the Dâ—…vil or unclean Spirit So Luke 4. 33. In the Synagogue there was a Man that had a Spirit of an unclean Devil and cryed out with a loud Voice saying Let us alone c. Well but might not this be the Man himself that cryed out so Therefore read a little on v. 35. And Jesus rebuked him viz. him that spake saying to the same still Hold thy peace and come out of him Which must be another Person distinct srom the Man himself and who was that It follows And when the Devil had thrown him in the midst he came cut of him the same Devil that spake that our Saviour rebuked and commanded to come out which could be no other than a real Evil Spirit And that those ejected Devils were not Diseases appears further Matth. 12. v. 22. There was brought unto him one possessed with a Devil blind and dumb and he healed him insomuch to wit the consequence of the ejecting the Devil was that the blind and dumb both spake and saw The Pharisees v. 24. impute this casting out Devils to a confederacy with Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils our Saviour there argues that then Sathan should be divided against himself namely Beelzebub the chief against the Inferiour Devils that he cast out who are of his Kingdom and doing the work of it For there it follows that his Kingdom could not stand v. 26. These things will be hardly applyed to Diseases And Fourthly and lastly If the Evangelist should call Diseases Devils and unclean Spirits and speak of casting out Devils in an History with all the plainness and expresness of Words and Phrase and Circumstance that such an action could be described by and yet mean nothing of it what would this suggest but that they falsly ascribed to Christ wonders that he never did and consequently that they were Lyars and Deceivers and vain Impostours For clear it is that whoever shall read those passages in the Gospel without a prepossest Opinion will be led into this belief by them that our Saviour did really cast Devils out of Persons possest And if there be really no such thing as Possession by evil Spirits but only Diseases by the ignorant and credulous people taken for such then the History imposeth on us and leads Men into a perswasion of things done by the Power of Christ that never were And what execution this will do upon the truth and credit of the whole History is very easie to understand SECT VII That the Witch-Advocates cannot elude Scripture-Testimony of Possession by Evil Spirits by saying it speaks according to the received Opinions of Men. I But the Scripture doth we know speak often according to the received Opinions of Men though they are errours which it is not concerned to rectify when they concern no Morality or Religion But first The Doctrine of Spirits and Devils was not the received Opinion of all the Jews The Sadducees a considerable Sect were of another mind So that the Stories of ejecting such must look to them as Impostures And the Scriptures were not written only for the Jews and for that particular time alone but for all Places and all Ages Most of which have no such use of calling Diseases Devils and among them the History must either convey a false Opinion or lose the Reputation of its Truth Secondly Though the Scripture doth not vary from the common forms of Speech where they are grounded upon harmless and lesser mistakes yet when such are great and dangerous prejudicial to the Glory of God and Interest of Religion it is then much concerned to reform and rectify such errours And according to the Belief of the Witch-Advocates the Doctrine of Possessions is highly such For it leads to the Opinion of Witchcraft which they make such a Dismal and Tragical Error Blasphemy an abominably Idolatrous yea an Atheistical Doctrine the grand Apostasie the greatest that ever was or can be that which cuts off Christs Head and Un-Gods him renounceth Christ and God and owns the Devil and makes him equal to them c. As the Authour of the Grand Apostasie raves And Mr. Webster saith little less of this Opinion in his Preface viz. That it tends to advance Superstition and Popery is derogatory to the Wisdom Justice and Providence of the Almighty tending to cry up the Power of the Kingdom of darkness to question the verity of the principal Articles of the Christian Faith concerning the Resurrection of Christ and generally tends to the obstructing of Godliness and Piety And Mr. Wagstaffe loads it with as dreadful imputations in his Preface As that it doth necessarily infer plurality of Gods by attributing Omnipotent effects to more than one and that it supposeth many Omnipotents and many Omniscients If any thing of this be so certainly our Saviours inspired Historians would not have connived at much less would they have spoken in the Phrase that supposeth and encourageth a common Error that leads to such an horrid Opinion SECT VIII An Answer to an Objection from Christs nâ—… mentioning his casting out Devils to John's Disciples amongst other Miracles BUt saith the Authour of the Grand Apestasie p. 34. our Saviour himself in his Answer to the Disciples of John the Baptist Luke 7. doth not pretend to the casting out Devils but only the cure of Diseases and raising the Dead To which I say First we may not argue negatively from Scripture in such matters and certainly we ought not to argue from silence in one place against plain assirmations in many Secondly Our Saviour answers in reference to the things he was then doing when the Disciples of John came to him v. 21. And in that same hour he cured many of their Infirmities and Plagues Evil Spirits it must be confessed are also mentioned Some of those Diseases it is like were occasioned by Evil Spirits as Maâ—…th 12. 22. the blindness and dumbness of thâ—… possessed person there was And then the â—…jection of the Evil Spirit is implyed when the Disease is said to be Cured Thirdly The business of John's Disciples was to enquire whether he was the Messiah and it was fit our Saviour in his Answer should give such proofs of his being so as were plain and palpable Go your way saith he and tell John what things ye have seen and heard Luke 7. 22. They had heard him Preach the Gospel it is like and had seen him Cure Diseases These things were plain and sensible and could admit of no dispute or doubt But whether the Distempers Christ then healed were inflicted by Evil Spirits and whether those were cast out in the Cure did not plainly appear at that time Our Saviour therefore did not bid them mention that Instance to their Master John because they could not testify it on their own knowledge as they could the things themselves saw and heard SECT IX An Answer to two more Objections the one that St. John mentions no casting out Devils in his Gospel the other that
of late years And though there cannot be a greater evidence than the testimony of a whole Kingdom yet your nicer men will think it a disparagement to them to believe it nor will it ever extort Assent from any that build the reputation of their wit upon contradicting what hath been received by the vulgar The passages here related wrought so great a Consternation not onely on the Natives but Strangers too that the Heer Christian Rumpf then Resident for the States General at Stockholm thought himself obliged to send away his little Son for Holland lest he should be endangered by these villanous praâ—…es which seem'd to threaten all the Inhabitants of the Kingdom And a friend of mine in Town being then in Holstein remembers very well that the Duke of Holstein sent an Express to the King of Sweden to know the truth of this famous Witcheraft To whom the King modestly replied That his Judges and Commissioners had caused divers Men Women and Children to be Burnt and Executed upon such pregnant Evidences aâ—… were brought before them but whether the Actions they confessed and which were proved against them were real or onely effects of strong Imagination he was not as yet able to determine Add to all this that the Circumstances mentioned in the ensuing Narrative are at this day to be seen in the Royal Chancery at Stockholm and a person of my acquaintance offered me â—…o procure a Copy of them under the hands of publick Registers if I desired it Not to mention that in the year 72. Baron Sparr who was sent Embassadour from the Crown of Sweden to the Court of England did upon his word aver the matter of Fact recorded here to be undoubtedly true to several persons of Note and Eminency with other particulars stranger than those set down iâ—… these Papers And to this purpose divers â—…ters were sent from Sweden and Hâ—…urgh to several persons here in London 〈◊〉 much that should a man born in or acquainted with those parts hear any person dispute the truth of it he would wonder where people have lived or what sullen humour doth possess them to disbelieve that which so many thousands in that Kingdom have felt the sad effect of That a Spirit can lift up Men and Women and grosser Bodies into the Air I question no more than I doubt that the Wind can overthrow Houses or drive Stones upward from their Centre And though I cannot comprehend the Philosophie of her committing Venereal acts and having Children and those Children bringing forth Toads and Serpents yet I can very rationally conceive that he can animate dead Bodies and by the help of them commit those villanies which modesty bids us to conceal and he that was permitted as we see in the Gospel to possess and actuate living men and do with them almost what he pleased why may not he commit wickedness by such Instruments and cast Mists before the Witches eyes that they may not know who they are And he that could in AEgypt produce Frogs either real or counterfeit ones Why may not he be supposed to be able to produce such Toads and Serpents out of any mishapen Creatures and of his own making Spirits that know the nature of things better than man and understand better how things are joyned and compounded and what the Ingredients of terrestrial Productions are and see things in their first principles and have power over the Air and other Elements and have a thousand ways of shaping things and representing them to the sensual minds of men what may not they be supposed to be able to do if they have but God's permission to exert their power and that God doth sometimes permit such things we have reason to believe that see men sink into most sottish wickedness which very often produces that fatal Sentence we read of in the Evangelist He that is filthy let him be filthy still And certainly there is such a Judgement that men are given up to believe a Lye and that God sends them strong Delusions as punishments for their wilful obstinacy and resisting of the Truth Spirits by being Devils do not lose their nature and let any man in sober sadness consider what Spirits are said to be able to do in Scripture and what they have done and compare them with what is said in the following Relation and he will not think those things the Witches confessed altogether impossible I could add a known passage that happen'd in the year 1659. at Crassen in Philesia of an Apothecarie's Servant one Christopher Manigh who after his death returned to his Master's Shop and seemed to be mighty busie there walked about in the open Streets but spoke to no creature but to a Maid-servant and then vanished a thing which abundance of people now living will take their Oath upon that they saw him after his decease at least his shape and which occasioned publick Disputations in the University of Wittemberg but it 's needless If the Stories related in the foregoing Book are not sufficient to Convince men I am sure an Example from beyond sea will gain no Credit It 's enough that I have shewn Reasons which may induce my Reader to believe that he is not imposed upon by the following Narrative and that it is not in the nature of those Pamphlets they cry about the Streets containing very dreadful News from the Country of Armies fighting in the Air. Farewel A Relation of the strange Witchraft discovered in the Village Mohra in Swedeland taken out of the publick Register of the Lords Commissioners appointed by His Majesty the King of Sweden to examine the whole business in the years of our Lord 1669. and 1670. THE news of this Witchraft coming to the Kings ear his Maiesty was pleased to appoint Commissioners some of the Clergy and some of the Laity to make a Journey to the Town aforesaid and to examine the whole business and accordingly the Examination was ordered to be on the 13th of August and the Commissioners met on the 12th instant in the said Village at the Parsons House to whom both the Minister and several people of fashion complained with tears in their eyes of the miserable condition they were in and therefore begg'd of them to think of some way whereby they might be delivered from their Calamity They gave the Commissioners very strange Instances of the Devils Tyranny among them how by the help of Witches he had drawn some Hundreds of Children to him and made them subject to his power how he hath been seen to go in a Visible shape through the Country and appeared daily to the people how he had wrought upon the poorer sort by presenting them with Meat and Drink and this way allured them to himself with other circumstances to be mentioned hereafter The Inhabitants of the Village added with very great lamentations that though their Children had told all and sought God very earnestly by Prayer they were carried away by him and
passage of Sharp and Walker There are very few men that I could meet that were then men or at the Tryal saving these two in the inclosed Paper both men at that time and both at the Tryal And for Mr. Lumley he lived next door to Walker and what he hath given under his hand can depose if there were occasion The other Gentleman writ his Attestation with his own hand but I being not there got not his Name to it I could have sent you twenty hands that could have said thus much and more by hearsay but I thought these most proper that could speak from their own Eyes and Ears Thus far Mr. Shepherdson the Doctor 's discreet and faithful Intelligencer Now for Mr. Lumley's Testimony it is this Mr. William Lumley of Lumley being an ancient Gentleman and at the Tryal of Walker and Sharp upon the Murder of Anne Walker saith that he doth very well remember that the said Anne was Servant to Walker and that she was supposed to be with Child but would not disclose by whom But being removed to her Aunts in the same Town called Dame Carie told her Aunt that he that had got her with Child would take care both for her and it and bid her not trouble her self After some time she had been at her Aunts it was observed that Sharp came to Lumley one night being a sworn Brother of the said Walker ' s and they two that night called her forth from her Aunts House which night she was murdered About fourteen days after the murder there appeared to one Graime a Fuller at his Mill six miles from Lumley the likeness of a Woman with her Hair about her head and the appearance of five Wounds in her Head as the said Graime gave it in Evidence That that appearance bid him go to a Justice of Peace and relate to him how that Walker and Sharp had murthered her in such a place as she was murthered But he fearing to disclose a thing of that nature against a person of credit as Walker was would not have done it but she continually appearing night by night to him and pulling the Clothes off his Bed told him he should never rest till he had disclosed it Upon which he the said Graime did go to a Justice of Peace and related the whole matter Whereupon the Justice of Peace granted Warrants against Walker and Sharp and committed them to prison But they found Bail to appear at the next Assizes At which time they came to their Tryal and upon evidence of the Circumstances with that of Graime of the Appearance they were both found guilty and executed Will. Lumley The other Testimony is of Mr. James Smart of the City of Durham who saith That the Trial of Sharp and Walker was in the moneth of August 1631 before Judge Davenport One Mr. Fairhair gave it in Evidence upon Oath that he see the likeness of a Child stand upon Walker ' s Shoulders during the time of the Trial At which time the Judge was very much troubled and gave Sentence that night the Trial was which was a thing never used in Durham before nor after Out of which Two Testimonies several things may be corrected or supplied in Mr. Websters Story though it be evident enough that in the main they agree For that is but a small disagreement as to the Year when Mr. Webster says about the year of our Lord 1632. and Mr. Smart 1631. But unless at Durham they have Assizes but once in the year I understand not so well how Sharp and Walker should be apprehended some little while after St. Thomas day as Mr. Webster has it and be tried the next Assizes at Durham and yet that be in August according to Mr. Smarts Testimony Out of Mr. Lumley ' s Testimony the Christen Name of the young Woman is supplied as also the Name of the Town near Chester in the Street namely Lumley The Circumstances also of Walker ' s sending away his Kinswoman with Mark Sharp are supplied out of Mr. Lumley ' s Narrative and the time rectified by telling it was about fourteen days till the Spectre appeared after the Murther whenas Mr. Webster makes it a long time Two Errours also more are corrected in Mr. Webster ' s Narration by Mr. Lumley ' s Testimony The distance of the Miller from Lumley where Walker dwelt which was Six miles not Two miles as Mr. Webster has it And also that it was not a Mill to grinde Corn in but a Fullers Mill. The Apparition night by night pulling the Clothes off Graime ' s Bed omitted in Mr. Webster ' s story may be supplied out of Mr. Lumley ' s. And Mr. Smart ' s Testimony puts it out of controversie that the Trial was at Durham and before Judge Davenport which is omitted by Mr. Webster And whereas Mr. Webster says there were some â—…hat reported that the Apparition did appear to the Judge or the Fore man of the Jury but of that he knows no certainty This confession of his as it is a sign he would not write any thing in this story of which he was not certain for the main so here is a very seasonable supply for this out of Mr. Smart who affirms that he heard one Mr. Fairhair give Evidence upon Oath that he saw the likeness of a Child stand upon Walker ' s Shoulders during the time of the Trial. It is likely this Mr. Fairhair might be the Fore man of the Jury and in that the Judge was so very much troubled that himself also might see the same Apparition as Mr. Webster says report went though the mistake in Mr. Webster is that it was the Apparition of the Woman But this of the Child was very fit and apposite placed on his Shoulders as one that was justly loaded or charged with that Crime of getting his Kinswoman with Child as well as of complotting with Sharp to murder her The Letter also which he mentions writ from the Judge before whom the Trial was heard to Serjeant Hutton it is plain out of Mr. Smart ' s Testimony that it was from Judge Davenport which in all likelihood was a very full and punctual Narrative of the whole business and enabled Mr. Webster in some considerable things to be more particular than Mr. Lumley But the agreement is so exact for the main that there is no doubt to be made of the truth of the Apparition But that this forsooth must not be the Soul of Anne Walker but her Astral Spirit this is but a fantastick conceit of Webster and his Paracelsians which I have sufficiently shewn the folly of in the Scholia on my Immortality of the Soul Volum Philos. Tom. 2. p. 384. This Story of Anne Walker I think you will do well to put amongst your Additions in the new Impression of your Daemon of Tedworth it being so excellently well attested and so unexceptionably in every respect and to hasten as fast as you can that
Impression to undeceive the half-witted World who so much exult and triumph in the extinguishing the belief of that Narration as if the crying down the truth of that story of the Daemon of Tedworth were indeed the very slaying of the Devil and that they may now with more gaiety and security than ever sing in a loud note that mad drunken Catch Hay ho the Devil is dead c. which wild Song though it may seem a piece of levity to mention yet believe me the application thereof bears a sober and weighty intimation along with it viz. that these sort of People are very horribly afraid there should be any Spirit lest there should be a Devil and an account after this life and therefore they are impatient of any thing that implies it that they may with a more full swing and with all security from an after-reckoning indulge their own Lusts and Humours in this And I know by long experience that nothing rouzes them so out of that dull Lethargy of Atheism and Sadducism as Narrations of this kind For they being of a thick and gross spirit the most subtile and solid deductions of reason does little execution upon them but this sort of sensible Experiments cuts them and stings them very sore and so startles them that by a less considerable story by far than this of the Drummer of Tedworth or of Anne Walker a Doctor of Physick cry'd out presently If this be true I have been in a wrong Box all this time and must begin my account anew And I remember an old Gentleman in the Country of my acquaintance an excellent Justice of Peace and a piece of a Mathematician but what kind of Philosopher he was you may understand from a Rhyme of his own making which he commended to me at my taking horse in his yard which Rhyme is this Ens is nothing till Sense finde it out Sense ends in nothing so nought goes about Which Rhyme of his was so rapturous to himself that at the reciting of the second Verse the old Gentleman turned himself about upon his Toe a nimbly as one may observe a dry Leaf whisked round in the corner of an Orchard-walk by some little Whirlwind With this Philosopher I have had many Discourses concerning the Immortality of the Soul and its distinction from the Body and of the existence of Spirits When I have ran him quite down by Reason he would but laugh at me and say This is Logick H. calling me by my Christen-Name To which I replied This is Reason Father L. for so I used and some others to call him but it seems you are for the New Lights and immediate Inspiration Which I confess he was as little for as for the other but I said so onely in way of drollery to him in those times But truth is nothing but palpable experience would move him And being a bold man and fearing nothing he told me he had used all the Magical Ceremonies of Conjuration he could to raise the Devil or a Spirit and had a most earnest desire to meet with one but never could do it But this he told me when he did not so much as think of it while his Servant waâ—… pulling off his Boots in the Hall some invisible Hand gave him such a clap upon the Back that it made all ring again So thought he now I am invited to the converse of some Spirit and there fore so soon as his Boots were off and his Shoes onout goes he into the Tard and next Field to finde out the Spirit that had given him this familiar clap on the back but found none neither in the Yard nor Field next to it But though he did not this stroak albeit he thought it afterwards finding nothing come of it a mere delusion yet not long before his death it had more force with him than all the Philosophical Arguments I could use to him though I could winde him and nonplus him as I pleased but yet all my Arguments how solid soever made no impression upon him Wherefore after several reasonings of this nature whereby I would prove to him the Souls distinction from the Body and its immortality when nothing of such subtile consideration did any more execution on his mind than some Lightning is said to do though it melt the Sword on the fuzzy consistency of the Scabbard Well said I Father L. though none of these things move you I have something still behind and what your self has acknowledged to me to be true that may do the business Do you remember the clap on your back when your Servant was pulling off your Boots in the Hall Assure your self said I Father L. that Goblin will be the first that will bid you welcome into the other World Upon that his Countenance changed most sensibly and he was more confounded with this rubbing up his memory than with all the Rational or Philosophical Argumentations that I could produce Indeed if there were any modesty left in mankind the Histories of the Bible might abundantly assure men of the existence of Angels and Spirits But these Wits as they are taken to be are so jealous forsooth and so sagacious that whatsoever is offered to them by way of established Religion is suspected for a piece of politick Circumvention which is as silly notwithstanding and as childish as that conceit of a Friend of yours when he was a School boy in the lowest Form of a Country Gramar school who could not believe scarce that there were any such men as Cato and AEsop and Ovid and Virgil and Tully much less that they wrote any such Books but that it was a trick of our Parents to keep us up so many hours of the day together and hinder us from the enjoying our innocent pastime in the open Air and the pleasure of planting little Gardens of Flowers and of hunting of Butter-flies and Bumble-bees Besides though what is once true never becomes false so that it may be truely said it was not once true yet these shrewd Wits suspect the truth of things for their antiquity and for that very reason think them the less credible Which is as wisely done as of the Old Woman the Story goes of Who being at Church in the week before Easter and hearing the tragical Description of all the circumstances of our Saviour's Crucifixion was in great sorrow at the reciting thereof and so sollicitous about the business that she came to the Priest after Service with tears in her Eyes dropping him a Courtsie and asked him how long ago this sad accident hapned to whom he answering about Fifteen or Sixteen hundred years ago she presently began to be comforted and said Then in grace of God it may not be true At this pitch of wit in Children and Old Wives is the Reason of our professed Wit-would-be's of this present Age who will catch at any slight occasion oâ—… pretence of misbelieving those things that they cannot endure should be true
impudent profaneness and sottishness of perverse shufflers and whifflers that upon the hearing of this passage can have the face to deny that Saul saw any thing and merely because the word perceived is used and not saw when the word perceived plainly implies that he saw Samuel and something more namely that by his former familiar converse with him he was assured it was he So exquisitely did he appear and overcomingly to his senses that he could not but acknowledge for so the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies that it was he or else why did he stoop with his Face to the very Ground to do him honour No no says J. Webster he saw nothing himself but stood waiting like a drowned Puppet see of what a base rude spirit this Squire of Hags is to use such language of a Prince in his distress in another Room to hear what would be the issue for all that he understood was from her cunning and lying relations That this Gallant of Witches should dare to abuse a Prince thus and feign him as much foolisher and sottisher in his Intellectuals as he was taller in Stature than the rest of the people even by head and shoulders and merely forsooth to secure his old Wives from being so much as in a capacity of ever being suspected for Witches is a thing extreamly coarse and intolerably sordid And indeed upon the consideration of Saul's being said to bow himself to Samuel which plainly implies that there was there a Samuel that was the object of his sight and of the reverence he made his own heart misgives him in this mad adventure And he shifts oâ—…f from thence to a conceit that it was a confederate Knave that the woman of Endor turned out into the room where Saul was to act the part of Samuel having first put on him her own short Cloak which she used with her maund under her arm to ride to Fairs or Markets in To this Country-slouch in the womans Mantle must King Saul stooping with his face to the very ground make his profound obeysance What was a Market-womans Cloak and Samuel's Mantle which Josephus calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sacerdotal habit so like one another Or if not how came this woman being so surprized oâ—… a suddain to provide her self of such a Saâ—…rdotal habit to cloak her consederate Knaâ—… iâ—… 〈◊〉 Was Saul as well a blind as a drowned Puppet that he could not discern so gross and bold an Imposture as this Was it possible that he should not perceive that it was not Samuel when they came to confer together as they did How could that confederate Knave change his own Face into the same figure look and mien that Samuel had which was exactly known to Saul How could he imitate his Voice thus of a suddain and they discoursed a very considerable time together Besides Knaves do not use to speak what things are true but what things are pleasing And moreover this woman of Endor though a Pythoness yet she was of a very good nature and benign which Josephus takes notice of and extols her mightily for it and therefore she could take no delight to lay further weight on the oppressed Spirit of distressed King Saul which is another sign that this Scene was acted bonâ fide and that there was no couzening in it As also that is another that she spoke so magnificently of what appeared to her that she saw Gods ascending Could she then possibly adventure to turn out a Country-slouch with a Maund-womans Cloak to act the part of so God-like and divine a Personage as Samuel who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the woman describes him in Josephus Antiqu. Judaic lib. 7. c. 15. Unto all which you may add That the Scripture itself which was written by Inspiration says expresly v. 20. that it was Samuel And the son of Sirach ch 46. that Samuel himself prophesyed after his death referring to this story of the woman of Endor But for our new-inspired Seers or Saints S. Scot S. Adie and if you will S. Webster sworn Advocate of the Witches who thus madly and boldly against all sense and reason against all antiquity all Interpreters and against the inspired Scripture itself will have no Samuel in this Scene but a cunning confederate Knave whether the inspired Scripture or these inblown Buffoons puffed up with nothing but ignorance vanity and stupid infidelity are to be believed let any one judge We come now to his other Allegation wherein we shall be brief we having exceeded the measure of a Postscript already It was neither Samuel's Soul says he joyned with his Body nor his Soul out of his Body nor the Devil and therefore it must be some confedâ—…rate Knave suborned by that cunning cheating Quean of Endor But I briesly answer it was the Soul of Samuel himself and that it is the fruitfulness of the great ignorance of J. Webster in the sound Principles of Theosophy and true Divinity that has enabled him to heap together no less than Ten Arguments to disprove this Assertion and all little to the purpose So little indeed that I think it little to the purpose particularly to answer them but shall hint onely some few Truths which will rout the whole band of them I say therefore that departed Souls as other Spirits have an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in them such as Souls have in this life and have both a faculty and a right to move of themselves provided there be no express Law against such or such a design to which their motion tends Again That they have a Power of appearing in their own personal shapes to whom there is occasion as Anne Walker's Soul did to the Miller and that this being a faculty of theirs either natural or acquirable the doing so is no miracle And Thirdly That it was the strong piercing desire and deep distress and agony of mind in Saul in his perplexed circumstances and the great compassion and goodness of Spirit in the holy Soul of Samuel that was the effectual Magick that drew him to condescend to converse with Saul in the womans house at Endor as a keen sense of Justice and Revenge made Anne Walker's Soul appear to the Miller with her sive Wounds in her head The rigid and harsh severity that Webster sancies Samuel's Ghost would have used against the woman or sharp reproofs to Saul As for the latter it is somewhat expressed in the Text and Saul had his excuse in readiness and the good Soul of Samuel was sensible of his perplexed condition And as for the former sith the Soul of Samuel might indeed have terrified the poor woman and so unhinged her that she had been sit for nothing after it but not converted her it is no wonder if he passed her by Goodness and Forbearance more befitting an holy Angelical Soul than bluster and fury such as is fancied by that rude Goblin that actuates the Body and Pen of Webster As
Endeavour and raise the Dead to Life after they have stunk in their Graves If He shall be honoured by Voices from Heaven and attract the universal wonder of Princes and People If He shall allay Tempests with a beck and cast out Devils with a word If He shall foretel his own Death particularly with its Tragical Circumstances and his Resurrection after it If the Veil of the most famous Temple in the world shall be rent and the Sun darkned at his Funeral If He shall within the time foretold break the bonds of Death and lift up his Head out of the Grave If Multitudes of other departed Souls shall arise with Him to attend at the Solemnity of his Resurrection If He shall after Death visibly converse and eat and drink with divers persons who could not be deceived in a matter of clear sense and ascend in Glory in the presence of an astonisht and admiring Multitude I say if such a one as this should prove a diabolical Impostor and Providence should permit him to be so credited and acknowledged What possibility were there then for us to be assured that we are not always deceived yea that our very faculties were not given us onely to delude and abuse us And if so the next Conclusion is That there is no God that judgeth in the earth and the best and most likely Hypothesis will be That the world is given up to the Government of the Devil But if there be a Providence that superviseth us as nothing is more certain doubtless it will never suffer poor helpless Creatures to be inevitably deceived by the craft and subtilty of their mischievous Enemy to their undoing but will without question take such care that the works wrought by Divine Power for the Confirmation of Divine Truth shall have such visible Marks and Signatures if not in their Nature yet in their Circumstances Ends and Designs as shall discover whence they are and sufficiently distinguish them from all Impostures and Delusions And though wicked spirits may perform some strange things that may excite wonder for a while yet He hath and will so provide that they shall be baffled and discredited as we know it was in the case of Moses and the AEgyptian Magicians These things I count sufficient to be said to this last and shrewdest Objection Though some I understand except that I have made it stronger than the Answer I have applied That I have urged the argument of unbelievers home and represented it in its full strength I suppose can be no matter of just reproof For to triumph over the weakness of a Cause and to overlook its strength is the trick of shallow and interessed Disputers and the worst way to defend a good Cause or confute a bad one I have therefore all along urged the most cogent things I could think of for the interest of the Objectors because I would not impose upon my Reader or my self and the stronger I make their premises the more shall I weaken their Conclusion if I answer them which whether I have done or not I refer my self to the judgments of the ingenious and considerate from whom I should be very glad to be informed in what particular points my Discourse is defective General Charges are no proofs nor are they easily capable of an answer Yet to the mention'd exception I say That the strength of the Objection is not my fault for the reasons alledg'd and for the supposed incompetency of my return I propose that if the circumstances of the Persons Ends and Issues be the best Notes of Distinction between true Miracles and Forgeries Divine and Diabolical ones I have then said enough to secure the Miracles of our Saviour and the Holy men of Ancient times But if these Objectors think they can give us any better or more infallible Criteria I desire them to weigh what I have offer'd about Miracles in some of the following Leaves before they enter that thought among their certainties And if their other marks of difference will hold notwithstanding those allegations I suppose the inquisitive believing world would be glad to know them and I shall have particular obligations to the discoverer for the strength with which he will thereby assist my Answer But till I see that I can say nothing stronger or if I saw it which I shall not in haste expect I should not be convinced but that the circumstances of difference which I have noted are abundantly sufficient to disarm the Objection and to shew that though Apparitions Witchcraft and daibolical Wonders are admitted yet none of these can fasten any slurre or ground of dangerous doubt upon the miraculous performances of the H. JESUS and his Apostles If the dissatisfied can shew it I shall yield my self an humble proselyte to their Reasons but till I know them the general suggestion will not convince me Now besides what I have directly said to the main Objection I have this to add to the Objectors That I could wish they would take care of such Suggestions which if they overthrow not the Opinion they oppose will dangerously affront the Religion they would seem to acknowledge For he that saith That if there are WITCHES there is no way to prove that Christ Jesus was not a Magician and diabolical Impostor puts a deadly Weapon into the hands of the Infidel and is himself next door to the SIN AGAINST THE HOLT GHOST of which in order to the perswading greater tenderness and caution in such matters I give this short account SECT XV. THE Sin against the Holy Ghost is said to be Unpardonable by which sad Attribute and the discourse of our Saviour Matthâ—… XII from the 22. to the 33. verse we may understand its Nature In order to which we consider That since the Mercies of God and the Merits of his Son are infinite there is nothing can make a Sin unpardonable but what makes it incurable and there is no Sin but what is curable by a strong Faith and a vigorous Endeavour For all things are possible to him that believeth So that That which makes a Sin incurable must be somewhat that makes Faith impossible and obstructs all means of Conviction In order to the sinding which we must consider the ways and methods the Divine Goodness hath taken sor the begetting Faith and cure of Infidelity which it attempted first by the Prophets and holy men of ancient times who by the excellency of their Doctrine the greatness of their Miracles and the holiness of their Lives endeavoured the conviction and reformation of a stubborn and unbelieving World But though Few believed their Report and men would not be prevail'd on by what they did or what they said yet their Insidelity was not hitherto incurable because further means were provided in the ministry of John the Baptist whose Life was more severe whose Doctrines were more plain pressing and particular and therefore 't was possible that He might have succeeded Yea and where He failed
and could not open mens hearts and their eyes the effect was still in possibility and it might be expected from Him that came after to whom the Prophets and John were but the Twilight and the Dawn And though His miraculous Birth the Song of Angels the Journey of the Wise Men of the East and the correspondence of Prophecies with the Circumstances of the first appearance of the wonderful Infant I say though these had not been taken notice of yet was there a further provision made for the cure of Infidelity in his astonishing Wisdom and most excellent Doctrines For He spake as never man did And when These were despised and neglected yet there were other means towards Conviction and cure of Unbelief in those mighty works that bore Testimony of Him and wore the evident marks of Divine Power in their Foreheads But when after all These clear and unquestionable Miracles which were wrought by the Spirit of God and had eminently his Superscription on them shall be ascribed to the Agency of evil Spirits and Diabolical Compact as they were by the malicious and spightful Pharisees in the periods above-mentioned when those great and last Testimonies against Infidelity shall be said to be but the tricks of Sorcery and Complotment with Hellish Confederates This is Blasphemy in the highest against the Power and Spirit of God and such as cuts off all means of Conviction and puts the Unbeliever beyond all possibilities of Cure For Miracles are God's Seal and the great and last evidence of the truth of any Doctrine And though while these are onely disbelieved as to the Fact there remains a possibility of perswasion yet when the Fact shall be acknowledg'd but the Power blasphemed and the effects of the adorable Spirit maliciously imputed to the Devils such a Blasphemy such an Infidelity is incurable and consequently unpardonable I say in sum the Sin against the Holy Ghost seems to be a malicious imputation of the Miracles wrought by the Spirit of God in our Saviour to Satanical Confederacy and the power of Apostate Spirits Than which nothing is more blasphemous and nothing is more like to provoke the Holy Spirit that is so abused to an Eternal Dereliction of so vile and so incurable an Unbeliever This account as 't is clear and reasonable in it self so it is plainly lodg'd in the mention'd Discourse of our Saviour And most of those that speak other things about it seem to me to talk at random and perfectly without Book But to leave them to the fondness of their own conceits I think it now time to draw up to a Conclusion of the whole SECT XVI THEREFORE briefly Sir I have endeavoured in these Papers which my respect and your concernment in the subject have made yours to remove the main prejudices I could think of against the existence of Witches and Apparitions And I 'm sure I have suggested much more against what I defend than ever I heard or saw in any that opposed it whose Discourses for the most part have seemed to me inspired by a lofty scorn of common belief and some trivial Notions of Vulgar Philosophy And in despising the common Faith about matters of fact and fondly adhering to it in things of Speculation they very grosly and absurdly mistake For in things of Fact the People are as much to be believed as the most subtile Philosophers and Speculators since here Sense is the Judge But in matters of Notions and Theory they are not at all to be heeded because Reason is to be Judge of these and this they know not how to use And yet thus it is with those wise Philosophers that will deny the plain evidence of the Senses of Mankind because they cannot reconcile appearances with the fond Crotchets of a Philosophy which they lighted on in the High-way by chance and will adhere to at adventure So that I profess for mine own part I never yet heard any of the confident Declaimers against Witcheraft and Apparitions speak any thing that might move a mind in any degree instructed in the generous kinds of Philosophy and Nature of things And sor the Objections I have recited they are most of them such as rose out of mine own thoughts which I obliged to consider what was possible to be said upon this occasion For though I have examined SCOT's DISCOVERT fancying that there I should find the strong reasons of mens disbelief in this matter yet I profess I met not with the least suggestion in all that Farrago but what it had been ridiculous for me to have gone about to answer For the Author doth little but tell odd Tales and silly Legends which he confutes and laughs at and pretends this to be a Confutation of the Being of Witches and Apparitions In all which His Reasonings are trifting and Childish and when He ventures at Philosophy He is little better than absurd So that 't will be a wonder to me if any but Boyes and Buffoons imbibe any prejudices against a Belief so infinitely confirmed from the Loose and Impotent Suggestions of so weak a Discourser But however observing two things in that Discourse that would pretend to be more than ordinary Reasons I shall do them the civility to examine them It is said then 1 THat the Gospel is silent as to the Being of WITCHES and 't is not likely if there were such but that our Saviour or his Apostles had given intimations of their existence The other is 2 MIracles are ceased and therefore the prodigious things ascribed to Witchcraft are supposed Dreams and Impostures FOR ANSWER to the FIRST in order I consider 1 That though the History of the New Testament were granted to be silent in the business of Witches and Compacts yet the Records of the Old have a frequent mention of them The Law Exod. XXII 18. against permitting them to live which I mention'd in the beginning is famous And we have another remarkable Prohibition of them Deut. XVIII 10 11. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his Son or his Daughter pass through the Fire or that useth Divination or an Observer of Times or an Enchanter or a WITCH or a Charmer or a Consulter with Familiar Spirits or a Wizzard or a Necromancer Now this accumulation of Names some of which are of the same sence and import is a plain indication that the HEBREW WITCH was one that practised by compact with evil Spirits And many of the same expressions are put together in the Charge against Manasses II Chron. XXXIII viz. That he caused his Children to pass through the Fire observed Times used Enchantments and Witchcraft and dealt with Familiar Spirits and with WIZZARDS So that though the Original word which we render WITCH and WITCHCRAFT should as our Sadducees urge signifie onely a CHEAT and a POTSONER yet those others mention'd plainly enough speak the thing and I have given an account in the former Considerations how a WITCH in the
as Matter without the conception of Cogitation when notwithstanding in one of the members of this distribution they are joyned sufficiently close together How can therefore this newfangled Method of Cartesius convince us that this Supposition is false and that the distribution is illegitimate Can it from thence that Matter may be conceived without Cogitation and Cogitation without Matter The first all grant and the other the distribution itself supposes and yet continues sufficiently firm and sure Therefore it is very evident that there is a necessity of our having recourse to the known and ratified Laws of Logick which many Ages before this new upstart Method of Des Cartes appeared were established and approved by the common suffrage of Mankind Which teach us that in every legitimate distribution the parts ought consentire cum toto dissentire inter se to agree with the Whole but disagree one with another Now in this Distribution that they do sufficiently disagree it is very manifest It remains onely to be proved that one of the parts namely that which supposes that a Cogitative substance may be Material is repugnant to the nature of the Whole This is that clear solid and manifest way or method according to the known Laws of Logick but that new way a kind of Sophistry and pleasant mode of trisling and prevaricating SECT V. That all things are in some sort extended demonstrated out of the Corollary of the third Principle of the Nullibists AS for the second Axiome or Principle viz. That whatsoever is extended is Material for the evincing the falsity thereof there want no new Arguments if one have but recourse to the Sixth Seventh and Eighth Chapters of Enchiridium Metaphysicum where by unanswerable reasonings it is demonstrated That there is a certain Immaterial and Immovable Extensum distinct from the movable Matter But however out of the Consectary of their third Principle we shall prove at once that all Spirits are Extended as being somewhere against the wild and ridiculous Opinion of the Nullibists Whos 's third Principle and out of which immediately and precisely they conclude Spirits to be nowhere is Whatsoever is unextended is nowhere Which I very willingly grant but on this condition that they on the other side concede and I doubt not but they will That whatsoever is somewhere is also extended from which Consectary I will evince with Mathematical certainty That God and our Soul and all other Immaterial Beings are in some sort extended For the Nullibists themselves acknowledge and assert that the Operations wherewith the Soul acts on the Body are in the Body and that Power or Divine Vertue wherewith God acts on the Matter and moves it is present in every part of the Matter Whence it is easily gathered That the Operation of the Soul and the moving Power of God is somewhere viz. in the Body and in the Matter But the Operation of the Soul wherewith it acts on the Body and the Soul itself and the Divine Power wherewith God moves the Matter and God himself are together nor can so much as be imagined separate one from the other namely the Operation from the Soul and the Power from God Wherefore if the Operation of the Soul is somewhere the Soul is somewhere viz. there where the Operation And if the Power of God be somewhere God is somewhere namely there where the Divine Power is He in every part of the Matter the Soul in the humane Body Whosoever can deny this by the same reason he may deny that common Notion in Mathematicks Quantities that are singly equal to one third are equal to one another SECT VI. The apert confession of the Nullibists that the ESSENCE of a Spirit is where its OPERATION is and how they contradict themselves and are forced to acknowledge a Spirit extended ANd verily that which we contend for the Nullibists seem apertly to assert even in their own express words as it is evident in Lambertus Velthusius in his De Initiis Primae Philosophiae in the Chapter De Ubi Who though he does manifestly affirm that God and the Mind of man by their Operations are in every part or some one part of the Matter and that in that sence namely in respect of their Operations the Soul may be truly said to be somewhere God everywhere as if that were the onely mode of their presence yet he does expresly grant that the Essence is nowhere separate from that whereby God or a created Spirit is said to be the one everywhere the other somewhere that no man may conceit the Essence of God to be where the rest of his Attributes are not That the Essence of God is in Heaven but that his Vertue diffuses itself beyond Heaven No by no means saith he Wheresoever God's Power or Operation is there is the Nature of God forasmuch as God is a Substance devoid of all composition Thus far Velthusius Whence I assume But the Power or Operation of God is in or present to the Matter Therefore the Essence of God is in or present to the Matter and is there where the Matter is and therefore somewhere Can there be any deduction or illation more close and coherent with the Premises And yet that other most devoted follower of the Cartesian Philosophy Ludovicus De-la-Forge cannot abstain from the offering us the same advantage of arguing or rather from the inferring the same conclusion with us in his Treatise De Mente Humana Chap. 12. where occur these words Lastly when I say that God is present to all things by his Omnipotency and consequently to all the parts of the Matter I do not deny but that also by his Essence or Substance he is present to them For all those things in God are one and the same Dost thou hear my Nullibist what one of the chiefest of thy Condisciples and most religious Symmists of that stupendious secret of Nullibism plainly professes namely that God is present to all the parts of Matter by his Essence also or Substance And yet you in the mean while blush not to assert that neither God nor any created spirit is any where than which nothing more contradictious can be spoke or thought or more abhorring from all reason Wherefore whenas the Nullibists come so near to the truth it seems impossible they should so all of a suddain start from it unless they were blinded with a superstitious admiration of Des Cartes his Metaphysicks and were deluded effascinated and befooled with his jocular Subtilty and prestigious Abstractions there For who in his right wits can acknowledge that a Spirit by its Essence may be present to Matter and yet be nowhere unless the Matter were nowhere also And that a Spirit may penetrate possess and actuate some determinate Body and yet not be in that Body In which if it be it is plainly necessary it be somewhere And yet the same Ludovicus De-la-Forge does manifestly assert that the Body is thus possest and actuated by
the Soul in his Preface to his Treatise De Mente Humana while he declares the Opinion of Marcilius Ficinus concerning the manner how the Soul actuates the Body in Marsilius his own words and does of his own accord assent to his Opinion What therefore do these Forms to the Body when they communicate to it their Esse They throughly penetrate it with their Essence they bequeath the Vertue of their Essence to it But now whereas the Esse is deduced from the Essence and the Operation flows from the Vertue by conjoyning the Essence they impart the Esse by bequeathing the Vertue they communicate the Operations so that out of the congress of Soul and Body there is made one Animal Esse one Operation Thus he The Soul with her Essence penetrates and pervades the whole Body and yet is not where the Body is but nowhere in the Universe With what manifest repugnancy therefore to their other Assertions the Nullibists hold this ridiculous Conclusion we have sufficiently seen and how weak their chiefest prop is That whatever is Extended is Material which is not onely confuted by irresragable Arguments Chap. 6 7 and 8. Enchirid. Metaphys but we have here also by so clearly proving that all Spirits are somewhere utterly subverted it even from that very Concession or Opinion of the Nullibists themselves who concede or aver that whatsoever is somewhere is extended Which Spirits are and yet are not Material SECT VII The more light reasonings of the Nullibists whereby they would confirm their Opinion The first of which is That the Soul thinks of those things which are nowhere BUt we will not pass by their more slight reasonings in so great a matter or rather so monstrous Of which the first is That the Mind of man thinks of such things as are nowhere nor have any relation to place no not so much as to Logical place or Ubi Of which sort are many truths as well Moral as Theological and Logical which being of such a nature that they are nowhere the Mind of man which conceives them is necessarily nowhere also But how crazily and inconsequently they collect that the humane Soul is nowhere for that it thinks of those things that are nowhere may be apparent to any one srom hence and especially to the Nullibists themselves because from the same reason it would follow that the Mind of man is somewhere because sometimes if not always in a manner it thinks of those things which are somewhere as all Material things are Which yet they dare not grant because it would plainly follow from thence according to their Doctrine that the Mind or Soul of man were extended and so would become corporeal and devoid of all Cogitation But besides These things which they say are nowhere namely certain Moral Logical and Theological Truths are really somewhere viz. in the Soul itself which conceives them but the Soul is in the Body as we proved above Whence it is manifest that the Soul and those Truths which she conceives are as well somewhere as the Body itself I grant that some Truths as they are Representations neither respect Time nor Place in whatever sence But as they are Operations and therefore Modes of some Subject or Substance they cannot be otherwise conceived than in some substance And forasmuch as there is no substance which has not some amplitude they are in a substance which is in some soâ—…t extended and so by reason of their Subject they are necessarily conceived to be somewhere because a Mode is inseparable from a Subject Nor am I at all moved with that giddy and rash tergiversation which some betake themselves to here who say we do not well in distinguishing betwixt Cogitation such as are all conceived verities and the Substance of the Soul cogitating For Cogitation itself is the very Substance of the Soul as Extension is of Matter and that therefore the Soul is as well nowhere as any Cogitation which respects neither time nor place would be if it were found in no Subject But here the Nullibists who would thus escape do not observe that while they acknowledge the Substance of the Soul to be Cogitation they therewithal acknowledge the Soul to have a Substance whence it is necessary it have some amplitude And besides This Assertion whereby they assert Cogitation to be the very substance of the Soul is manifestly false For many Operations of the Soul are as they speak specifically different Which therefore succeeding one after another will be so many Substances specifically different And so the Soul of Socrates will not always be the same specifical Soul and much less the same numerical Than which what can be imagined more delirant and more remote from common sense To which you may adde That the Soul of man is a permanent Being but her Cogitations in a flux or succession How then can the very substance of the Soul be its successive Operations And when the substance of the Soul does so perpetually cease or perish what I beseech you will become of Memory From whence it is manifestly evident that there is a certain permanent Substance of the Soul as much distinct or different from her succeeding Cogitations as the Matter itself is from its successive figures and motions SECT VIII The second reason of the Nullibists viz. That COGITATION is easily conceived without EXTENSION THe second Reason is somewhat coincident with some of those we have already examined but it is briefly proposed by them thus There can be no conception no not of a Logical Place or Ubi without Extension But Cogitation is easily conceived without conceiving any Extension Wherefore the Mind cogitating exempt from all Extension is exempt also from all Locality whether Physical or Logical and is so loosened from it that it has no relation nor applicability thereto as if those things had no relation nor applicability to other certain things without which they might be conceived The weakness of this argumentation is easily deprehended from hence That the Intensness of heat or motion is considered without any respect to its extension and yet it is referred to an extended Subject viz. To a Bullet shot or red hot Iron And though in intent and defixed thoughts upon some either difficult or pleasing Object we do not at all observe how the time passeth nor take the slightest notice of it nothing hinders notwithstanding but those Cogitations may be applied to time and it be rightly said that about six a clock suppose in the Morning they began and continued till eleven and in like manner the place may be defined where they were conceived viz. within the Walls of such an ones Study although perhaps all that time this so fixt Contemplator did not take notice whether he was in his Study or in the Fields And to speak out the matter at once From the precision of our thoughts to infer the real precision or separation of the things themselves is a very putid and
by what artifice they have so spread themselves in the World but that the prejudices and enchantments of Superstition and stupid admiration of mens Persons are so strong that they may utterly blind the minds of men and charm them into dotage But if any one all prejudice and parts-taking being laid aside will attentively consider the thing as it is he shall clearly perceive and acknowledge unless all belief is to be denied to the humane faculties that the Opinions of the Nullibists and Holenmerians touching Incorporeal Beings are miserably false and not that onely but as to any Philosophical purpose altogether useless Forasmuch as out of neither Hypothesis there does appear any greater facility of conceiving how the Mind of man or any other Spirit performs those Functions of Perception and of Moving of Bodies from their being supposed nowhere than from their being supposed somewhere or from supposing them wholly in every part of a Body than from supposing them onely to occupie the whole Body by an Essential or Metaphysical Extension but on the contrary that both the Hypotheses do entangle and involve the Doctrine of Incorporeal Beings with greater Difficulties and Repugnancies Wherefore there being neither Truth nor Usefulness in the Opinions of the Holenmerians and Nullibists I hope it will oâ—…end no man if we send them quite packing from our Philosophations touching an Incorporeal Being or Spirit in our delivering the true Idea or Notion thereof SECT XVI That those that contend that the Notion of a Spirit is so difficult and imperscrutable do not this because they are of a more sharp and piercing Judgement than others but of a Genius more rude and plebeian NOw I have so successfully removed and dissipated those two vast Mounds of Night and Mistiness that lay upon the nature of Incorporeal Beings and obscured it with such gross darkness it remains that we open and illustrate the true and genuine nature of them in general and propose such a definition of a Spirit as will exhibit no difficulty to a mind rightly prepared and freed from prejudice For the nature of a Spirit is very easily understood provided one rightly and skilfully shew the way to the Learner and form to him true Notions of the thing Insomuch that I have often wondred at the superstitious consternation of mind in those men or the profaneness of their tempers and innate aversation from the contemplation of Divine things who if by chance they hear any one professing that he can with sufficient clearness and distinctness conceive the nature of a Spirit and communicate the Notion to others they are presently astartled and amazed at the saying and straightway accuse the man of intolerable levity or arrogancy as thinking him to assume so much to himself and to promise to others as no humane Wit furnished with never so much knowledge can ever perform And this I understand even of such men who yet readily acknowledge the Existence of Spirits But as for those that deny their Existence whoever professes this skill to them verily he cannot but appear a man above all measure vain and doting But I hope that I shall so bring it about that no man shall appear more stupid and doting no man more unskilful and ignorant than he that esteems the clear Notion of a Spirit so hopeless and desperate an attempt and that I shall plainly detect that this big and boastful profession of their ignorance in these things does not proceed from hence that they have any thing more a sharp or discerning Judgment than other mortals but that they have more gross and weak parts and a shallower Wit and such as comes nearest to the superstition and stupidity of the rude vulgar who easilier fall into admiration and astonishment than pierce into the reasons and notices of any difficult matter SECT XVII The Definition of Body in general with so clear an Explication thereof that even they that complain of the obscurity of a Spirit cannot but confess they perfectly understand the nature of Body BUt now for those that do thus despair of any true knowledge of the nature of a Spirit I would entreat them to try the abilities of their wit in recognizing and throughly considering the nature of Body in general And let them ingenuously tell me whether they cannot but acknowledge this to be a clear and perspicuous definition thereof viz. That Body is Substance Material of itself altogether destitute of all Perception Life and Motion Or thus Body is a Substance Material coalescent or accruing together into one by vertue of some other thing from whence that one by coalition has or may have Life also Perception and Motion I doubt not but they will readily answer that they understand all this as to the terms clearly and perfectly nor would they doubt of the truth thereof but that we deprive Body of all Metion from itself as also of Union Life and Perception But that it is Substance that is a Being subsistent by itself not a mode of some Being they cannot but very willingly admit and that also it is a material Substance compounded of physical Monads or at least of most minute particles of Matter into which it is divisible and because of their Impenetrability impenetrable by any other Body So that the Essential and Positive difference of a Body is that it be impenetrable and Physically divisible into parts But that it is extended that immediately belongs to it as it is a Being Nor is there any reason why they should doubt of the other part of the Differentia whenas it is solidly and fully proved in Philosophie That Matter of its own nature or in itself is endued with no Perception Life nor Motion And besides we are to remember that we here do not treat of the Existence of things but of their intelligible Notion and Essence SECT XVIII The perfect Definition of a Spirit with a full Explication of its Nature through all Degrees ANd if the Notion or Essence is so easily understood in nature Corporeal or Body I do not see but in the Species immediately opposite to Body viz. Spirit there may be found the same facility of being understood Let us try therefore and from the Law of Opposites let us define a Spirit an Immaterial Substance intrinsecally endued with Life and the faculty of Motion This slender and brief Desinition that thus easily slows without any noise does comprehend in general the whole nature of a Spirit Which lest by reason of its exility and brevity it may prove less perceptible to the Understanding as a Spirit is to the sight I will subjoyn a more full Explication that it may appear to all that this Definition of a Spirit is nothing inferiour to the Definition of a Body as to clearness and perspicuity And that by this method which we now fall upon a full and perfect knowledge and understanding of the nature of a Spirit may be attained to Go to therefore let us take notice
the Art of Juggling If they or their Proselytes have a mind to say thus they may by their Principles which will serve them to elude the History in reference to Moses and Aaron as well as it doth in relation to the Magicians They may with as much modesty turn all into Allegory and Metaphor I think by all this it appears that this shift of the Witch-Advocates is very vain and that what the Magicians did was not mere Juggling much less only Politick Oratory and Rhetorick As if those Magicians by their Eloquence could perswade Pharaoh and his Servants against their Senses as these Patrons of Witches endeavour to do by us they being the greatest Witches in their own sense that are extant and some of them are belyed if they are not so in other senses SECT XIII That what the Magicians of AEgypt did perform was at least by an Implicit Confederacy with Evil Spirits VVEll If there be any truth in the History the Magicians were not only Couzeners and Hocus-Pocus Men there was something done that was extraordinary beyond Mans Art and Contrivance or the effects of ordinary Nature And therefore must have either God or some Spirit or Daemon one or more for the Authour The former no one saith the Hand of God in this was only permissive Therefore it is plain the Magicians did this by Spirits Creatures of the Invisible World The Text saith by their enchantments per arcana the vulgar Latin reads Which because it is a general word Mr. Wagstaffe takes hold of it and determines it to secret and sly Tricks those of Legerdemain and Couzenage when as it is as applicable to any kind of secret and so to the Diabolical Art and Confederacy as to his sense And that it is so to be understood here is plain from the matter of the History By those arcana others read incantationes veneficia they did those strange things viz. by secret Confederacy with Spirits they obliged them to perform the wonders But what did the Spirits do were the Serpents Blood and Frogs real or apparent only I am not obliged to say who is of one Opinion and who of another in this it matters not The reality of the performance is most easie and most suitable to the Sacred Story and there is no difficulty in conceiving that Spirits might suddenly conveigh Serpents with which AEgypt abounded into the place of the Rods which they might unperceivably snatch away after they were thrown down This they could do though the Magicians of themselves could not And they might be provided for the performances by knowing the Command God had given Moses and Aaron concerning the things he would have them do which the Magicians could not know at least not but by them And for the Blood and the Frogs they might by Infusion or a Thousand ways that we cannot tell make the Water to all appearance Bloody or perhaps really transmute some we know not the extent of their powers And to bring up the Frogs from the Lakes and Rivers was no hard thing for them to effect though impossible for the Magicians to do by Tricks of Juggling We see the sense of the History is plain and easie in our way but forced harsh contradictious and most absurd in the Interpretation of the Hag-Advocates To make the Inference from these Magicians to my point yet more plain and demonstrative I shall surther take notice that if we do not suppose a confederacy and formal compact between them and the Spirits they act by it must at least be granted that those Magicians had a way to oblige them to act either by Words or Ceremonies which they have bound themselves to attend in order to further familiarity with the persons that so employ them and at last to explicit Compacts And even this is sufficient for what I would inferr I have thus dispatcht a great Argument briefly and yet I hope fully Mr. Webster is after his manner very voluminous about it But all he hath said in Five or Six Leaves in Folio to the purpose is in those few Lines I have recited All the rest is sensless rambling Impertinence amusing his Readers with Actives and Passives Mecassaphims Hartummims Talesmans wonderful Cures and the vertues of Plants telling Stories and citing scraps from this Man and from that all which serve only for Ostentation and the Deception of the injudicious but signify nothing to any purpose of Reasoning SECT XIV The other grand Instance of Confederacy with Evil Spirits in the Witch of Endor whom Saul consulted A brief and plain Narration of the Story I Come to another grand Instance viz. that of the Witch of Endor The Story of her is related 1 Sam. 28. and is briefly thus Samuel was dead v. 3. and the Philistines gathered themselves against Saul and pitcht in Gilboa v. 4. Saul on this was much afraid v. 5. and enquired of the Lord but had no answer from him v. 6. Upon this he bid his Servants find him out a Woman that had a Familiar Spirit that he might enquire of her They told him of one at Endor v. 7. He disguised himself and with two Men by night went to her desired her to divine unto him by her Familiar Spirit and to bring up him whom he should name v. 8. The Woman first excused her self minding him how dangerous such a business might be to her since Saul had cut off those that had Familiar Spirits and the Wizzards out of the Land So that she was afraid that this Proposition of his was a snare for her Life v. 9. But Saul assured her by swearing that no harm should come to her for this thing v. 10. She then askt him whom she should bring up and he said Bring me up Samuel v. 11. Samuel accordingly begins to appear and when the Woman saw him she cried with a loud voice being much surprised it seems to see Samuel in good earnest whom she probably expected not but some Familiar in his likeness By this she knew Saul v. 12. He heartens her again and asks whom she saw She answers she saw Gods Ascending out of the Earth an usual Hebraism the Plural for the Singular Number Gods to wit a Spirit v. 13. Saul asks what Forme he was of she answered an Old Man cometh up and he is covered with a Mantle Then Saul perceived it was Samuel and he bowed himself to him to the ground v. 14. Samuel ask't why he had disquieted him to bring him up He declares the distress he was in and his desire to know what he was to do v. 15. Samuel reproves him and declares his Fate viz. That the Lord had rent the Kingdome from him and given it to David v. 17. That the Israelites should be delivered into the hands of the Philistins and that Saul and his Sons should to morrow be with him viz. in the state of the Dead as eventually it was v. 19. This is the History and one would think it speaks very
been every night for about a Months space haunted with this Apparition in several forms every night more and more terrible which was usually preceded by an unusual trembling over his whole Body and great change of countenance manifest to his Wife in whose presence frequently the Apparition was though not visible to her at length he went to Malone to Davis's Wife and askt whether her Maiden-name was not Elenor Welsh if it was he had something to say to her She replied There was another Elenor Welsh besides her Hereupon Taverner returned without delivering his Message The same night being fast asleep in his Bed for the former Apparitions were as he sate by the Fire with his Wife by something pressing upon him he was awakened and saw again the Apparition of James Haddock in a white Coat as at other times who asked him if he had delivered his Message He answered he had been there with Elenor Welsh Upon which the Apparition looking more pleasantly upon him bid him not be afraid and so vanished in a flash of brightness But some nights after he having not delivered his Message he came again and appearing in many formidable shapes threatned to tear him in pieces if he did not do it This made him leave his house where he dwelt in the Mountains and betake himself to the Town of Belfast where he sate up all night at one Pierce's house a Shoemaker accompanied with the said Pierce and a Servant or two of the Lord Chichester who were desirous to see or hear the Spirit About midnight as they were all by the Fire-side they beheld Taverner's Countenance to change and a trembling to fall on him who presently espied the Apparition in a Room opposite to him where he sate and took up the Candle and went to it and resolutely askt it in the Name of God wherefore it haunted him It replied because he had not delivered the Message and withal threatned to tear him in piâ—…ces if he did not do it speedily and so changing itself into many prodigious shapes it vanisht in white like a Ghost Whereupon Francis Taverner became much dejected and troubled and next day went to the Lord Chichester's house and with tears in his Eyes related to some of the Family the sadness of his condition They told it to my Lord's Chaplain Mr. James South who came presently to Taverner and being acquainted of his whole Story advised him to go this present time to Malone to deliver punctually his Message and promised to go along with him But first they went to Dr. Lewis Downs then Minister of Belfast who upon hearing the Relation of the whole matter doubted at first of the truth of it attributing it rather to Melancholy than any thing of reality But being afterwards fully satisfied of it the onely scruple remaining was Whether it might be lawful to go on such a business not knowing whose errand it was Since though it was a real Apparition of some Spirit yet it was questionable whether of a good or a bad Spirit Yet the justice of the Cause it being the common report the Youth was wronged and other considerations prevailing he went with them So they three went to Davis's house where the Woman being desired to come to them Taverner did effectually do his Message by telling her that he could not be at quiet for the Ghost of her former Husband James Haddock who threatned to tear him in pieces if he did not tell her she must right John Haddock her Son by him in a Lease wherein she and Davis her now Husband had wronged him This done he presently found great quietness in his mind and thanking the Gentlemen for their Company Advice and Assistance he departed thence to his Brother's House at Drum-bridge Where about two nights after the aforesaid Apparition came to him again and more pleasantly than formerly askt if he had delivered his Message He answered he had done it fully It replied that he must do the same Message to the Executors also that the business might be perfected At this meeting Taverner asked the Spirit if Davis would do him any hurt to which it answered at first somewhat doubtfully but at length threatned Davis if he attempted any thing to the injury of Taverner and so vanisht away in white The day following Dr. Jeremie Taylor Bishop of Down Connor and Dromore was to go to keep Court at Dromore and commanded me who was then Secretary to him to write for Taverner to meet him there which he did And there in the presence of many people he examined Taverner strictly of this strange Scene of Providence as my Lord styl'd it and by the account given him both by Taverner and others who knew Taverner and much of the former particulars his Lordship was satisfied that the Apparition was true and real but said no more there to him because at Hilbrough three miles from thence on his way home my Lord was informed that my Lady Conway and other persons of Quality were come purposely to hear his Lordship examine the Matter So Tarverner went with us to Hilbrough and there to satisfie the curiosity of the fresh company after asking many things anew and some over again my Lord advised him the next time the Spirit appeared to ask him these Questions Whence are you Are you a good or a bad Spirit Where is your abode What station do you hold How are you regimented in the other World And what is the reason that you appear for the relief of your Son in so small a matter when so many Widows and Orphans are oppressed in the World being defrauded of greater matters and none from thence of their Relations appear as you do to right them That night Taverner was sent for to Lisburne to my Lord Conway's three miles from Hilbrough on his way home to Belfast where he was again strictly examined in the presence of many good men and women of the aforesaid matter was ordered to lie at my Lord Conway's all night and about Nine or Ten a clock at night standing by the Fire-side with his Brother and many others his Countenance changed and he sell into a trembling the usual prognostick of the Apparition and being loath to make any disturbance in his Lordships house he and his Brother went out into the Court where he saw the Spirit coming over the Wall which approaching nearer askt him if he had done his Message to the Executor also He replied he had and wondered it should still haunt him It replied he need not fear for it would do him no hurt nor trouble him any more but the Executor if he did not see the Boy righted Here his Brother put him in mind to ask the Spirit what the Bishop bid him which he did presently But it gave him no answer but crawled on its Hands and Feet over the Wall again and so vanisht in white with a most melodious Harmony Note 1 That Pierce at whose house and in whose
articulate palpableness of Flesh and Bone and Temperament that are in living men Till this appear by confest experience to be in the palpable consistency of Familiars or Spirits that transact with Witches the Allegation is infinitely weak upon that account also as weak as spightful and perverse But the Hag-Advocates will alledge any foolish thing rather than seem to be able to say nothing In the mean time I think it here seasonable to declare that though this intended Edition of Saducismus Triumphatus had not the happiness to be perfected by the ingenious Author 's own hand before his death yet such Materials he left behind him and the work in such a forwardness that things being put together in that order and distinctness which they are the Discourse may prove as useful for the reclaiming men from Saducism though perhaps not altogether so delightful as if his own hand had had the last polishing of it And the publishing of it will also do him that right in the eyes of the world that whereas he was suspected haply for some complaisance towards some persons that were over-inclinable to Hobbianism to have shrunk from the sense of such noble Theories with which his mind was enlightned in the morning of his days it from hence may appear that these things stuck close to him and that he entertained them with a sincere warmth all along as is evident from these Papers then private within his own Study-walls As the profession of them broke out from him most expresly when he lay on his Death-bed as his intimate friend Mr. Thomas Alcock largely sets down in a Letter written to Dr. H. More And I think that is the time if ever that men will speak their thoughts freely as the Poet hath observed in the like case Nam vere voces tum demum pectore ab imo Ejiciuntur eripitur persona manet res To this Sense Then 't is men from their Hearts their Mind declare Cast off their Vizards shew their faces bare AN ACCOUNT Of what happened in the KINGDOM OF SWEDEN In the Years 1669 and 1670. In Relation to the Persons that were accused For Witches AND TRIED and EXECUTED By the King's Command Printed at first in the Swedish Dialect by Authority and then Translated into divers other Languages and now upon the requost of some Friends done into English By Anthony Horneck Preacher at the Savoy LONDON Printed 1681. THE TRANSLATORS PREFACE TO THE READER Shewing what Credit may be given to the Matter of Fact related in the ensuing Narrative THat we are to believe nothing but what we have seen is a rule so false that we dare not call our selves rational Creatures and avouch it yet as irrational as the Maxime is is become modish with some men and those no â—…ery mean Wits neither to make use of it and though they will hardly own it in its full Latitude yet when it comes to Particulars let the Reasons to the contrary be never so pregnant or convincing they 'le hugg it as their sacred Anchor and laugh at all those credulous Wretches that without seeing are so easily chous'd into an imprudent Confidence And this pitiful Stratagem we find practised in no affair so much as that of Spirits and Witches and Apparitions which must all be Fancies and Hypocondriack Dreams and the effects of distempered Brains because their own are so dull as not to be able to pierce into those Mysteries I do not deny but the Imagination may be and is sometime deluded and melancholy People may fancy they hear Voices and see very strange things which have no other foundation but their own weakness and like Bubbles break into Air and nothing by their own vanity Yet as no man doth therefore take unpolisht Diamonds to be Pebbles because they do look like them so neither must all passages of this nature we hear or read of be traduced as self-conceit or derided as Old Wives Fables because some smell strong of Imposture and Sophistication We believe men of Reason and Experience and free from Fumes when a person of ordinary Intellectuals finds no great credit with us and if we think our selves wise for doing so why should any man so much forget himself as to be an Infidel in point of such Phaenomena's when even the most judicious men have had experience of such passages It seems 〈◊〉 me no less than madness to contradict what both wise and unwise men do unanimously agree in and how Jews Heathens Mahometans and Christians both learned and unlearned should come to conspire into this Cheat as yet seems to me un accountable If some few melancholy Monks or Old Women had seen such Ghosts and Apparitions we might then suspect that what they pretend to have seen might be nothing but the effect of a disordered Imagination but when the whole World as it were and men of all Religions men of all Ages too have been forced by strong evidences to acknowledge the truth of such occurrences I know not what strength there can be in the Argument drawn from the consent of Nations in things of a sublimer nature if here it be of no efficacy Men that have attempted to evade the places of Scripture which speak of Ghosts and Witches we see how they are forced to turn and wind the Texts and make in a manner Noses of Wax of them and rather squeeze than gather the sence as if the holy Writers had spoke like Sophisters and not like men who made it their business to condescend to the capacity of the Common people Let a man put no force at all on those passages of holy Writ and then see what sence they are like to yield It 's strange to see how some men have endeavoured to elude the story of the Witch of Endor and as far as I can judge they play more Hocus-Pocus tricks in the explication of that passage than the Witch herself did in raising the deceased Samuel To those Straits is Falshood driven while Truth loves Plains and undisguised Expressions and Errour will seek out Holes and Labyrinths to hide itself while Truth plays above board and scorns the subterfuges of the Sceptick Interpreter Men and Brethren Why should it seem a thing incredible with you that God should permit Spirits to appear and the Devil to exert his Power among men on Earth Hath God ever engaged his word to the contrary or is it against the nature of Spirits to assume airy Vehicles and Bodies of condensed Air or to animate grosser substances to shew themselves to mortals upon certain occasions I am so much a Prophet as to foresee what will be the fate of the ensuing story nor can I suppose that upon the reading of it mens verdicts will be much changed from what they were if they have set up this resolution to believe nothing that looks like the shadow of an Apparition though the things mentioned here cannot be unknown to any that have been conversant with forrain affairs