manifest The first of which we shall recite from the faithful pen of that learned Anatonist Thomas Bartholinus who was Physician to Frederick the third King of Denmark in these Englished words Various things he saith of Meir-maids are extant delivered in the monuments of the Ancients that are partly false partly true It is not far from a Fable that they held that they did imitate the voices of Men and Women But that there are beasts found in the Sea with humane faces he saith I shall not deny But I will not he saith sum up the accounts of the ancients For they are full of the stories of Meir-maids Amongst the later Authors these have here and there handled this argument Scaliger in lib. 2. Histor. Anim. t. 108. Rondoletiâ—s Licetus de Spont vin ort Marcus Marci de Ideis P. Boistuan Histor. Gall. prod T. 1. c. 18. At Enchuysen in Holland he saith the shape of a certain Meirmaid is to be seen painted that formerly had been cast upon the shore by the force of the waters It is he saith in the mouth of our common people that a Meir-maid was taken in Denmark that did speak foretel things to come and spin A Father of the Society of Jesus returning forth of India to Rome had seen a Sea-Man there adorned with an Episcopal Mitre who did seem to have in the next corner hardly born his captivity but being let loose and turned into the Sea did seem to render thanks for his liberty by bowing of his body before he went under water which he saith the Jesuit was wont to tell to Corvinus the elder as his Son he saith told me at Rome But this being but a story told to Bartholinus at the second hand and but primarily from the mouth of a Jesuit who doubtless had some design in it I leave it to the judgment of the Wise and Prudent But he proceeds thus It is he saith most certain that fishes are to be found in the Ocean that represent Terrestrial Animals in shape As the Sea-Fox the Wolf the Sea-Calf the Dog the Horse c. Therefore why should we deny humane shape to Sea-monsters Certainly also in the earth there are Apes which wanting reason do express the external shape and gestures of Man All Sea-monsters of this sort we referr he saith to the kind of Phocae or Sea-Calves There was he saith in the age we live in a Sea-Man taken by the Merchants of the West-India Company and dissected at Leiden by Peter Pavius John de Laet being present my friend he saith and while he lived a great and most knowing person of the things of America and of Nature The head and the breast even as far as the navil was of an humane shape but from the navil even unto the extremities it was deformed flesh without the sign of a tail But that I may not he saith seem to impose upon the Reader the hands and ribs are to be found in my Study or Closet which I owe to the kindness of the praised Latius We have he saith annexed the Picture of both as well of the Meirmaid erect as of the image of it swimming that we might satisfie the dubitation of all men The hand doth consist of five fingers as ours do with as many articulations as ours but that only is singular that all the bones of the fingers are broader and compressed and a membrane doth joyn them together in course as in volatiles as Geese Ducks c. which do help to stretch forth the foot in the water The extremity of the two middle fingers are broader the extremities of the other two sharp The radius and cubit are very short for the commodiousness of swimming scarce the length of four fingers breadth Neither is the draught of the shoulder more ample The ribs are long and thick almost exceeding common humane ribs a third part Of the ribs he saith are beads turned or thrown a present remedy for the pain of the Hemorrhoides which the praised Latius hath observed by experience Also he saith that Bracelets being made of the bones of this kind of Phocas carried to Rome applied to the
wrist do appease the Hemicrany and swimming of the head which comes again if they be laid away as he saith the most illustrious Nobleman Cassianus à Puteo most worthy of Roman Purple hath told me The same Noble Puteus he saith hath shewed me the picture of a Meirmaid in his Closet which not many years before was driven to the shore of Malta A certain Spaniard he saith told me that Meirmaids were seen in India having the Genital members of Women like those of humane kind so that the Fishers do bind themselves with an Oath to the Magistrate that they have no copulation with them Bernardinus Ginnarus lib. 1. c. 9. de Indico itinere edit Neap. 1641. doth relate that Meirmaids are seen in the vast River Cuama near the head of Good hope which in the middle superior part are like to the form of men that is with round head but immediately joyned to the breast without a neck with ears altogether like ours and so their eyes lips and teeth And that their dugs being pressed do send forth most white milk Therefore he concludeth There is he saith so great difference of the form of Meirmaids with the Ancients and Moderns that it is no wonder that some do account them figments We have he saith the hands to be seen with eyes and we shew the Meirmaids to be such as in truth they are seen to be Neither do the hands and ribs deceive whose Pictures we have given framed according to the truth of nature 5. But besides these there are other Fishes or Sea-monsters that in all parts resembled Men and Women as these examples make manifest Alexander ab Alexandro a person of great learning and experience relateth That in Epirus a Triton or Sea-Man was found who forth of the Sea did ravish Women being alone upon the shore But being taken by cunning he did resemble a Man with all his members but did refuse meat being offered so that he died with hunger and wasting as being in a strange element 6. Also Ludovicus Vives doth tell us this story In our age he saith with the Hollanders a Sea-Man was seen of many who also was kept there above two years he was mute and then begun to speak But being twice smitten with the Plague he is let loose to the Sea rejoicing and leaping 7. In the year of our Lord 1403. there was taken a Sea-woman in a lake of Holland thrown thither forth of the Sea and was carried into the City of Haerlem she suffered her self to have garments put upon her and admitted the use of bread milk and such like things Also she learned to spin and to do many other things after the manner of Women also she did devoutly bend her knees to the image of Christ crucified being docible to all things which she was commanded by her Master but living there many years she alwayes remained mute 8. To these we shall conclusively add one story of sufficient credit from our own English Annals which is this In the year 1187. being the 33th year of the Reign of Henry the second near unto Oreford in Suffolk certain Fishers of the Sea took in their nets a fish having the shape of a man in all points which fish was kept by Bartholomew de Glanvile Custos of the Castle of Oreford in the same Castle by the space of six months and more for a wonder he spake not a word All manner of meats hâ— did gladly eat but most greedily raw fish after he had crushed out all the moisture Oftentimes he was brought to the Church where he shewed no tokens of adoration At length when he was not well looked to he stole away to the Sea and never after appeared The learned Antiquary Mr. Camden tells this same story from Radulphus Coggeshall an ancient writer and that Capillos habebat barbam prolixam pineatam circa pectus nimium pilosus erat hispidus and concludeth Quicquid nascatur in parte naturae ulla in mari esse non omninò commentitium est By all which examples we may be rationally satisfied that though these creatures have a real existence in nature yet because of their strange natures shapes and properties or by reason of their being rarely seen they have been and often are not only by the common people but even by the learned taken to be Devils Spirits or the effects of Inchantment and Witchcraft And therefore men that would judge aright must take heed that they be not deceived and imposed upon by relations of this nature and also of all such things as may be acted by Imposture and confederacy and those other Physical things that are brought to pass by natural causes divers sorts of which are recited by Ludovicus Lavaterus very largely to which I recommend those that desire further satisfaction in those particulars CHAP. XVI Of Apparitions in general and of some unquestionable stories that seem to prove some such things Of those apparitions pretended to be made in Beryls and Crystals and of the Astral or Sydereal Spirit IN this Treatise we have before sufficiently proved that the denying of the existence of such a Witch as doth make a visible contract with the Devil or upon whose body he sucketh or that hath carnal copulation with a Demon and that is transubstantiated into a Cat or a Dog or that flyeth in the air doth not inferr the denial of Spirits either good or bad nor utterly overthrow the truth of apparitions or of such things as seem to manifest some supernatural operations And therefore here we shall fully handle the question of Apparitions and things that seem to be of that nature and that in this order 1. We shall not meddle with Apparitions in the large extent of the word for so it may comprehend the appearing of new Stars Comets Meteors and other Portents and Prodigies which though unusual and wonderous have yet their production from natural causes But only here we shall treat of such apparitions as are taken to be performed by supernatural creatures or in such a way and by such creatures as we commonly account to be different from if not above the power of ordinary and visible nature as of Angels good or bad the Souls of men departed or their Astral Spirits or of some oâ—her creatures that are or may be of a middle nature 2. As for the apparitions of good Angels sent by God in times past both in sleep and otherwise the Scriptures do give us most full and ample assurance as these few instances may undeniably demonstrate 1. That an Angel of the Lord that is a good Angel did appear visibly unto Manoah and his wife and did vocally and audibly talk and discourse with them both and did after in both their sights openly and visibly ascend in the flame that did arise from the altar Now a more plain and indubitable apparition visibly seen and audibly heard than this
upon as good grounds may any one reject this his single opinion as fabulous because there are a whole cloud of witnesses against him of as great credit and authority as himself and experience every day will make it manifest that great effects do follow from the appension of charms and characters not determining here whether they cause those effects causally as efficients or but meerly accidentally and occasionally and therefore in this point Dr. Casaubon saith well As for Valesius opinion he saith though a learned Man and for ought I know Pious and Wise yet it is no wonder to me that any one man though pious and learned should fall into an opinion very Paradoxical and contrary to most other mens belief especially in a thing of this nature which most depends of experience 3. Notwithstanding all this for the most part all charms spells and characters are inefficacious fallacious superstitious and groundless and hardly fit for an honest and wise man to use except only to settle the imaginations of patients that they may more readily and hopefully take those things that may effectually cure them I say for the most part not alwayes because I grant that they do sometimes either efficiently or accidentally produce real effects But that they are sometimes fallacious is manifest in the Charmer of Saltzburg who though with his charms he could prevail against the little serpents yet that great one that came prevailed against him and threw him into the ditch and killed him And how vain it is to put any confidence in these idle trifles and how fallacious and ineffectual and destructive they are may appear by two deplorable examples Amatus Lusitanus a learned and experienced Physician and a man of great repute and veracity doth relate this That in the end of the Spring the Summer coming on two young men did go from Ancona to the City Auximum and by the way the one of them turning aside to make water found a Viper in an hole at the bottom of a Tree with a great deal of rejoicing but with an unhappy success He did contend with his companion that he could take the Viper with his hand without any hurt and did brag that with the murmuring of certain words he could make all Serpents obey him lying still as stupid The other did laugh him to scorn At last they come to a wager But the Viper more audacious than was right remained always truculent and unaltered At last when he stretched forth his hand to take her it being stirred up with a mad and venemous fury lifting up the neck did bite him in the finger which beginning to pain him he quickly put his finger to his mouth perhaps to suck forth the blood but within a small while the unhappy young-man died by his own fault neither did medical helps yield him any succour but he might have escaped if he had not put the poyson of the Serpent to his mouth And this wofull example may be a sufficient warning to all that they be not too hasty to put confidence in these fallacious trifles Another story we shall give of our own knowledge and is this I had dismembred a pretty Young-mans leg by reason of a Gangrene his name Robert Taylor a good Scholar and had been a Clerk to a Justice of Peace and about three weeks after when the stump was near healed I being gone from home his Mother lying in the same room with him but having gotten too much drink he calling upon her to help him to the Close-stool but she not hearing he scrambled up himself as well as he could but hit the end of the stump that was not quite closed whereby the arteries were opened and a great Hemorrhage followed And there being an honest simple man that owed the house where he lay having a vain confidence that with a charm he said he had he could undoubtedly stay the bleeding and therefore would not suffer them to call up my man to stay the Flux until day which continuing so long the vain and fruitless charm prevailing nothing though my man when he came did stop it yet had he lost so much blood that he died the next day and this may serve for a sufficient caution against vain confidence in charms 4. Further we are to consider that there are many notorious impostures frauds and cheats committed upon the poor ignorant credulous and silly common people while some make the people believe that their diseases are inflicted by such and such Saints and therefore they must use such and such strange lustrations suffumigations and other vain superstitious Rites and Ceremonies Others pretend to drive away evil Spirits by exorcisms and conjurations and others to cure all diseases in a manner with words charms characters amulets and the like when the most of these pretenders are meer ignorant Knaves and Impostors that do nothing but cheat the too credulous people of their money and defame and dishonour the most noble Art of Medicine of which we have known divers sorts some of which we have mentioned before in this Treatise To such as these that ancient Author supposed by some to be Hippocrates De morbo sacro doth give sufficient reproof and of whom he saith thus Ac mihi certè qui primi hunc morbum ad Deos retulerunt tales esse videntur quales sunt magi expiatores circulatores ac arrogantes ostentatores qui se valde pios esse plurimumque scire simulant A most large Catalogue of these kind of pestiferous impostors and many others you have at full and to the life painted forth by Paracelsus in his Preface to his less Chirurgery where he hath sufficiently stigmatized them with all those wicked marks and brands that justly belong unto them The same also is fully performed by learned Langius in his Epistles to whom I referr the readers 5. We are to consider that though we should grant that words or charms had in them no energie nor efficiency at all by any natural power and that the Devils power doth not concur to make them operative yet as we have partly shewed before they are of singular use and benefit to a learned Physician whereby he may settle the fancies of his patients to cause them more chearfully and confidently to commit them to his hands and to take what he shall order and prescribe them and this manner of their use is no way to be dispraised or condemned and we leave it as excepted forth of the dispute we have in hand There are chiefly three opinions amongst those that grant the truth of the matter of fact concerning the proper cause of these effects produced by words 1. Of which the first sort are those that hold there is no efficiency at all in the words themselves which are nothing but the sign of the league and compact betwixt the Charmer and the Devil and that whatsoever is brought to pass is only effected by the
into with others should pass to another and should bind with the same impiety that is not agreeable to truth seeing that the consent of those that make the league doth effect and confirm the compacts Which if it be he saith far absent from us that is a compact and in the use of conceived words by which the malady is taken away there be contained nothing that is impious and that we implore the divine assistance I do not see he saith any thing hurtful to Religion nor unbeseeming a good and Pious Man For as if things that are salutiferous to mankind should come from Men that were Atheists we should imbrace them not respecting the Authors So if he saith things that are profitable should be shewed of a Demon I should not think they were to be rejected 7. Lastly he saith Why may we not also refer effects in the sanation of diseases which do accompany the enunciation or description of conceived words to those we call good or guardian Angels Why should we not judge that these would be as ready to ease and help as others to hurt especially in diseases where we are destitute of natural helps And this opinion he saith Constantinus magnus did approve Codicis lib. 9. tit â—0 leg 4. The Science of them he saith is to be punished who being skilled in Magical Arts are discovered either to endeavour the impairing the health of men or the drawing of chast minds to lust But for seeking remedies to humane bodies they ought not to be punished But perhaps thon wilt say that words are in vain muttered forth unless a compact do interceed But that which happened he saith at Lipsick some twelve or fifteen years since doth refell this opinion where a little Wench that by reason of her age did not know what she did while she imitated the whole action of her nurse which she had often seen her use and therewith stirred up tempests herewith the little Wench raised up such Thunders and Lightenings by which a Village not far from the City was burned As he saith D. Nenius told him and was a thing known to innumerable Citizens For the Wench being brought to the Court it was debated whether by law she could be punished but it was decided by the opinions of the Lawyers that she could not be punished seeing that by reason of her young age she was altogether ignorant of what she did 8. We cannot also but remember here some notable passages of Paracelsus where he is speaking of the power of faith and strong confidence meerly considered as a nude and natural power And affirming its great force and operation to effect strange things he saith But truly we cannot deny but that spirits do commix themselves with such a faith in celebrated feasts and the like as though they had performed those things But not at all they but faith only doth these things As if a Man had honey and did not know from whence it came nor what kind of creature did make it and the Beetle should brag that she had made it So the Devils though they perform nothing at all but the effects are meerly produced by the power of a natural or miraculous faith yet they glory as though they had done them in all things being liars and deceivers and therefore do they what they can to confirm and raise up ceremonies and superstitions From which commotions faith is brought forth and faith worketh those strange effects and therefore by reason of the superstition used the Devils would make men believe that they are authors of those strange effects which are onely wrought by the Power of an humane Faith that they might rob God of his Glory and have it ascribed unto themselves And therefore no persons do the Devils more service than those that ascribe those works unto them that are wrought by natural power and the strength of humane faith From whence he concludeth thus Eodem modo fides est in homine ut laqueus quo strangulatur fur ad multa utilis sit Ea sides facit ut fiat Si sides etiam in filum lineum est similiter fit Interim tamen hoc nec Diabolus facit nec fur nec laqueus nec carnifex sed adulterina tua fides quam non impendis ut debebas Having sufficiently we suppose proved that in the producing the effects by words or charms the Devil doth operate nothing at all in them but only as a lying deceiver and Impostor laboureth to have the honour of those effects ascribed unto him we shall now come to the second and that is those that hold that the effects are solely produced by the force of the imagination and faith of the Charmer and so that imagination doth work further than the proper body of the imaginant upon other extraneous bodies and that the words or characters avail nothing but the fortifying and exalting of the faith of the Operator to prove which are brought these arguments 1. When the Disciples asked our Saviour Why they could not cast forth the Devil out of the child that was lunatick and sore vexed and oft fell into the fire and into the water he told them Because of their unbelief and said For verily I say unto you if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed ye shall say unto this mountain remove hence to yonder place and it shall remove and nothing shall be impossible unto you Upon which place learned Beza gives us this note Non fidem illam generalem historicam intelligit Nec etiam fidem justificantem Sed illam demum specialem quibusdam Christianis particularem quâ animus quodam spiritus sancti impulsu ad res mirandas perficiendas impellitur ista vocatur fides miraculorum And against diffidence our Saviour orders the remedy of fasting and prayer But this was a power given by Christ unto them which they it seems had lost and are here taught to resuscitate it by prayer and fasting Others take it to be a natural power of faith or strength of imagination in all men which they may stir up by fasting and prayer therewith to operate that which is good but being suscitated by the means of images pictures superstitious ceremonies and the like and so may effect either good or bad but this later opinion we reject as unsound and contrary to the Scriptures and so the argument doth prove very little 2. Helmont holdeth that every man in respect that they have been partakers of the image of God hath power to create certain entities by the power of imagination and that these conceived Ideas do cloath themselves with a body in the shape of the image fabricated in the imagination and it is by these that those strange things are effected that are falsly attributed to Demons And that man solely hath this power Which if his argument be well grounded doth prove plainly that these strange effects are brought to pass by